Until the 1950s, you weren't considered eligible for social security benefits working as a personal care assistant. But don't worry because in today's day and age, you are eligible for such benefits. Which is nice, especially since you might be doing some dirty work as a personal care assistant.
The majority of your work will depend on your clients. You may have to help get them dressed or cook for them. You may only need to play card games or read to other clients. Depending on the services you're providing and who you're employed by, you may not be protected by minimum wage and overtime laws. If you're hired by a family directly and only help with playing card games, you're not covered by these laws.
With this in mind, you might want to consider working for an agency. Or at least pick up clients that need help being fed and taking medications. These rules went into effect in 2015, so before then you were out of luck as a personal care assistant. Luckily, the future is bright for personal care assistants now.
How to Become a Personal Care Assistant
What is a Personal Care Assistant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Personal Care Assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.25 an hour? That's $27,552 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 Care Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many Personal Care Assistants 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 Detail oriented, Integrity and Interpersonal skills.
How To Become a Personal Care Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a Personal Care Assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 24.0% of Personal Care Assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.4% of Personal Care Assistants have master's degrees. Even though some Personal Care Assistants 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 Care Assistant. When we researched the most common majors for a Personal Care Assistant, we found that they most commonly earn High School Diploma degrees or Bachelor's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Personal Care Assistant resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Personal Care Assistant. In fact, many Personal Care Assistant jobs require experience in a role such as Cashier. Meanwhile, many Personal Care Assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as Certified Nursing Assistant or Customer Service Representative.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
And if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Personal Care Assistant 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 Care Assistant 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 Nurse Manager.
Personal Care Assistant Jobs You Might Like
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 Care Assistant
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
12 Personal Care Assistant Resume Examples
Build a professional personal care assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your personal care assistant resume.
Jane Mitchell Personal Care Assistant |
Donald Taylor Personal Care Assistant Experience Personal Care Assistant2020 - Present Northeast Arc•Springfield, MA
Resident Care Assistant2016 - 2020 Genesis HealthCare•Towson, MD
Sales Clerk2012 - 2016 Dillard's•Saint Louis, MO
Skills Current PromotionsCustomer RelationsCommunicationEmergencyRetail SalesMedication RemindersSpecimen CollectionMeal PrepCustomer OrdersVital Signs Education High School Diploma 2012 - 2012 |
Learn How To Write a Personal Care Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Personal Care Assistant resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Personal Care Assistant Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Personal Care Assistant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Personal Care Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Personal Care Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Find the best Personal Care Assistant job for you
Personal Care Assistant Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Personal Care Assistant Jobs - $34K and Up
- Entry Level Personal Care Assistant Jobs
- Part Time Personal Care Assistant Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Personal Care Assistant Jobs
Find the best Personal Care Assistant job for you
Personal Care Assistant Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Personal Care Assistant Jobs - $34K and Up
- Entry Level Personal Care Assistant Jobs
- Part Time Personal Care Assistant Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Personal Care Assistant Jobs
Online Courses For Personal Care Assistant That You May Like
This course starts you on your journey of integrating primary palliative care into your daily lives. You will learn what palliative care is, how to communicate with patients, show empathy, and practice difficult conversations. You will learn how to screen for distress and provide psychosocial support. You will learn about goals of care and advance care planning and how to improve your success with having these conversations with patients. Finally, you will explore important cultural consideratio...
This course is intended as a self-study course for those interested in exploring a career as a Home Health Aide or Personal Care Aide...
Are you a current or future caregiver, or, a nurse or other healthcare professional who wants to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease? Here are the key content areas that will be addressed over 5 modules: Over 5 million Americans and an estimated 24 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Given the exponential aging of the population, these numbers are expected to increase dramatically over the next few decades; Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive...
Top Skills For a Personal Care Assistant
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, 11.4% of Personal Care Assistants listed CPR on their resume, but soft skills such as Detail oriented and Integrity are important as well.
Best States For a Personal Care Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Personal Care Assistant. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and North Dakota. Personal Care Assistants make the most in Washington with an average salary of $35,325. Whereas in Oregon and Alaska, they would average $33,094 and $32,844, respectively. While Personal Care Assistants would only make an average of $30,133 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. North Dakota
$30,133
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$33,094
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$35,325
Avg. Salary
How Do Personal Care Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
5.0
What do you like the most about working as Personal Care Assistant?
Helping people to be healthy, has become something that comes naturally for me. It is my gift and passion. I love to see people living their life to their best. Joy is important to me as I see strength in joy and I want to pass it on to others hopefully. Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
Lifting people sounds a bit challenging, and I would not want to hurt myself trying to awkwardly support someone; so I would need the knowledge to avoid injury. Show MorePersonal Care Assistant Videos
Becoming a Personal Care Assistant FAQs
How long does it take to become a Personal Care Assistant?
It takes 3 years of professional experience to become a personal care assistant. That is the time it takes to learn specific personal care assistant skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.