Since respresentative is such a broad term, you can really take your pick when it comes to having a career as one. Maybe you want to pursue customer service or politics. Either way, representatives are very important for the people they're serving.
As a representative, it's important that you present yourself well. A state representative needs to be a likeable figure for people to vote into office, while a customer service representative needs to put on an understanding face when presented with a customer complaint.
Representatives work all sorts of hours, depending on the industry they've picked. Luckily, there are so many industries that a representative can go into that you'll have plenty of job opportunities available.
Representative Overview
Representative Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.87 an hour? That's $35,080 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -2% and produce -51,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Representative Do
There are certain skills that many representatives 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 computer skills, customer-service skills and listening skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a representative, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.5% of representatives included customer service, while 11.4% of resumes included communication, and 5.9% of resumes included email. 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 representative job title. But what industry to start with? Most representatives actually find jobs in the technology and professional industries.
How To Become a Representative
If you're interested in becoming a representative, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.4% of representatives have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.5% of representatives have master's degrees. Even though most representatives 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 representative. When we researched the most common majors for a representative, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on representative resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a representative. In fact, many representative jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many representatives also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or sales associate.
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.
Representative 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 representative can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as specialist, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title account manager.
Representative
Account Manager
5 Years
District Sales Manager
7 Years
Product Manager
6 Years
Director Of Sales
10 Years
Senior Account Manager
7 Years
Business Development Manager
9 Years
Show More
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 Representative
Representatives in America make an average salary of $35,080 per year or $17 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $58,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $21,000 per year.
Average Salary
$35,080
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$24k
$68k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Fedex Ground Packaging Representative Packaging Representative | Fedex Ground Fedex Ground | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $39,65301/31/2021 $39,653 |
Fedex Ground Packaging Representative Packaging Representative | Fedex Ground Fedex Ground | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $39,65301/31/2021 $39,653 |
Fedex Ground Packaging Representative Packaging Representative | Fedex Ground Fedex Ground | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $39,65301/31/2021 $39,653 |
Fedex Ground Packaging Representative Packaging Representative | Fedex Ground Fedex Ground | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $38,61001/30/2021 $38,610 |
College of Western Idaho ONE Stop Representative I ONE Stop Representative I | College of Western Idaho College of Western Idaho | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $24,48101/30/2021 $24,481 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Representative Resumes
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 Representative. 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 Representative Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Representative 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 InformationJob type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For a Representative
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 representatives listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and customer-service skills are important as well.
- Customer Service, 18.5%
- Communication, 11.4%
- Email, 5.9%
- Data Entry, 5.3%
- Outbound Calls, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 53.9% See All Representative Skills
Best States For a Representative
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a representative. The best states for people in this position are California, North Carolina, Florida, and Hawaii. Representatives make the most in California with an average salary of $49,995. Whereas in North Carolina and Florida, they would average $41,598 and $40,744, respectively. While representatives would only make an average of $40,716 in Hawaii, 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. Texas
Total Representative Jobs:
11,031
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
1.11
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$40,673
Avg. Salary
2. North Carolina
Total Representative Jobs:
4,828
Highest 10% Earn:
$68,000
Location Quotient:
1.03
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$41,598
Avg. Salary
3. Kansas
Total Representative Jobs:
1,544
Highest 10% Earn:
$61,000
Location Quotient:
1.04
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$40,416
Avg. Salary
How Do Representative Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
Manufacturer's representative • May 2019
5.0
Manufacturer's representative • May 2019What do you like the most about working as Representative?
I am a freelance home based sales agent, if you are looking for to extend your business in Turkey , Malaysia or in Europe please get in touch with me to discuss for further opportunities. Show MoreTop Representative Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ representatives and discovered their number of representative opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Primerica was the best, especially with an average salary of $28,955. Avon follows up with an average salary of $26,416, and then comes Teleperformance with an average of $26,211. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a representative. The employers include Cigna, CVS Health, and PSCU
Representative Videos
Customer Service Representative, Career Video from drkit.org
Career Advice - Customer Services Representative and Semi-Pro Cyclist by Jenny D (Full Version)
Career Advice on becoming a Community Management Representative by Mark H (Highlights)