Career Opportunities and Work Life

Skills You'll Need

Salary Ranges

The Classroom Experience

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Skills You'll Need - Mortuary Science (pre)

To be successful as a funeral director you must:

• have the desire and ability to comfort grieving families
• have strong business skills
• be professional
• have strong verbal and written communication skills
• have the ability to apply science and technology principles

You must also be able to keep your composure and be able to console people in different ways. Not everyone grieves equally. You must be able to read verbal and non-verbal cues and adjust to the needs and emotional states of the surviving family and friends.

Anatomic pathologists' assistants need to be able to:

• prepare and perform postmortem examinations
• prepare tissue to be examined
• know autopsy guidelines, including photography, specimen coding and report filing
• prepare the body to be released to final resting place

Anatomic pathologists' assistants must have a strong science background and have the ability to apply the learned principles. Having a problem-solving mind is key. A person entering this field must be curious about the human anatomy and the reasoning for why death and disease occur.