How To Become A Preparator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a preparator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a preparator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $22.82 an hour? That's $47,473 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 17,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePreparatorUS Average

Salary

3.7

Avg. Salary $47,473

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.8

Growth Rate 2%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.94%

Asian 8.47%

Black or African American 8.90%

Hispanic or Latino 26.27%

Unknown 4.83%

White 50.58%

Gender

female 24.51%

male 75.49%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress Level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.2

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.6

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a preparator

Explore preparator education requirements

Most common preparator degrees

Bachelor's

78.1 %

Master's

13.8 %

Associate

4.9 %

Start to develop specific preparator skills

Skills	Percentages
Exhibition Design	21.40%
Hand Tools	14.36%
AV	10.23%
Museum Exhibits	7.49%
Artifact	6.37%

Complete relevant preparator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New preparators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a preparator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real preparator resumes.

Research preparator duties and responsibilities

Manage visual resource center, including acquisition, cataloging, budget management and other relevant issues.
Assist in the creation and installation of MFA solo show
Respond to all health and safety emergencies in the chemistry teaching labs.
Assist in maintaining cleanliness of the several chemistry laboratories.

Prepare your preparator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your preparator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a preparator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Preparator Resume templates

Build a professional Preparator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Preparator resume.