There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a vocational specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.81 an hour? That's $37,055 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 27,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many vocational specialists 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 speaking skills, listening skills and analytical skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a vocational specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.5% of vocational specialists included vocational rehabilitation, while 7.1% of resumes included job development, and 6.8% of resumes included mental health. 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 vocational specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most vocational specialists actually find jobs in the non profits and health care industries.
If you're interested in becoming a vocational specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 38.5% of vocational specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 40.1% of vocational specialists have master's degrees. Even though most vocational specialists 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 vocational specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a vocational specialist, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on vocational specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a vocational specialist. In fact, many vocational specialist jobs require experience in a role such as case manager. Meanwhile, many vocational specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or employment specialist.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
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 team leader you might progress to a role such as manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title executive director.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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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, 13.5% of vocational specialists listed vocational rehabilitation on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and listening skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a vocational specialist. The best states for people in this position are Connecticut, Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts. Vocational specialists make the most in Connecticut with an average salary of $49,894. Whereas in Hawaii and California, they would average $49,288 and $46,257, respectively. While vocational specialists would only make an average of $46,161 in Massachusetts, 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. Vermont
$45,877
Avg. Salary
2. Massachusetts
$46,161
Avg. Salary
3. Hawaii
$49,288
Avg. Salary