A technical instructor is responsible for designing, preparing, and implementing technical training programs. He/she offers courses and training that prepare learners for entry into a technical field. A technical instructor must have extensive knowledge in their field of expertise so as to use their expertise and experience to impart similar skills to their students. Their primary objective is to prepare their students for particular careers.
A technical instructor may gain employment in middle school, high school, technical school, and a community college. He/she can also work in non-school settings such as correctional institutions. A technical instructor's technical courses include IT, engineering, cosmetology, nursing, mechanics, or even farming. A successful technical instructor should have the relevant technical skills, communication skills, and time management skills.
The work schedule of technical instructors is pretty regular. They work 40 hours a week Monday to Friday from 9 to 5.
Technical Instructor Overview
Technical Instructor Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a technical instructor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.52 an hour? That's $61,412 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -1% and produce -1,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Technical Instructor Do
There are certain skills that many technical instructors 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 organizational skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a technical instructor, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.7% of technical instructors included professional development, while 9.2% of resumes included setup, and 7.1% of resumes included course content. 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 technical instructor job title. But what industry to start with? Most technical instructors actually find jobs in the education and technology industries.
How To Become a Technical Instructor
If you're interested in becoming a technical instructor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.5% of technical instructors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 26.1% of technical instructors have master's degrees. Even though most technical instructors 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 technical instructor. When we researched the most common majors for a technical instructor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on technical instructor resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a technical instructor. In fact, many technical instructor jobs require experience in a role such as surgical technician. Meanwhile, many technical instructors also have previous career experience in roles such as instructor or teacher.
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Technical Instructor Career Paths
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 instructional designer you might progress to a role such as training manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title information technology 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 Technical Instructor
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
University of Nebraska Medical Center Instructional Technologist II Instructional Technologist II | University of Nebraska Medical Center University of Nebraska Medical Center | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $50,70001/27/2021 $50,700 |
Sierra Joint Community College Fire Technology Instructor Fire Technology Instructor | Sierra Joint Community College Sierra Joint Community College | 01/22/2021 01/22/2021 | $55,33401/22/2021 $55,334 |
Xcel Energy Senior Technical Instructor (Energy Supply) Senior Technical Instructor (Energy Supply) | Xcel Energy Xcel Energy | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $72,10001/20/2021 $72,100 |
Triton College Engineering Technology Instructor Engineering Technology Instructor | Triton College Triton College | 01/07/2021 01/07/2021 | $47,27101/07/2021 $47,271 |
State of North Carolina Assistive Technology Instructor Assistive Technology Instructor | State of North Carolina State of North Carolina | 12/25/2020 12/25/2020 | $32,70312/25/2020 $32,703 |
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Technical Instructor 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 Technical Instructor. 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 Technical Instructor Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Technical Instructor 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 InformationTop Colleges for Technical Instructors
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA • Public
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
6. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
7. North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC • Public
8. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
9. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Public
10. New York University
New York, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Technical Instructor
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, 15.7% of technical instructors listed professional development on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Professional Development, 15.7%
- Setup, 9.2%
- Course Content, 7.1%
- Lesson Plans, 3.9%
- Training Programs, 3.9%
- Other Skills, 60.2% See All Technical Instructor Skills
Best States For a Technical Instructor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a technical instructor. The best states for people in this position are New York, California, Washington, and Hawaii. Technical instructors make the most in New York with an average salary of $79,417. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $75,856 and $69,057, respectively. While technical instructors would only make an average of $66,909 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. New York
$79,417
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$65,009
Avg. Salary
3. Michigan
$62,781
Avg. Salary
How Do Technical Instructor Rate Their Jobs?
Top Technical Instructor 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 technical instructors and discovered their number of technical instructor opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Halliburton was the best, especially with an average salary of $104,734. New Horizons Computer Learning Center follows up with an average salary of $86,676, and then comes United States Navy with an average of $45,923. 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 technical instructor. The employers include FireEye, Infosec, and Infosec Institute
Technical Instructor Videos
