1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Technical illustrators create drawings that show how parts work together. You create these drawings using digital technology and usually work primarily in some engineering field (as that's where stuff gets complicated and needs your skills to help create clear examples).
You can become a freelance technical illustrator without an illustration degree. Many artists in the industry aren't illustration graduates, and most clients will judge you by the quality of the work in your portfolio-not by the degree or diploma that you might or might not have on paper.
Technical illustrators are in demand across various industries, but it is usually up to the illustrators to create this demand. It is the virtue of this demand that the salary paid for this role is relatively high. Technical illustrators in the US typically earn $65,384 per year or $31 per hour.
There are certain skills that many technical illustrators 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 business skills, customer-service skills and dexterity.
If you're interested in becoming a technical illustrator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 47.2% of technical illustrators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.2% of technical illustrators have master's degrees. Even though most technical illustrators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of senior graphic designer you might progress to a role such as art director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title creative director.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a technical illustrator includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general technical illustrator responsibilities:
There are several types of technical illustrator, including:
Role:
Role:
Role:
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Texas | 2,836 | $40,400 |
2 | New York | 2,087 | $56,528 |
3 | Florida | 1,785 | $43,860 |
4 | Illinois | 1,646 | $46,198 |
5 | Pennsylvania | 1,445 | $49,820 |
6 | North Carolina | 1,325 | $44,265 |
7 | Georgia | 1,297 | $43,215 |
8 | Ohio | 1,140 | $51,239 |
9 | California | 1,054 | $51,816 |
10 | Michigan | 930 | $43,288 |
11 | Minnesota | 925 | $39,896 |
12 | Colorado | 857 | $39,360 |
13 | Indiana | 719 | $42,355 |
14 | Wisconsin | 665 | $41,592 |
15 | Missouri | 632 | $41,586 |
16 | Tennessee | 578 | $41,918 |
17 | Connecticut | 465 | $60,760 |
18 | South Carolina | 449 | $46,362 |
19 | Kansas | 358 | $39,528 |
20 | Kentucky | 352 | $46,668 |
21 | Alabama | 351 | $39,854 |
22 | Iowa | 350 | $42,978 |
23 | Virginia | 332 | $50,119 |
24 | Arkansas | 323 | $35,755 |
25 | Nebraska | 290 | $40,898 |
26 | Nevada | 288 | $60,684 |
27 | Washington | 283 | $41,053 |
28 | Maryland | 274 | $57,950 |
29 | Louisiana | 272 | $48,223 |
30 | Oklahoma | 266 | $39,053 |
31 | Massachusetts | 252 | $47,611 |
32 | New Mexico | 242 | $41,045 |
33 | Mississippi | 178 | $44,899 |
34 | Delaware | 160 | $64,555 |
35 | Oregon | 159 | $42,178 |
36 | Maine | 146 | $33,681 |
37 | New Jersey | 134 | $57,431 |
38 | West Virginia | 133 | $52,582 |
39 | North Dakota | 127 | $43,840 |
40 | South Dakota | 119 | $43,115 |
41 | Alaska | 102 | $50,486 |
42 | Arizona | 102 | $47,066 |
43 | Utah | 91 | $41,284 |
44 | New Hampshire | 53 | $47,985 |
45 | Rhode Island | 38 | $56,687 |
46 | Idaho | 30 | $37,542 |
47 | Vermont | 19 | $42,988 |
48 | Wyoming | 18 | $36,001 |
49 | Hawaii | 17 | $51,725 |
50 | Montana | 16 | $43,664 |
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,465
Enrollment
6,483
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,522
Enrollment
13,760
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Ithaca, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,188
Enrollment
15,105
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,948
Enrollment
17,238
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079
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, 10.4% of technical illustrators listed adobe illustrator on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and customer-service skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Technical Illustrator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Technical Illustrator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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See More on UdemyRank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Applied Materials | $140,995 | $67.79 | 6 |
2 | Caterpillar | $84,661 | $40.70 | 8 |
3 | DXC Technology | $76,714 | $36.88 | 7 |
4 | Kodak | $68,113 | $32.75 | 7 |
5 | Northrop Grumman | $62,847 | $30.21 | 24 |
6 | Boeing | $55,923 | $26.89 | 63 |
7 | Lockheed Martin | $50,842 | $24.44 | 14 |
8 | Teledyne Brown Engineering | $45,577 | $21.91 | 7 |
9 | Honeywell | $45,447 | $21.85 | 8 |
10 | Almon | $44,870 | $21.57 | 10 |