Am I qualified
What a funeral director role actually requires, and what you would have to prove
This page reports on Funeral Home Managers, the O*NET occupation behind the title. Everything below is the occupation's own published profile, ordered by what separates this occupation from the ones closest to it rather than by what is rare across the labour market as a whole, because "rare everywhere" is the same answer for every occupation in a family and "rare among these" is not.
Am I qualified to be a funeral director?
Against the 5 occupations in its SOC minor group, what marks out Funeral Home Managers is communications and media, psychology and service orientation. O*NET 30.3 rates communications and media important here, but for none of its 5 closest peers, and 15% of all occupations. The weight sits in 8 knowledge areas, 8 transferable skills, 8 work activities, 6 essential skills. BLS records associate's degree as the typical entry-level education, less than 5 years of prior related experience, and no on-the-job training category. O*NET places it at Job Zone 3, job zone three: medium preparation needed.
- Occupation this page reports on
- Funeral Home Managers, O*NET-SOC 11-9171.00. Job title shared across occupations. O*NET records "Funeral Director" as a job title for Funeral Home Managers. It records the same title for 2 other occupations: Funeral Attendants and Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers.
- What you would have to prove
- 6 requirements separate this occupation from the 5 occupations in its SOC minor group, most distinctive first: Communications and Media (rated important by none of its 5 closest peers, and 15% of all occupations), Psychology (rated important by 1 of its 5 closest peers, and 21% of all occupations), Service Orientation (rated important by 1 of its 5 closest peers, and 53% of all occupations), Assisting and Caring for Others (rated important by 3 of its 5 closest peers, and 37% of all occupations), Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment (rated important by 2 of its 5 closest peers, and 29% of all occupations) and Instructing (rated important by 1 of its 5 closest peers, and 44% of all occupations).
- What transfers in from almost anywhere
- Getting Information (99%), Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates (97%), Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events (96%), Making Decisions and Solving Problems (95%), Active Listening (93%) and Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work (92%). Important here, and important nearly everywhere, so these carry across from most backgrounds and prove correspondingly little.
- Education and experience context (BLS)
- Typical entry-level education associate's degree. Prior experience in a related occupation: Less than 5 years. Typical on-the-job training: None.
- Preparation level
- O*NET Job Zone 3 — Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Job Zone describes the typical preparation an occupation expects, not a hiring bar for any individual.
- What this cannot determine
- Whether you personally qualify. Occupational data describes work; it does not describe candidates, does not know your evidence, and does not know what any specific employer will enforce. A single job description can overturn everything above, which is exactly why the next step is to read one against your own history.
Source and method
O*NET 30.3 Database, with BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2 (2025-35 projections; 2025 worker characteristics). Verified 2026-08-30. Importance ratings, Job Zones, occupational titles and descriptions are read from O*NET 30.3. Typical entry education, prior experience and on-the-job training are read from BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2 (2025-35 projections; 2025 worker characteristics). Which requirements count as distinctive, the share figures behind that judgement, and the mapping from a searched job title to an occupation are computed by RoleSprint from those inputs.
How this title maps to occupational data
Job title shared across occupations
O*NET records "Funeral Director" as a job title for Funeral Home Managers. It records the same title for 2 other occupations: Funeral Attendants and Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers.
Everything below evaluates Funeral Home Managers. If the job you have in mind is one of the others, the figures on this page describe a different occupation — the posting itself is what tells you which one you are looking at.
What you would actually have to prove
Requirements rated important for Funeral Home Managers and important for at most 15% of occupations. Rarest first.
- Economics and Accountingimportance 3.7 of 5 · rated important by 12% of occupations
- Sales and Marketingimportance 3.6 of 5 · rated important by 13% of occupations
- Communications and Mediaimportance 3.0 of 5 · rated important by 15% of occupations
- Biologyimportance 3.2 of 5 · rated important by 15% of occupations
What transfers in from almost any background
Rated important here and nearly everywhere else. These come with you from most jobs, and they evidence correspondingly little.
- Getting Information99% of occupations
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates97% of occupations
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events96% of occupations
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems95% of occupations
- Active Listening93% of occupations
- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work92% of occupations
The full requirement profile
Everything O*NET rates at 3.0 or above on the 1 to 5 importance scale, by domain, rarest first.
Knowledge
8 knowledge areas rated important, 4 of them distinctive.
- Economics and Accounting3.7 · 12%
- Sales and Marketing3.6 · 13%
- Communications and Media3.0 · 15%
- Biology3.2 · 15%
- Personnel and Human Resources3.5 · 15%
- Psychology3.6 · 21%
- Law and Government3.1 · 22%
- Administrative4.0 · 33%
Transferable skills
8 transferable skills rated important, 0 of them distinctive.
- Management of Personnel Resources3.5 · 22%
- Negotiation3.1 · 29%
- Persuasion3.1 · 37%
- Instructing3.0 · 44%
- Service Orientation4.0 · 53%
- Social Perceptiveness3.9 · 64%
- Complex Problem Solving3.3 · 72%
- Time Management3.6 · 74%
Essential skills
6 essential skills rated important, 0 of them distinctive.
- Writing3.1 · 66%
- Reading Comprehension3.6 · 82%
- Monitoring3.4 · 86%
- Critical Thinking3.5 · 90%
- Speaking3.5 · 90%
- Active Listening3.9 · 93%
Work activities
8 work activities rated important, 0 of them distinctive.
- Selling or Influencing Others3.5 · 20%
- Monitoring and Controlling Resources3.3 · 24%
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment3.5 · 29%
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.6 · 37%
- Controlling Machines and Processes3.0 · 40%
- Performing Administrative Activities4.3 · 41%
- Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates4.2 · 44%
- Providing Consultation and Advice to Others4.3 · 47%
What the occupation involves, as O*NET describes it
Plan, direct, or coordinate the services or resources of funeral homes. Includes activities such as determining prices for services or merchandise and managing the facilities of funeral homes.
O*NET-SOC 11-9171.00. Official title: Funeral Home Managers.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. RoleSprint has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Analysis generated 2026-09-02 from the O*NET 30.3 Database. Entry education, work experience, and on-the-job training are reproduced from BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2 (2025-35 projections; 2025 worker characteristics), published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What to do next
Everything above describes an occupation. A posting describes one employer's version of it, and the gap between the two is where applications are actually won or lost. Put a real job description next to your own history and the question stops being abstract.