You're the person who conducts vocational evaluations to assess clients' abilities, interests, aptitudes, and work-related characteristics — using standardized assessments, work samples, situational assessments, and observation. As a Vocational Evaluator, you're generating the data that drives vocational rehabilitation, employment planning, and disability determinations.
A typical week tends to mix evaluation sessions with clients, scoring and interpreting assessment results, writing evaluation reports, and team consultations on findings. You'll often work with clients whose abilities and limitations don't fit standard categories — combinations of physical, cognitive, learning, or mental health factors that require nuanced interpretation. Report quality matters because reports become reference documents for vocational planning and sometimes for legal proceedings.
Coordination involves vocational rehabilitation counselors, treatment providers, employers when work-site assessments are involved, sometimes attorneys in disability cases, and clients themselves. Standardized assessment tool training — Valpar, MicroTOWER, McCarron-Dial, others — shapes what the field looks like in practice.
People who tend to thrive here are assessment-skilled, observant, and able to translate test data into practical vocational recommendations. If you need fast-paced or strategic work, the assessment-and-report rhythm can feel methodical. If you find satisfaction in providing the rigorous foundation that good vocational planning rests on, the role tends to feel quietly substantial within rehabilitation and employment services.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Social Services roles →You're the person who conducts vocational evaluations to assess clients' abilities, interests, aptitudes, and work-related characteristics — using standardized assessments, work samples, situational assessments, and observation. As a Vocational Evaluator, you're generating the data that drives vocational rehabilitation, employment planning, and disability determinations.
Median pay for a Vocational Evaluator is about $65K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $44K to $106K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Service Orientation, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 3.5% through 2034, with roughly 342,350 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Employment Specialist, Senior Employment Specialist, and Placement Coordinator.
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