Pest Technician Overview
Working as a Pest Technician
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pest technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.05 an hour? That's $31,302 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 5,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Pest Technician Do
There are certain skills that many pest technicians 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 visualization, self-motivated and physical stamina.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a pest technician, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.5% of pest technicians included pest control, while 15.5% of resumes included safety procedures, and 11.7% of resumes included company standards. 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 pest technician job title. But what industry to start with? Most pest technicians actually find jobs in the construction and professional industries.
How To Become a Pest Technician
If you're interested in becoming a pest technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 16.0% of pest technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.6% of pest technicians have master's degrees. Even though some pest technicians 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 pest technician. When we researched the most common majors for a pest technician, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on pest technician resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a pest technician. In fact, many pest technician jobs require experience in a role such as pest control technician. Meanwhile, many pest technicians also have previous career experience in roles such as technician or cashier.
What is the right job for my career path?
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Pest Technician Jobs
Pest Technician 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 pest technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as pest control technician, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title account manager.
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 Pest Technician
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Servicemaster Pest Technician Trainee Pest Technician Trainee | Servicemaster Servicemaster | 10/30/2020 10/30/2020 | $30,00010/30/2020 $30,000 |
Cooper Pest Solutions Pest Technician Trainee Pest Technician Trainee | Cooper Pest Solutions Cooper Pest Solutions | 10/30/2020 10/30/2020 | $30,00010/30/2020 $30,000 |
Senske Services Pest Technician With-Boise Branch Pest Technician With-Boise Branch | Senske Services Senske Services | 10/29/2020 10/29/2020 | $33,39210/29/2020 $33,392 |
Cooper Pest Solutions Pest Technician Trainee Pest Technician Trainee | Cooper Pest Solutions Cooper Pest Solutions | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $30,00010/27/2020 $30,000 |
Cooper Pest Solutions Pest Technician Trainee Pest Technician Trainee | Cooper Pest Solutions Cooper Pest Solutions | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $30,00010/27/2020 $30,000 |
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Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Pest Technician
Top Skills For a Pest Technician
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, 18.5% of pest technicians listed pest control on their resume, but soft skills such as visualization and self-motivated are important as well.
- Pest Control, 18.5%
- Safety Procedures, 15.5%
- Company Standards, 11.7%
- Communication, 11.2%
- Customer Complaints, 10.4%
- Other Skills, 32.7% See All Pest Technician Skills
Best States For a Pest Technician
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pest technician. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, New York, Alaska, and Delaware. Pest technicians make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $45,223. Whereas in New York and Alaska, they would average $44,499 and $40,694, respectively. While pest technicians would only make an average of $38,111 in Delaware, 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. Iowa
$34,767
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$45,223
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$40,695
Avg. Salary