How To Become A Clerical Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clerical specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Becoming a member of the clerical staff can be a rewarding way to start work at a company. Many clerical positions require minimal qualification and allow employees on the job to learn useful office skills. If you plan to step up in a company, regular contact with workers at all levels is a valuable factor.

Generally, a clerical specialist handles administrative tasks such as answering phones, conducting errands, logging business purchases, and typing correspondence. They also compile, arrange, and find documents and send reports to other personnel or the general public. A good clerical specialist is efficient in managing schedules and handling information needed to keep supply chains.

Most clerical specialist positions require a high school diploma or equivalent. Employers usually train candidates either by pairing them with more experienced specialists or placing them under the supervision of a manager. Since computers are used for everyday operations, knowledge in hardware and software systems is an asset when looking for work. Candidates should have experience in monitoring orders, controlling inventories, and gathering customer data.

ScoreClerical SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,736

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.00%

Asian 7.49%

Black or African American 11.62%

Hispanic or Latino 16.85%

Unknown 4.51%

White 58.53%

Gender

female 86.33%

male 13.67%

Age - 50

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 50

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.3

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clerical specialist

Explore clerical specialist education requirements

Most common clerical specialist degrees

Bachelor's

34.8 %

Associate

29.9 %

High School Diploma

20.5 %

Start to develop specific clerical specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	25.89%
Data Entry	16.95%
Customer Service	7.84%
Payroll	6.04%
Clerical Support	4.08%

Complete relevant clerical specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clerical specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clerical specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clerical specialist resumes.

Research clerical specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage CI s SharePoint pages and serve as CI s subject matter expert on SharePoint working groups.
Provide excellent customer service, advising patients about clinic policies and responding to specific inquiries.
Follow all guidline to Hippa regulations.
Attend multiple yearly in-services addressing issues such as HIPPA, resident safety, fire safety, and current long-term care issues.

Prepare your clerical specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clerical specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clerical specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clerical specialist resume templates

Build a professional clerical specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your clerical specialist resume.