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Arts, design & media

Lighting technicians

Typically requires Postsecondary nondegree award

What is this page & how do I use it?

This is a research report for one career — the kind an analyst would write for a stock. The rating at the top is the neutral baseline (same for everyone); below it come the cases for and against, how the last official forecast for this career actually aged, and what the education path costs and pays.

How to use it: read the bulls-vs-bears case, then hit Score this career to weigh it against your other options with your own interests factored in.

CareerStar rating
RiskyLow uncertainty

Analyst take: Softer prospects — -4.6% projected growth, low AI exposure (16/100).

34
/ 100
low riskhigh
top row = high reward

Data note: O*NET 29.0 doesn’t cover this SOC code yet, so its skill profile (used for fit, moat, and related careers) is estimated from sibling occupations in the same SOC group — see methodology.

Moat (borrowed from investing — the water that defends a castle): how shielded this career is from AI. Wide = well-defended — few automatable tasks, built on skills few other jobs have.

The small grid is a style box (borrowed from Morningstar’s fund reports): the blue square places this career on reward (top row = high) versus risk (left column = low), against all 730 careers. Low uncertainty means the score leans mostly on measured data (growth, pay) rather than forward-looking bets, so it's comparatively solid.

🐂 Bulls say
  • +Low AI exposure — resilient (16% of tasks exposed).
🐻 Bears say
  • Projected to shrink (-4.6%).
Was this rating fair?
Projected growth
-4.6%
Median pay
$60,560
AI exposure
16/100
share of tasks exposed to AI — not job loss

Education & ROI — how to get here

Real outcomes for the college majors that feed this occupation, across 80 bachelor’s programs.

Median earnings
$26,154
1 year after graduating
Typical debt
$27,000
median federal debt
Pay-to-debt
1.0×
first-year pay ÷ debt
Feeder majors
Audiovisual Communications Technologies/Technicians
Selective schools offering these majors
Johns Hopkins University
MD · 6% admit rate
$85,947/yr
$87,555 grad pay
College of the Ozarks
MO · 12% admit rate
$33,734/yr
$41,592 grad pay
Visible Music College
TN · 28% admit rate
$31,820/yr
$35,933 grad pay
Bennington College
VT · 45% admit rate
$87,284/yr
$38,289 grad pay
Loyola Marymount University
CA · 45% admit rate
$83,943/yr
$78,349 grad pay
Providence College
RI · 51% admit rate
$80,466/yr
$87,054 grad pay

Earnings & debt from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard; majors mapped to this occupation via the NCES CIP→SOC crosswalk. A grounded ROI snapshot, not a guarantee — pay varies widely by school and specialty.

What this work involves

creativedesignartmediawriting