Data processing technician vs network technician

The differences between data processing technicians and network technicians 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 processing technician and a network technician. Additionally, a network technician has an average salary of $68,938, which is higher than the $55,433 average annual salary of a data processing technician.

The top three skills for a data processing technician include data processing, data entry and QC. The most important skills for a network technician are customer service, switches, and troubleshoot.

Data processing technician vs network technician overview

	Data Processing Technician	Network Technician
Yearly salary	$55,433	$68,938
Hourly rate	$26.65	$33.14
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	106,715	79,712
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Average age	44	43
Years of experience	2	2

Data processing technician vs network technician salary

Data processing technicians and network technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Data Processing Technician	Network Technician
Average salary	$55,433	$68,938
Salary range	Between $41,000 And $73,000	Between $51,000 And $92,000
Highest paying City	-	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	-	Hawaii
Best paying company	-	Apple
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between data processing technician and network technician education

There are a few differences between a data processing technician and a network technician in terms of educational background:

	Data Processing Technician	Network Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Pennsylvania

Data processing technician vs network technician demographics

Here are the differences between data processing technicians' and network technicians' demographics:

	Data Processing Technician	Network Technician
Average age	44	43
Gender ratio	Male, 60.3% Female, 39.7%	Male, 87.3% Female, 12.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 19.0% Asian, 9.0% White, 56.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 9.4% White, 63.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	7%	9%

Differences between data processing technician and network technician duties and responsibilities

Data processing technician example responsibilities.

Manage backups for PC and UNIX environments.
Manage incoming tickets and incidents in remedy and troubleshooting.
Plan and install networking infrastructures for PC and UNIX environments.
Work as a team orient group programming network IP addressing.
Monitor printers and batch queues on PC LAN also do printer maintenance.
Install data and video equipment, as well as all associate CAT5, CAT6, and fiber optics cabling.

Network technician example responsibilities.

Install and manage DHCP servers including setting up DHCP scopes, enabling DHCP clients, viewing and managing active leases.
Manage city wide IIS deployment.
Manage Virtualization system, using ESX server/client.
Install, configure and manage Symantec Antivirus on all network computers
Use Symantec BackupExec to manage and maintain all server backups and file restorations.
Manage company Cisco series routers, switches, and ASA firewall integrate into MPLS network.

Data processing technician vs network technician skills

Common data processing technician skills

Data Processing, 30%
Data Entry, 22%
QC, 5%
Mainframe, 4%
Management Software, 4%
Electronic Discovery, 3%

Common network technician skills

Customer Service, 9%
Switches, 6%
Troubleshoot, 6%
Routers, 4%
Lan Wan, 3%
Lan, 3%

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Data Processing Technician
Data Processing Technician vs Network Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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