How To Become A Departmental Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a departmental assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a departmental assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.08 an hour? That's $39,690 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDepartmental AssistantUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,690

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 3.80%

Black or African American 9.08%

Hispanic or Latino 15.91%

Unknown 3.87%

White 66.62%

Gender

female 70.48%

male 29.52%

Age - 52

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 - 52

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.4

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a departmental assistant

Explore departmental assistant education requirements

Most common departmental assistant degrees

Bachelor's

67.5 %

Associate

13.0 %

Master's

9.5 %

Start to develop specific departmental assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
HR	20.25%
Chemistry	19.00%
Data Analysis	12.44%
Word Processing	9.06%
Routine Correspondence	5.80%

Complete relevant departmental assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New departmental assistants 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 departmental assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real departmental assistant resumes.

Research departmental assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage and develop the daily clinical schedule for the in-patient rehabilitation staff taking into consideration Medicare guidelines and staffing ratios.
Input appointments into HRIS (HCM- PeopleSoft) and maintain all HRIS records; process student and limit payroll in
Attend various meetings, take dictation, write up and distribute minutes.
Process employee time and payroll - records, adjustments, travel and other reimbursable payments.

Prepare your departmental assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your departmental assistant 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 departmental assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable departmental assistant resume templates

Build a professional departmental assistant 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 departmental assistant resume.