What is a General Office Assistant?

General office assistants are responsible for performing clerical duties, mailing and filing correspondence, preparing payrolls, placing orders, and answering calls. They may also need to interact with clients, visitors, and vendors. An essential aspect of their job is to sort and manage mail.

They may need a high school diploma or equivalent degree. Some employers, however, require an associate's degree. They need to have advanced computer skills, and they typically have strong time management and organizational skills.

Office assistants make $29,868 per year or $14.36 per hour. They can even earn more in tech industries if they can handle the software.

What Does a General Office Assistant Do

There are certain skills that many general office assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and organizational skills.

Learn more about what a General Office Assistant does

How To Become a General Office Assistant

If you're interested in becoming a general office assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 40.8% of general office assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.7% of general office assistants have master's degrees. Even though some general office assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a General Office Assistant
Top General Office Assistant Jobs Near You

General Office Assistant Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a general office assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as secretary, progress to a title such as legal secretary and then eventually end up with the title account manager.

General Office Assistant

Average Salary for a General Office Assistant

General Office Assistants in America make an average salary of $30,764 per year or $15 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $39,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.
Average General Office Assistant Salary
$30,764 Yearly
$14.79 hourly
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Roles and Types of General Office Assistant

There are several types of general office assistant, including:

Office Administrator

Role:

As office administrator, you've got to lay down the law for your team. Sure, no one likes a tough boss, but they need to know what goals they're aiming for, and that's where you come in. You'll need to divide and conquer on some tasks, so the team doesn't feel overwhelmed.

The biggest, and probably toughest, part of your job is making sure your team is consistantly performing. You have to find a nice balance for employees so they don't get burned out on work, while also making sure they're not playing Solitaire on their computer.

Office administrators typically work somewhere between 35-40 hours a week. Generally, they won't work more than that. This means you might get to go home a little early some days. Our fingers are crossed that you get off a little early on Friday, so you can kickstart your weekend on a high note.

  • Average Salary: $37,423
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Office Clerk

Role:

An Office Clerk works in an office and carries out administrative tasks. Working under the supervision of secretaries or executive assistants, office clerks prepare documents and sort mail, file and update company records, schedule meetings, answer phones, greet clients and make sure office supplies are in stock at all times.

You might be asked to make travel arrangements or book venues, take minutes at meetings, and maybe even do some basic bookkeeping tasks. Using photocopy machines and printers and being familiar with basic computer software, such as word processors or spreadsheets, will also be required.

If you want to be an efficient office clerk, you need to be diligent, reliable, and hard-working. You must be perceptive and easy to talk to, and experience with office equipment and procedures is always helpful.

  • Average Salary: $30,927
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Office Worker

Role:

Every office, business, or industry hires highly qualified expert staff who spend hours and days making policies and strategies. But what if none of the data they produce is preserved for references and later analysis? Of course, their efforts will go in vain. To avoid that situation, all organizations, whether big or small, have office workers. They are the administrative staff responsible for holding all official records intact.

Being an office worker is all about documentation, filling, and organizing data in a manageable manner. For which you require at least a high school graduation certificate. As an office worker, you will be asked to do documentation, filling, organize data, and data entry tasks. Therefore, you also need to learn the necessary computer and editing skills.

You can start serving as an office worker with a salary of $18.25 per hour. But chances of progress in this field are great so that you can earn much more than that based on your expertise and skills.

  • Average Salary: $41,003
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most General Office Assistant Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active general office assistant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where general office assistants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of General Office Assistant Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California7,768$32,799
2New York3,415$28,827
3Florida3,175$26,315
4Pennsylvania2,858$28,775
5Texas2,812$25,487
6Massachusetts2,312$33,571
7Ohio1,612$28,127
8Illinois1,612$27,620
9New Jersey1,500$30,765
10Washington1,478$31,695
11Georgia1,422$25,004
12Virginia1,386$26,232
13North Carolina1,324$27,262
14Michigan1,234$31,147
15Arizona962$31,070
16Tennessee949$26,507
17Oregon943$34,278
18Indiana935$26,397
19Colorado848$32,863
20Maryland841$33,902
21Minnesota830$30,705
22Connecticut822$30,052
23Missouri766$26,330
24Wisconsin727$28,510
25Alabama621$23,844
26South Carolina599$25,143
27Iowa546$28,220
28Kentucky540$25,938
29Utah471$26,744
30Nebraska435$26,804
31Idaho412$27,787
32Kansas393$22,384
33Oklahoma371$24,087
34Louisiana355$23,570
35New Hampshire347$32,091
36Maine321$31,614
37Nevada282$34,569
38Delaware270$28,825
39Arkansas266$27,972
40Rhode Island237$34,325
41Mississippi229$25,948
42West Virginia217$25,011
43New Mexico214$22,074
44Alaska202$35,969
45North Dakota192$31,208
46Montana183$28,918
47South Dakota172$23,795
48Hawaii156$32,738
49Vermont111$33,208
50Wyoming108$28,373

General Office Assistant Education

General Office Assistant Majors

Business
26.6 %
Accounting
8.7 %
Psychology
7.6 %

General Office Assistant Degrees

Bachelors

40.8 %

Associate

24.1 %

High School Diploma

21.6 %

Top Colleges for General Office Assistants

1. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$3,926

Enrollment

9,835

2. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

3. Ball State University

Muncie, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,896

Enrollment

15,529

4. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

5. Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,105

Enrollment

13,729

6. Cedar Crest College

Allentown, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$39,216

Enrollment

1,303

7. Morgan State University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,900

Enrollment

6,404

8. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

9. Siena Heights University

Adrian, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$27,124

Enrollment

2,035

10. University of Akron

Akron, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,463

Enrollment

13,676

Top Skills For a General Office Assistant

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 26.1% of general office assistants listed data entry on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable General Office Assistant Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use General Office Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your General Office Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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General Office Assistant diversity

General Office Assistant Gender Distribution

Female
Female
79%
Male
Male
21%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among general office assistants, 79.2% of them are women, while 20.8% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among general office assistants is White, which makes up 54.3% of all general office assistants.

  • The most common foreign language among general office assistants is Spanish at 54.8%.

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Best States For a General Office Assistant

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a general office assistant. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Oregon. General office assistants make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $35,969. Whereas in Nevada and Rhode Island, they would average $34,569 and $34,325, respectively. While general office assistants would only make an average of $34,278 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Alaska

Total General Office Assistant Jobs: 202
Highest 10% Earn:
$43,000
Location Quotient:
1.35

$35,969

Avg. Salary

View 202 General Office Assistant Jobs In AK

2. Oregon

Total General Office Assistant Jobs: 943
Highest 10% Earn:
$43,000
Location Quotient:
1.27

$34,278

Avg. Salary

View 943 General Office Assistant Jobs In OR

3. Massachusetts

Total General Office Assistant Jobs: 2,312
Highest 10% Earn:
$42,000
Location Quotient:
1.41

$33,571

Avg. Salary

View 2,312 General Office Assistant Jobs In MA
Full List Of Best States For General Office Assistants

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Top General Office Assistant Employers

Most Common Employers For General Office Assistant

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1U.S. Department of State$38,548$18.537
2State Bar of Michigan$36,957$17.7724
3MetLife$35,203$16.928
4M-I LLC$34,855$16.765
5Allstate$34,215$16.454
6Capital Group$34,095$16.395
7Ukpeagvik IOoOupiat Corporation$33,331$16.026
8Heald College$33,306$16.0118
9Health Resources and Services Administration$32,019$15.397
10Kelly Services$31,346$15.0714
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Updated April 6, 2023