Highest paying jobs you can enter with a certificate
Postsecondary non-degree awards — certificates and licences that take months rather than years. Ranked by median pay. Wages are Bureau of Labor Statistics medians for May 2025; entry requirements come from the federal Employment Projections classification.
| Occupation | Median | Top 10% | Training | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Commercial Pilots | $123,220 | $266,620 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 47,630 |
| 2 Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay | $103,020 | $129,920 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 20,720 |
| 3 First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers | $93,530 | $140,010 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 99,140 |
| 4 Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels | $92,460 | $170,640 | — | 36,850 |
| 5 Avionics Technicians | $82,280 | $113,680 | — | 18,830 |
| 6 Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians | $79,870 | $128,890 | — | 138,090 |
| 7 Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment | $74,090 | $105,590 | Long-term on-the-job training | 65,010 |
| 8 Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers | $68,120 | $100,320 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 28,500 |
| 9 Surgical Assistants | $66,800 | $107,610 | — | 22,270 |
| 10 Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers, All Other | $65,790 | $129,830 | — | 35,010 |
| 11 Surgical Technologists | $64,650 | $96,940 | — | 117,460 |
| 12 Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses | $64,400 | $83,440 | — | 648,410 |
| 13 Tool and Die Makers | $64,050 | $92,680 | Long-term on-the-job training | 56,930 |
| 14 Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers | $63,890 | $96,730 | Moderate-term on-the-job training | 140,920 |
| 15 Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers | $61,010 | $95,210 | Long-term on-the-job training | 409,670 |
| 16 Paramedics | $60,600 | $84,850 | — | 100,610 |
| 17 Firefighters | $59,280 | $101,040 | Long-term on-the-job training | 345,990 |
| 18 Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | $58,640 | $79,380 | Short-term on-the-job training | 2,062,040 |
| 19 Massage Therapists | $58,450 | $100,200 | — | 98,790 |
| 20 Audio and Video Technicians | $58,100 | $100,650 | Short-term on-the-job training | 70,230 |
| 21 Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers | $52,600 | $84,190 | Short-term on-the-job training | 19,780 |
| 22 Medical Records Specialists | $51,140 | $81,150 | — | 194,720 |
| 23 Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics | $50,620 | $81,790 | Short-term on-the-job training | 704,640 |
| 24 Health Technologists and Technicians, All Other | $50,290 | $85,270 | — | 182,610 |
| 25 Prepress Technicians and Workers | $48,690 | $66,080 | — | 23,840 |
Reading this ranking
Commercial Pilots tops the list at $123,220. The midpoint of this ranking is $64,050, so the leader pays 92% more than a typical entry on it — a gap wide enough that the top row is better read as an outlier than as a realistic target.
Pay inside a single occupation varies more than people expect. For commercial pilots, the bottom tenth earn $58,850 and the top tenth $266,620 — 4.5× apart. A ranking like this shows the middle; the band is where your own outcome sits.
38 occupations match this filter; the 25 shown are those with at least 15,000 people employed nationally. Smaller occupations are excluded because a national median drawn from a few thousand workers is not a reliable guide.
Other entry routes
Where these jobs pay most
Every figure above is a national median. The same occupation can pay two or three times more in one metropolitan area than another — the salary guides break each one down by metro.
About the data
Two federal datasets are joined here. Wages come from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey of employers. Entry requirements — education, training and prior experience — come from the Employment Projections programme, which assigns each occupation the level typically needed to enter it. “Typically” is doing real work in that sentence: individual employers set their own bars, and plenty hire above or below the classification.