Throughline

Skilled trades

General Maintenance and Repair Worker in San Diego

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

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 20 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

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
$150EPA Section 608 Technician Certification · ~20 hrs
asked for in 1 of 20 postings — 5%
If you earned all 1 of them
$150
fees checked 2026-08
20 hrs
20 hours — about 2 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Associate Degree — cost varies by institution.

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.

Education reported by people doing this job
63%reported post-secondary certificate
  • Post-secondary certificate63%
  • High school diploma or equivalent25%
  • Some college, no degree7%

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 49-9071.00 · pulled 2026-10-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

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.

$38,060
10th percentile
$54,530
median
$79,520
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $150 — less than a day's pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

SpaceX · Action Property Management · Harbinger Motors · Stem Xpert · 1X · Equinox · Home Chef · Nimble Robotics · Rocket Lab · The Black Tux

The same role elsewhere

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.