How To Become A Personnel Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a personnel officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a personnel officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.9 an hour? That's $43,477 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 58,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePersonnel OfficerUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,477

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.0

Growth Rate 8%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.64%

Asian 8.83%

Black or African American 12.65%

Hispanic or Latino 16.70%

Unknown 5.36%

White 55.81%

Gender

female 42.87%

male 57.13%

Age - 40

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 - 40

Stress Level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.0

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a personnel officer

Explore personnel officer education requirements

Most common personnel officer degrees

Bachelor's

67.6 %

Master's

15.0 %

Associate

9.7 %

Start to develop specific personnel officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Human Resources	15.38%
Payroll	14.95%
Personnel Policies	6.19%
Performance Evaluations	3.98%
Personnel Actions	3.93%

Complete relevant personnel officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New personnel officers 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 a personnel officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real personnel officer resumes.

Research personnel officer duties and responsibilities

Manage wage and salary administration and supervise payroll function.
Update individual's personal information in the HRIS.
Assist applicants and government employees with inquiries and factors affecting their employment such as transfer, FMLA and LWOP.
Handle all EEO complaints including investigations and formal recommendations.

Prepare your personnel officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your personnel officer 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 a personnel officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Personnel Officer Resume templates

Build a professional Personnel Officer 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 Personnel Officer resume.