1. Maine
$32,632
Avg. Salary
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a para professional. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.29 an hour? That's $25,565 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 55,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many para professionals have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, interpersonal skills and patience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a para professional, we found that a lot of resumes listed 29.8% of para professionals included classroom management, while 8.2% of resumes included para-professional, and 5.6% of resumes included special education. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the para professional job title. But what industry to start with? Most para professionals actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a para professional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.1% of para professionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.3% of para professionals have master's degrees. Even though most para professionals have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a para professional. When we researched the most common majors for a para professional, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on para professional resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a para professional. In fact, many para professional jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many para professionals also have previous career experience in roles such as substitute teacher or customer service representative.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a para professional can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as lead teacher, progress to a title such as manager and then eventually end up with the title principal.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Para Professional. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Para Professional Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Para Professional resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationEvanston, IL • Private
Vestal, NY • Public
Stanford, CA • Private
Stony Brook, NY • Public
New York, NY • Private
Durham, NC • Private
Washington, DC • Private
Albany, NY • Public
Philadelphia, PA • Private
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 29.8% of para professionals listed classroom management on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a para professional. The best states for people in this position are California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Para professionals make the most in California with an average salary of $34,643. Whereas in Maine and Massachusetts, they would average $32,632 and $31,974, respectively. While para professionals would only make an average of $30,459 in Minnesota, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Maine
$32,632
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$30,459
Avg. Salary
3. Vermont
$29,365
Avg. Salary