Personal Attendant Overview
Working as a Personal Attendant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a personal attendant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.1 an hour? That's $25,163 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 36% and produce 1,185,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Personal Attendant Do
There are certain skills that many personal attendants 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 interpersonal skills, physical stamina and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a personal attendant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.8% of personal attendants included patient care, while 11.5% of resumes included personal care, and 9.6% of resumes included intellectual disabilities. 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 personal attendant job title. But what industry to start with? Most personal attendants actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become a Personal Attendant
If you're interested in becoming a personal attendant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 30.5% of personal attendants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.9% of personal attendants have master's degrees. Even though some personal attendants 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 personal attendant. When we researched the most common majors for a personal attendant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on personal attendant resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a personal attendant. In fact, many personal attendant jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many personal attendants also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or home health aid.
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Personal Attendant Jobs
Personal Attendant Career Paths
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 personal attendant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as certified nursing assistant, progress to a title such as registered nurse and then eventually end up with the title nursing director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Personal Attendant
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Alegre Care, Inc. Caregiver-Personal Attendant Caregiver-Personal Attendant | Alegre Care, Inc. Alegre Care, Inc. | 04/02/2020 04/02/2020 | $25,04404/02/2020 $25,044 |
The Hershey Company Women's Utility Attendant-Hershey's Chocolate World Women's Utility Attendant-Hershey's Chocolate World | The Hershey Company The Hershey Company | 02/28/2020 02/28/2020 | $22,95702/28/2020 $22,957 |
Meydenbauer Center Personal Attendant Personal Attendant | Meydenbauer Center Meydenbauer Center | 01/04/2020 01/04/2020 | $35,47901/04/2020 $35,479 |
Thrive Support Services Personal Attendant Personal Attendant | Thrive Support Services Thrive Support Services | 08/05/2019 08/05/2019 | $33,39208/05/2019 $33,392 |
The Hershey Company Personal Attendant Personal Attendant | The Hershey Company The Hershey Company | 06/21/2019 06/21/2019 | $22,95706/21/2019 $22,957 |
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Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Personal Attendant
Top Skills For a Personal Attendant
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, 14.8% of personal attendants listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and physical stamina are important as well.
- Direct Care, 12.2%
- Intellectual Disabilities, 9.3%
- CPR, 8.0%
- Independent Living, 5.9%
- Personal Care, 5.9%
- Other Skills, 58.7% See All Personal Attendant Skills
Best States For a Personal Attendant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a personal attendant. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Vermont, New Jersey, and North Dakota. Personal attendants make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $40,220. Whereas in Vermont and New Jersey, they would average $34,256 and $34,114, respectively. While personal attendants would only make an average of $31,823 in North Dakota, 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. Alaska
$40,221
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$34,257
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$34,115
Avg. Salary