Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between wild animal caretakers and certified medical technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-3 months to become a wild animal caretaker, becoming a certified medical technician takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a certified medical technician has an average salary of $38,859, which is higher than the $27,846 average annual salary of a wild animal caretaker.
The top three skills for a wild animal caretaker include animal handling, facility laundry and general care. The most important skills for a certified medical technician are patients, vital signs, and CPR.
| Wild Animal Caretaker | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $27,846 | $38,859 |
| Hourly rate | $13.39 | $18.68 |
| Growth rate | 28% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 11,735 | 164,424 |
| Job satisfaction | 3 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Average age | 32 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 12 |
A wild animal caretaker is responsible for administering care to animals at pet shops, kennels, aquariums, zoos, and research labs. They are tasked with grooming, feeding, giving water to, and exercising animals. They monitor animals, record their health conditions, and report any problems. They must have excellent communication, interpersonal, and time-management skills to excel in this role.
Certified Medical Technicians are specialists in medical diagnoses by performing laboratory testing and analysis for hospitals and physicians. Their duties include lab sanitization to prepare for testing and collection, recording medical samples for testing, specimen preparation, blood drawing for donation and testing, and assisting physicians with sample collection as well as equipment handling in surgical rooms. They must also understand how to use complex and sensitive testing equipment such as cell counters, analyzers, microscopes, and centrifuges.
Wild animal caretakers and certified medical technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Wild Animal Caretaker | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average salary | $27,846 | $38,859 |
| Salary range | Between $20,000 And $37,000 | Between $28,000 And $53,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Denton, TX |
| Highest paying state | - | Alaska |
| Best paying company | - | Favorite Healthcare Staffing |
| Best paying industry | - | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a wild animal caretaker and a certified medical technician in terms of educational background:
| Wild Animal Caretaker | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Most common major | Biology | Nursing |
| Most common college | New York University | University of Connecticut |
Here are the differences between wild animal caretakers' and certified medical technicians' demographics:
| Wild Animal Caretaker | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average age | 32 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 26.2% Female, 73.8% | Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 6.5% Hispanic or Latino, 18.0% Asian, 2.6% White, 68.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 15.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 8% |