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The differences between graduate research assistants and certified medical technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a certified medical technician has an average salary of $38,859, which is higher than the $34,230 average annual salary of a graduate research assistant.
The top three skills for a graduate research assistant include R, technical reports and research projects. The most important skills for a certified medical technician are patients, vital signs, and CPR.
| Graduate Research Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $34,230 | $38,859 |
| Hourly rate | $16.46 | $18.68 |
| Growth rate | 19% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 52,695 | 164,424 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 71% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | - | 12 |
Graduate research assistants are students who work for senior researchers or professors. They help professors in their research. Usually, graduate research assistants are given allowances or stipends in exchange for their help. Graduate research assistants help the researcher in testing research tools, gathering data, and analyzing data. They may also help researchers in creating presentations, interpreting data through graphs, and crafting other collateral that the researcher may need. It is usually required that the graduate research assistant is studying a specific field related to the research topic.
Certified Medical Technicians are specialists in medical diagnoses by performing laboratory testing and analysis for hospitals and physicians. Their duties include lab sanitization to prepare for testing and collection, recording medical samples for testing, specimen preparation, blood drawing for donation and testing, and assisting physicians with sample collection as well as equipment handling in surgical rooms. They must also understand how to use complex and sensitive testing equipment such as cell counters, analyzers, microscopes, and centrifuges.
Graduate research assistants and certified medical technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Graduate Research Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average salary | $34,230 | $38,859 |
| Salary range | Between $22,000 And $52,000 | Between $28,000 And $53,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Denton, TX |
| Highest paying state | Pennsylvania | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Los Alamos National Laboratory | Favorite Healthcare Staffing |
| Best paying industry | Education | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a graduate research assistant and a certified medical technician in terms of educational background:
| Graduate Research Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 71% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Nursing |
| Most common college | Georgia Institute of Technology | University of Connecticut |
Here are the differences between graduate research assistants' and certified medical technicians' demographics:
| Graduate Research Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.2% Female, 45.8% | Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.6% Asian, 11.8% White, 53.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% | Black or African American, 15.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 8% |