Throughline

Skilled trades

Automotive Service Technician in the United States

136 postings read · sampled 2026-10-01 · source ats · 25 employers · largest 25% of it

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 136 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

  • A+CompTIA
    6%
    8 of 136 postings$506 exam · fee checked 2026-08~120 hrs prepCompTIA →

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$506A+ · ~120 hrs
asked for in 8 of 136 postings — 6%
If you earned all 1 of them
$506
fees checked 2026-08
120 hrs
120 hours — about 12 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

  • Post-secondary certificate32%
  • Less than high school diploma30%
  • High school diploma or equivalent26%

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

O*NET 49-3023.00 · pulled 2026-10-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$34,660
10th percentile
$50,620
median
$81,790
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $506 — about 3 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Lucid Motors · Murgado Automotive Group · Tomra · Stem Xpert · Budderfly · Pearce Services · Latitude Inc · Cogent Talent Solutions · Sila Services · Intuitive Surgical · Renuity · Formic · Quest Diagnostics · SkillSource · 1X · 360 IT Professionals · Atlas Energy Solutions · Collabera · DeAngelo Contracting Services · Diligent Robotics · Harbinger Motors · Integrated Resources Inc · Path Robotics · Redwood Materials · Westgate Resorts

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.