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Data assistant vs office specialist

The differences between data assistants and office specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a data assistant and an office specialist. Additionally, a data assistant has an average salary of $34,431, which is higher than the $33,477 average annual salary of an office specialist.

The top three skills for a data assistant include data entry, data collection and patients. The most important skills for an office specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.

Data assistant vs office specialist overview

Data AssistantOffice Specialist
Yearly salary$34,431$33,477
Hourly rate$16.55$16.09
Growth rate-5%-5%
Number of jobs78,54598,760
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Average age4447
Years of experience22

What does a data assistant do?

A data assistant's role is to perform support tasks in data management procedures. Their responsibilities often revolve around coordinating with different departments to gather data, maintaining and updating databases, processing and organizing documentation, preparing progress reports, and analyzing data as needed. They may also participate in devising strategies to optimize data management operations. Furthermore, a data assistant must also monitor the operations of databases, performing regular maintenance checks, and reporting to the information technology department should there be any issues and concerns.

What does an office specialist do?

An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.

Data assistant vs office specialist salary

Data assistants and office specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

Data AssistantOffice Specialist
Average salary$34,431$33,477
Salary rangeBetween $20,000 And $57,000Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CAWashington, DC
Highest paying stateCaliforniaMassachusetts
Best paying companyDLA PiperBrookhaven National Laboratory
Best paying industryManufacturingFinance

Differences between data assistant and office specialist education

There are a few differences between a data assistant and an office specialist in terms of educational background:

Data AssistantOffice Specialist
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common college-Western Carolina University

Data assistant vs office specialist demographics

Here are the differences between data assistants' and office specialists' demographics:

Data AssistantOffice Specialist
Average age4447
Gender ratioMale, 36.6% Female, 63.4%Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 11.1% White, 54.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage5%6%

Differences between data assistant and office specialist duties and responsibilities

Data assistant example responsibilities.

  • Create UNIX and LINUX shell scripts to automate data migration process.
  • Implement web crawlers in python with scrapy framework.
  • Serve as ETL lead to help the development stage take shape as quick as possible.
  • Work in collaboration with the systems administrators to troubleshoot and resolve RDBMS issues cause by common business network issues.
  • Utilize MATLAB to conduct calculations which have to take various factors into account that affect the way a pulsejet runs.
  • Research request and troubleshoot customer problems via multiple computer software.
  • Show more

Office specialist example responsibilities.

  • Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
  • Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
  • Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
  • Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
  • Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
  • Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.
  • Show more

Data assistant vs office specialist skills

Common data assistant skills
  • Data Entry, 14%
  • Data Collection, 10%
  • Patients, 9%
  • Data Management, 8%
  • Research Data, 6%
  • Access Database, 6%
Common office specialist skills
  • Customer Service, 18%
  • Data Entry, 10%
  • Patients, 9%
  • Office Equipment, 6%
  • Phone Calls, 6%
  • Word Processing, 4%

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