Photo: Dwight Burdette (CC BY 3.0)
Job description
Beyond the practical logistics, scheduling cemetery openings, arranging transportation, and completing legal paperwork like death certificates, a mortician spends real time sitting with grieving families to plan the service and offer comfort. The work follows established legal and procedural requirements at every step, so precision matters throughout, from selecting pallbearers to leading the funeral cortege. Many morticians also handle prearranged funeral planning, negotiating details with clients well before a death occurs, which spreads the job across both immediate cases and longer-term client relationships.
Pros
- Faster than average projected job growth (3.1% over the next decade)
- High upside earning potential, up to $88,620 without needing a four-year degree
- Meaningful, people-centered work directly supporting grieving families through a difficult time
Cons
- Above-average hours, expect more than a standard 40-hour work week including irregular call-outs
- Emotionally demanding, requires offering counsel and comfort to bereaved families as a core part of the job
- Regular exposure to contaminants as part of handling remains
A typical day
The phone rang at 4am — a death at a nursing home — so the day starts with a removal, done with a quiet professionalism the family will remember even if they never say so. Mid-morning is an arrangement conference: two hours at a table with a grieving family, walking through service options, obituary drafts, and paperwork without ever rushing them. The early afternoon splits between filing a death certificate, coordinating with a church and cemetery, and preparing a chapel for tomorrow's visitation, where every flower placement and folder gets checked twice. Evening brings the visitation itself, standing at the door for three hours, greeting mourners and adjusting a hundred small things invisibly. Funeral directors work when grief does, which is any hour at all.
Tasks at the job
- Obtain information needed to complete legal documents, such as death certificates or burial permits.
- Contact cemeteries to schedule the opening and closing of graves.
- Close caskets and lead funeral corteges to churches or burial sites.
- Offer counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.
- Discuss and negotiate prearranged funerals with clients.
- Provide or arrange transportation between sites for the remains, mourners, pallbearers, clergy, or flowers.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting. The role involves regular exposure to contaminants.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. Precision and accuracy are essential to the work, and the work is highly structured, following set procedures.
Education necessary or common
Vocational training, apprenticeship, or associate's degree
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- State funeral director/embalmer license (required)
- National Board Examination (NBE)
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- Anatomy and Physiology — mortuary science coursework builds directly on it
- Chemistry — embalming chemistry is a licensing-exam subject
- AP Psychology — grief work is the true center of the job
- Business or Accounting — funeral homes are small businesses with real books
- AP English Language and Composition — obituaries, eulogies, and compassionate communication
Clubs, activities & competitions
- HOSA-Future Health Professionals — comfort with clinical settings
- Volunteer with hospice bereavement programs (many welcome teen volunteers for events)
- Church, temple, or community roles serving at funerals and memorials
- DECA or FBLA — the small-business operations side
First steps you can take now
- Ask a local funeral home for an informational interview — most directors are generous with students considering the field
- Look up your state's licensing rules and accredited mortuary science programs (usually an associate's plus apprenticeship)
- Volunteer with hospice to learn whether you can be steady around death and grief
- Read a memoir by a funeral director to see the emotional texture of the work honestly
