How To Become A Scientific Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a scientific technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Scott Lankford Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a scientific technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.69 an hour? That's $40,956 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 7,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a scientific technician?

Dr. Scott Lankford Ph.D.

School Chair, University of Central Missouri

Never stop networking in your discipline. The apparent impact of this is increased future opportunity, which causes people, happy with their situation, to focus inwardly on their organization. However, these networking experiences not only improve your professional capacity, but they sometimes lead to positive changes in your organization overall.

ScoreScientific TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $40,956

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.20%

Asian 12.97%

Black or African American 8.81%

Hispanic or Latino 15.06%

Unknown 5.89%

White 55.07%

Gender

female 40.07%

male 59.93%

Age - 37

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 - 37

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.8

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a scientific technician

Explore scientific technician education requirements

Most common scientific technician degrees

Bachelor's

78.2 %

Master's

8.9 %

Associate

8.0 %

Start to develop specific scientific technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Data Collection	18.28%
GPS	10.67%
Harvest	8.39%
Data Entry	7.87%
Lab Equipment	6.08%

Complete relevant scientific technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New scientific technicians 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 scientific technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real scientific technician resumes.

Research scientific technician duties and responsibilities

Manage AIS boat check stations with WDFW enforcement (Carl Klein).
Identify owl species by sight and sound prompt using hoot flute and reed caller.
Work onboard commercial gillnet boats to monitor salmon harvest.
Measure fork length and weight of salmon and steelhead, as well as other fish species.

Prepare your scientific technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your scientific technician resume.

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