Health and care
What does a Medical Assistant do?
Looking after people directly, often when they are at their worst.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- People all day.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $45,690 a year, median
- Medical Assistants, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- +13% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Constant interruptions
- Admin between patients
- Difficult phone calls
A common first step into healthcare, with training that takes about a year.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Notes and scheduling are automating. Being in the room with a frightened person is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Shadow in a busy clinic and count how many things are happening at once.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.