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Senior executive vs executive assistant

The differences between senior executives and executive assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a senior executive and an executive assistant. Additionally, a senior executive has an average salary of $104,507, which is higher than the $50,539 average annual salary of an executive assistant.

The top three skills for a senior executive include customer service, project management and SR. The most important skills for an executive assistant are powerpoint, customer service, and phone calls.

Senior executive vs executive assistant overview

Senior ExecutiveExecutive Assistant
Yearly salary$104,507$50,539
Hourly rate$50.24$24.30
Growth rate-8%-8%
Number of jobs74,89493,116
Job satisfaction-4.4
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 62%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age4949
Years of experience44

What does a senior executive do?

A senior executive is responsible for supporting the chief technology officer and other higher officials on implementing critical corporate decisions, especially on identifying business opportunities to extend business partnership scopes and drive more revenue resources, supporting the company's financial stability. Senior executives oversee departmental operations across the company, ensuring production efficiency and high-quality output deliverables. They may also handle operational budgets and allocate adequate resources to each department's head. A senior executive attends meetings and conferences with other executives, sharing updates with stakeholders, and strategizing project management processes.

What does an executive assistant do?

Executive assistants are employees who are assigned to work under the supervision of company executives. They manage the activities of the executives they are assigned to by manning the executive's calendar, scheduling appointments, setting meetings, ensuring that the executives are familiar with their schedule for the day, and taking note of any deliverable that may be needed. They are also responsible for taking care of any document or paperwork that the executive needs, as well as preparing presentation materials or briefers for meetings. Executive assistants are also usually exposed to actual company operations to further understand how the business works and to be of better help to the executive.

Senior executive vs executive assistant salary

Senior executives and executive assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior ExecutiveExecutive Assistant
Average salary$104,507$50,539
Salary rangeBetween $63,000 And $172,000Between $35,000 And $71,000
Highest paying CityHartford, CTSan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateConnecticutNew York
Best paying companyIntuitMeta
Best paying industryPharmaceuticalFinance

Differences between senior executive and executive assistant education

There are a few differences between a senior executive and an executive assistant in terms of educational background:

Senior ExecutiveExecutive Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 62%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeWestern Carolina UniversityWestern Carolina University

Senior executive vs executive assistant demographics

Here are the differences between senior executives' and executive assistants' demographics:

Senior ExecutiveExecutive Assistant
Average age4949
Gender ratioMale, 57.4% Female, 42.6%Male, 13.1% Female, 86.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between senior executive and executive assistant duties and responsibilities

Senior executive example responsibilities.

  • Work with other team leads for integration of the software for deployment to QA area.
  • Manage releases to multiple prod and non-prod environments using HPSD tool base in ITIL standards.
  • Manage vendor selection, purchasing, budgeting, and asset management ensuring positive ROI on capital and expense dollars.
  • Manage teaching hospitals and non-profit community healthcare institutions pharmaceutical supply chain operations (end-to-end services).
  • Rationalize the portfolio through decommissioning and consolidation of legacy applications to accomplish annual cost savings of 900K.
  • Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
  • Show more

Executive assistant example responsibilities.

  • Manage and maintain AVP calendar and schedule using independent judgment.
  • Manage and review WinStar (KRONOS) time clock hours for hourly union employees.
  • Organize and manage administrative, audio/visual (WebEx, GoToMeeting), and catering of department meetings.
  • Manage the scope of accounting processes including billing, bookkeeping and expense data management with strong oversight of A/R and A/P.
  • Create and manage executive presentations using Visio and PowerPoint.
  • Compile, manage and organize travel and expense reports processing and submitting reports using PeopleSoft for reimbursement.
  • Show more

Senior executive vs executive assistant skills

Common senior executive skills
  • Customer Service, 17%
  • Project Management, 8%
  • SR, 8%
  • Healthcare, 7%
  • Human Resources, 7%
  • Macro, 6%
Common executive assistant skills
  • PowerPoint, 13%
  • Customer Service, 8%
  • Phone Calls, 6%
  • Calendar Management, 6%
  • Administrative Tasks, 3%
  • Financial Reports, 3%

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