How To Become A Smog Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a smog technician 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 smog technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.11 an hour? That's $39,758 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 3,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSmog TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,758

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.4

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.07%

Asian 12.32%

Black or African American 6.81%

Hispanic or Latino 17.49%

Unknown 6.24%

White 56.08%

Gender

female 4.27%

male 95.73%

Age - 35

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 - 35

Stress Level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.2

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.8

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a smog technician

Explore smog technician education requirements

Most common smog technician degrees

Associate

32.1 %

High School Diploma

27.2 %

Diploma

13.6 %

Start to develop specific smog technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Diagnosis	44.81%
Customer Vehicles	15.48%
Customer Service	14.98%
R	7.09%
Oil Changes	3.72%

Complete relevant smog technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New smog technicians 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 smog technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real smog technician resumes.

Research smog technician duties and responsibilities

Manage daily repair activities for high-volume Honda repair facility.
Perform routine maintenance and advance diagnosis on customer cars.
Work with AutoCAD, set up designs and sending information to vinyl printer sending to plotter.
Certify Pass/Fail vehicles, and perform diagnosis and repair for failing vehicles to meet the minimum requirement for air pollution.

Prepare your smog technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your smog technician 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 smog technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Smog Technician Resume templates

Build a professional Smog Technician 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 Smog Technician resume.

Apply for smog technician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a smog technician job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do smog technicians rate their job?

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Smog Technician reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2019

Cons

Rare opportunities given to beginners like to who is willing to start a carrer in this field