Contact local area medical facilities, and ask about the certification requirements for their certified medical assistants. You may also contact local area technology schools or colleges and inquire on requirements for their medical assistant courses, including application fees, course duration and certification process.
Register in a certified medical assistant course that meets all the necessary requirements to work in your state. Most medical assistant courses take less than a year to complete, and some offer night classes.
Contact local medical facilities including medical practices to ask about any positions they may have available. Obtaining work in the medical field may be possible if you let them know you are presently in the process of getting your medical assistant certification.
Register to take your certification exam as soon as you complete your medical assistant course. You can download an application and instructions from the AAMA website, but you have to mail in the application (see Resources) Although the certification is issued by the American Association of Medical Assistants, the examination is actually conducted by a testing service at several different locations. Most medical assistant courses will help you with the application process upon completion of the full medical assistant course. There are only certain times of year that the certification exam is offered, so check with the personnel offering your medical assistant course as to when the first available testing is to be held. Send the appropriate application fees with your registration paperwork.
Take the medical assistant certification exam. The certification process is often given in two parts, a written section and a hands-on section to make sure you can do some basic medical procedures such as drawing blood, administering injections and taking vital signs.