How To Become A Senior Medical Technologist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior medical technologist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Janice Conway-Klaassen Ph.D.

A senior medical technologist is a healthcare professional who performs biochemical, serological, hematological, or microbiological laboratory tests to diagnose and discover treatments for diseases and viruses. These individuals manage laboratory staff in the gathering and analyzing of biological samples via a variety of laboratory experiments. They can work in hospitals or medical laboratories, obtain samples from patients, identify sample structures and abnormalities, and present detailed reports to physicians and their patients.

Most senior medical technologists have a bachelor's degree in medical technology, or a related area of specialty, and at least two years experience as a medical technologist. Most hospitals or laboratories require licensing for medical technologists as well. These individuals should possess strong analytical, organizational, communication, and leadership skills, and should have a broad knowledge of laboratory techniques and biological research.

A senior medical technologist can make up to $54,300 a year in the US, and the career field is expected to grow considerably by 23% in the next 10 years.

What general advice would you give to a senior medical technologist?

Janice Conway-Klaassen Ph.D.

Associate Professor & Director, Medical Laboratory Sciences Program, Mildred King Rohwer Chair in Medical Technology, University of Minnesota

Your first job may not be your dream job, but you may be surprised by what opportunities it provides. Keep your eyes and ears open for those opportunities.

ScoreSenior Medical TechnologistUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $60,849

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

9.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 12.00%

Black or African American 10.89%

Hispanic or Latino 16.97%

Unknown 5.10%

White 54.24%

Gender

female 61.40%

male 38.60%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Stress level

9.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior medical technologist

Explore senior medical technologist education requirements

Most common senior medical technologist degrees

Bachelor's

67.2 %

Associate

11.9 %

Master's

8.9 %

Start to develop specific senior medical technologist skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	10.11%
Blood Pressure	9.12%
OSHA	7.51%
Clinical Laboratory	6.33%
Patients	5.64%

Complete relevant senior medical technologist training and internships

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

Research senior medical technologist duties and responsibilities

Perform disease surveillance by collecting and managing food microbiology surveillance data.
Process hematology, urinalysis, and tissue processing testing on cancer and anemia patients
Perform database registry for samples, complete QC & QA procedures for all laboratory assays, blood components and storage.
Perform quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) on growth media and reagents in the laboratory.

Get senior medical technologist experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a senior medical technologist. The most common roles before becoming a senior medical technologist include medical technologist, medical technologist, generalist team lead and medical laboratory technician.

Prepare your senior medical technologist resume

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

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