If you wish to become a medical assistant, you must first become certified. Medical assistant classes are generally offered at local vocational schools. These schools often offer night classes or weekend classes to help appease people who have a full work schedule but are working for their medical assistant certification. For a certification where you are working towards a career more in the office side of medical assisting, you can receive your certification in around a year, sometimes less. This certification will verify that you have learned how to accurately document patient records, easily schedule patient appointments as well as input proper information into the system regarding a patient’s medical history. You can expect to earn on average around $24,000 as a medical assistant. There is not a huge amount of room for growth in this line of work, but it is consistent and non-challenging, which can be a plus for many people.