Audiologist Career Guide
Audiologist Career Ratings
Real-Life Audiologist Job Profiles
Audiologists are non-medical health care providers who specialize in the assessment and treatment of hearing and balance disorders. They work to provide services in the prevention, diagnosis and evidence-based treatment of hearing and balance disorders. These services are uniquely designed to minimize the negative impact of disorders and therefore increase the patients quality of life.
Audiologist typically work in a variety of settings, including hospitals and rehabilitations centers, private practices, audiology clinics and schools. There is the opportunity to specialize in paediatrics, geriatrics, balance, cochlear implants, hearing aids, tinnitus, and auditory processing. Of course, the setting and specialization will mean that audiologists will have different duties. However, typical duties include the assessment and identification of hearing related problems, engagement and designing treatment, and the prevention and education of hearing related problems.
To become an audiologist, you must earn a doctorate in order to begin practicing. The doctoral degree in audiology (AudD) is a four-year graduate program that you can enter after having achieve a bachelor?s degree in any field. After completing this, audiologists also need to gain state licensing.
A career as an audiologist can be mentally draining as ears are small and working with them can take hours to solve only small problems. Audiologists also work with the very young and the elderly, which means the role can be incredibly challenging.
However, audiologists have the advantage of working in clean and comfortable working environments (i.e., it is a desk job). They get countless opportunities to apply critical thinking to find new ways to tackle problems, so many audiologists enjoy the small daily challenges. Of the most importance, audiologists get to help people to hear again, which makes it a very rewarding career that provides high levels of job satisfaction.
To be a successful audiologist you will need to be compassionate to the needs of others. You should also be excellent at communicating, show strong critical thinking skills, be able to concentrate for long periods of time and show skills in data analysis.
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