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The differences between security specialists and specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a specialist has an average salary of $58,013, which is higher than the $49,892 average annual salary of a security specialist.
The top three skills for a security specialist include ladders, security incidents and physical security. The most important skills for a specialist are patients, customer service, and work ethic.
| Security Specialist | Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $49,892 | $58,013 |
| Hourly rate | $23.99 | $27.89 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 96,226 | 358,433 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Years of experience | - | 2 |
A security specialist is responsible for maintaining the security of an organization's database, ensuring that it's free from cyber threats and unusual activities. Security specialists' duties include upgrading hardware and software applications, configuring networks to improve optimization, addressing any unauthorized access on the database, troubleshooting system discrepancies, conducting security audits on the system, and improving automated processes. A security specialist must have a strong command of programming languages and system codes, as well as broad experience with technical expertise.
Specialists are employees who are responsible for specific tasks or activities in the department they are assigned to. The actions or tasks they work on are related to their educational background or work experiences. They are usually highly skilled in specializations related to the work they are assigned to. Specialists are also highly trained on the competencies that are required of their specialty. As such, they are focused on the skills and competencies that are needed to enhance their experience in their specific field further.
Security specialists and specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Security Specialist | Specialist | |
| Average salary | $49,892 | $58,013 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $98,000 | Between $32,000 And $104,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Jersey City, NJ |
| Highest paying state | New York | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Okta | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | - | - |
There are a few differences between a security specialist and a specialist in terms of educational background:
| Security Specialist | Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Business |
| Most common college | - | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between security specialists' and specialists' demographics:
| Security Specialist | Specialist | |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.0% Female, 26.0% | Male, 47.5% Female, 52.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 13.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.2% Asian, 5.8% White, 54.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6% | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 11% |