How To Become An Optical Instrument Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an optical instrument specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an optical instrument specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $30.79 an hour? That's $64,049 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 2,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreOptical Instrument SpecialistUS Average

Salary

5.0

Avg. Salary $64,049

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.5

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 7.16%

Black or African American 2.94%

Hispanic or Latino 8.12%

Unknown 3.38%

White 77.68%

Gender

female 33.95%

male 66.05%

Age - 47.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47.5

Stress level

4.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an optical instrument specialist

Explore optical instrument specialist education requirements

Most common optical instrument specialist degrees

Bachelor's

43.6 %

Associate

24.4 %

High School Diploma

15.4 %

Start to develop specific optical instrument specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Fiber Optic	37.03%
Customer Service	24.44%
Schedule Appointments	14.28%
Insurance Benefits	12.22%
Outbound Calls	4.67%

Complete relevant optical instrument specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New optical instrument specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an optical instrument specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real optical instrument specialist resumes.

Research optical instrument specialist duties and responsibilities

Accomplish team sales of 464K in clinical chemistry and hematology instrumentation.
Train for electrical assembly on resisters, transmitters, and lasers.
Work from conceptual design through final testing, including optical simulations, alignment and assembly of fibers and modulators.
Develop a novel approach for optical signal processing (relate to digital signal processing), using PWI polymer modulators.

Prepare your optical instrument specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your optical instrument specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an optical instrument specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable optical instrument specialist resume templates

Build a professional optical instrument specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your optical instrument specialist resume.