The requirements you'll have to meet to become a licensing specialist may vary from employer to employer. Most, however, will expect you to have a high school diploma or its equivalent. Depending on the employer, you may also need experience in a customer service or sales-related position. Additionally, most employers will want you to have good communication and computer skills, and trustworthiness will likely prove important as well.
In most cases, a high school diploma is the minimum educational credential you'll need to become a licensing specialist. Typically, however, you can substitute a General Educational Development® (GED®) diploma for this credential. Most employers will not require you to have a degree to qualify for this job, but earning an associate's or bachelor's degree could make you a more competitive job candidate. If you do decide to seek higher education in preparation for this job, earning a degree in a business-related major may prove helpful.
Sales and customer service experience is often helpful or necessary when you want to become a licensing specialist. In this position, you will have a good deal of contact with people hoping to obtain licenses, and the communication and sales skills gained through previous employment will likely prove beneficial. You may also have to deal with frustrated license applicants as part of this job. As such, skill and experience with handling tough situations may help you to land this job and succeed in this line of work.
You will typically need strong computer skills to become a licensing specialist as well. This is usually necessary for inputting information provided by license applicants and retrieving related records. Some jobs may also call for reasonably good vision. For example, an employer may expect you to see things that are close to you fairly well and to have good vision to a distance of at least a few feet.
An employer may also consider perceived trustworthiness when he is hiring a new licensing specialist. This is because a person in this field often collects and handles money, and an employer will likely want to feel confident that he won't steal any of it. Likewise, a person in this position may also have access to license applicants' confidential information, such as tax identification numbers. If you have worked with money in the past or have references who will attest to your trustworthiness, you may have a better chance of landing this job.
