Use sound, X-rays and magnets to find cracks in pipelines, bridges and aircraft without cutting anything open. High school diploma in, six figures possible.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $78,350 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $47,030 at the lower end to about $118,330 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 3 years after high school, on the usual route.
$300 to $26,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$78,350
Bottom tenth
$47,030
Top tenth
$118,330
The national median is $78,350 a year, and the bottom tenth earn $47,030 or less. These are the figures published for the federal survey group this job sits in, which is engineering technologists and technicians, all other. There is no separate wage line for non-destructive testing on its own.
$60,390 a year
25% of the All Other technicians group earn this or less
This covers everyone in the job, not only beginners, because the survey publishes no separate starting figure. When an employer trains you, you are paid from day one.
Overtime and travel
Shutdowns, night work and per diem allowances
Refineries and pipelines run testing crews around the clock during a shutdown. Ten and twelve hour days for weeks at a time, with meals and hotel paid. The survey figures above leave out overtime, so shutdown work can add a lot to them.
Roughly, all in
$300 to $26,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Many companies hire trainees off the street, pay for the classroom hours and the certification exams themselves, and issue the coveralls and the radiation badge, so the low end is really just boots and gloves. The high end is a private technical school covering several inspection methods, which can run $5,000 to $25,000 depending on how many methods it teaches. A community college certificate at about $4,000 a year sits between the two, and a Pell Grant often covers most of it. Getting the employer paid route means finding a company that is hiring trainees, which depends heavily on where you live.
Fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). A Pell Grant covers a lot of a community college certificate, and some employers will train you from scratch with no tuition at all.
Per diem
Travel jobs pay a daily allowance for food and lodging on top of your wage, and a lot of people bank most of it.
Employer paid certification
Each new method you are certified in is money the company spends and you keep for life.
Union work on big projects
Pipeline and refinery contracts are often union, with health coverage and a pension.
Work anywhere
Welds are the same in Alaska and in Texas. The certification travels with you.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One to three years from high school, and most of it is paid.
High school diploma or GED (General Educational Development certificate)
Grades 11 and 12
That is the stated entry requirement. Shop, physics and math help more than anything else.
Training in a method
A few weeks to a year
Either a technical school program or classroom hours paid for by an employer.
Trainee hours on the job
6 to 18 months
You work under a certified technician and log experience hours. Each method has its own requirement.
Level one, then level two
1 to 3 years in total
Written exam, a practical exam and a vision test. Level two means you can interpret results and sign them.
Level three
Several more years
The senior grade. You write procedures, train others and take responsibility for a company's testing program.
Physics
Sound waves, magnetism and radiation are literally the tools. Understanding them makes the training easy.
Math
Thickness calculations, angles and dose rates. Nothing advanced, but you do it constantly.
Welding or metal shop
You are inspecting welds. Knowing how one is made tells you where to look for the flaw.
English
Every test ends in a written report that somebody will rely on. Sloppy writing is a safety problem here.
Some non-destructive testing work is done through registered apprenticeships listed by the Department of Labor, where you earn a wage from the first day.
No state licenses this job. Certification is run by employers against a written practice published by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, and your certificate technically belongs to the company that issued it, which means a new employer may retest you. The society also runs central certifications you keep yourself, including one built to an international standard that includes a hands-on practical exam. There is one real government requirement: if you shoot radiographs using radioactive sources, you work under a radiation safety license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or by your state, you must be certified as a radiographer, and you carry a dose badge every shift.
Employer training programs
The most common route. A testing company hires you as a trainee and teaches you method by method.
Community and technical colleges
Certificate and two-year programs in non-destructive testing or quality technology, mostly in industrial states.
Private training academies
Short, intensive and expensive. Check that the hours they give you count toward certification before you pay.
The military
The Air Force and the Navy train inspectors to test aircraft and ships, and that experience carries into civilian jobs.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Ultrasonic testing
Sound waves through metal. The most useful method to hold.
Radiographic testing
X-rays and radioactive sources. The most regulated method, usually worked at night.
Electromagnetic testing
Eddy current work, heavily used in aerospace and on heat exchanger tubes.
Magnetic particle and liquid penetrant testing
The two simplest methods. Nearly everyone starts here and stacks others on top.
Good color vision
Several methods rely on seeing an indication against a background. There is a vision test and people do fail it.
A clean driving record
Most of this work involves a company truck and a job site an hour away.
Comfort with heights and confined spaces
Tanks, scaffolds and the inside of pipes are normal workplaces here.
Welding knowledge
Testers who understand welding find flaws faster and get promoted sooner.
Refineries, power plants and mills shut down on a schedule to be inspected, and testing crews descend for two to six weeks of twelve hour shifts. The overtime adds up and the work is relentless. People do it for a few years, save hard, then move to a steadier shop or a plant job. Going straight from high school into a traveling shutdown career at 19 is possible, and it is also the reason this field has a lot of burned out 30 year olds.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Safety briefing at 6am, then a truck out to a pipeline right of way. You set up a scanner on a girth weld, run the probe around it, and read the trace on screen looking for a shape that should not be there. Find one and the weld gets cut out and redone, which costs the contractor real money, so the results get questioned. You write it up, sign it, and move to the next joint. Radiography crews do the same work at 2am, because the area has to be cleared of people first.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Federal rules say that when radiography is done away from a permanent shielded facility, at least two qualified people must be there. Radiography may not be done with only one.
Federal projections expect about 5,400 openings a year for non-destructive testing specialists from 2025 to 2035, with average growth. Most come from replacing people who leave.
The professional body certifies people in ultrasonic, radiographic, liquid penetrant, magnetic particle, electromagnetic and visual testing. Technicians stack methods one at a time.
A radiographer who works with radioactive sources needs at least 2 months of on-the-job training, plus written and practical exams, before working as a certified radiographer under federal rules.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Metal and machining first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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