---
title: "Dermatologist"
description: "Diagnose and treat diseases relating to the skin, hair, and nails. May perform both medical and dermatological surgery functions."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Dermatologist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1213 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1213.00

Diagnose and treat diseases relating to the skin, hair, and nails. May perform both medical and dermatological surgery functions.

Also advertised as: Board Certified Dermatologist; Dermatologist MD (Dermatologist Medical Doctor); Dermatologist Physician; Dermatopathologist; Doctor; MD (Medical Doctor); Mohs Micrographic Surgeon; Mohs Surgeon.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $328,730 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $158.04/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $102,810 to $578,560, with the middle half between $139,990 and $452,450
- **Total US employment:** 11,370
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.4% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 42/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 11,370 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $102,810 |
| 25th | $139,990 |
| 50th (median) | $328,730 |
| 75th | $452,450 |
| 90th | $578,560 |
| Mean (average) | $323,530 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MN | $625,790 | $634,540 | 260 |
| WA | $526,170 | $491,688 | 170 |
| NH | $516,230 | $495,589 | 50 |
| MD | $442,210 | $421,317 | 120 |
| DE | $442,120 | $442,971 | 40 |
| WI | $440,710 | $468,367 | 160 |
| IL | $435,750 | $435,933 | Not published by BLS |
| TN | $433,630 | $472,004 | 100 |
| IA | $424,970 | $484,230 | Not published by BLS |
| AR | $422,060 | $485,478 | 40 |
| NV | $419,410 | $419,498 | Not published by BLS |
| MI | $414,910 | $431,223 | Not published by BLS |
| CO | $398,810 | $386,999 | 260 |
| AL | $394,550 | $444,198 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $374,010 | $346,559 | 2,070 |

16 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 31 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/dermatologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 11,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 700 jobs, or +6.4%. Much faster than average: 6.4% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Internship/residency.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 56.4% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 30.6% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 6.1% |
| Master's Degree | 4.7% |
| First Professional Degree | 1.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.7% |

## What the work involves

- Conduct complete skin examinations.
- Diagnose and treat pigmented lesions such as common acquired nevi, congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, Spitz nevi, blue nevi, or melanoma.
- Perform skin surgery to improve appearance, make early diagnoses, or control diseases such as skin cancer.
- Counsel patients on topics such as the need for annual dermatologic screenings, sun protection, skin cancer awareness, or skin and lymph node self-examinations.
- Diagnose and treat skin conditions such as acne, dandruff, athlete's foot, moles, psoriasis, or skin cancer.
- Record patients' health histories.
- Recommend diagnostic tests based on patients' histories and physical examination findings.
- Provide dermatologic consultation to other health professionals.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.44 |
| R — Realistic | 4.81 |
| S — Social | 4.65 |
| C — Conventional | 3.83 |
| A — Artistic | 1.87 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.77 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 72.1 |
| INTJ | 69.1 |
| ISTP | 68.5 |
| ISFJ | 63.7 |
| INTP | 58.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist) — median $300,080
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon) — median $352,220
- [Neurologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/neurologist) — median $248,560
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/dermatologist