Smog Technician Overview
Working as a Smog Technician
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a smog technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.56 an hour? That's $40,686 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 3,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Smog Technician Do
There are certain skills that many smog 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 analytical skills, mechanical skills and dexterity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a smog technician, we found that a lot of resumes listed 30.6% of smog technicians included diagnosis, while 11.9% of resumes included customer vehicles, and 10.4% of resumes included customer service. 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 smog technician job title. But what industry to start with? Most smog technicians actually find jobs in the retail and hospitality industries.
How To Become a Smog Technician
If you're interested in becoming a smog technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 12.9% of smog technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.0% of smog technicians have master's degrees. Even though some smog 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 smog technician. When we researched the most common majors for a smog technician, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on smog technician resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a smog technician. In fact, many smog technician jobs require experience in a role such as mechanic. Meanwhile, many smog technicians also have previous career experience in roles such as auto mechanic or automotive technician.
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Smog Technician Jobs
Smog 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 smog technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as technician, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title property 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 Smog Technician
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Nate's Smog Gas N Deisel Smog Tech Smog Tech | Nate's Smog Gas N Deisel Nate's Smog Gas N Deisel | 09/28/2020 09/28/2020 | $22,95709/28/2020 $22,957 |
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Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Smog Technician
Top Skills For a Smog 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, 30.6% of smog technicians listed diagnosis on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and mechanical skills are important as well.
- Diagnosis, 45.3%
- Customer Vehicles, 15.7%
- Customer Service, 14.3%
- DMV, 6.7%
- Oil Changes, 3.6%
- Other Skills, 14.4% See All Smog Technician Skills