Student employee vs office assistant

The differences between student employees and office assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a student employee and an office assistant. Additionally, an office assistant has an average salary of $31,517, which is higher than the $24,086 average annual salary of a student employee.

The top three skills for a student employee include customer service, food safety and financial aid. The most important skills for an office assistant are data entry, patients, and customer service.

Student employee vs office assistant overview

	Student Employee	Office Assistant
Yearly salary	$24,086	$31,517
Hourly rate	$11.58	$15.15
Growth rate	-5%	-5%
Number of jobs	12,497	103,293
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 42%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does a student employee do?

Student employees are students who have a job within a school campus. Their duties may include working in the classrooms, cafeterias, and dorms. These employees receive a salary for their work, provided they maintain the grade requirements set by the school. The requirements for this position vary for every school. These may include having a minimum of 3.0 for graduates and 2.0 for undergraduates. They typically work 40 hours a week and may hold two or more positions to reach the required number of work hours.

What does an office assistant do?

Office assistants perform various tasks to ensure that the business runs organized and efficient. An office assistant must possess excellent communication and multi-tasking skills to handle essential duties such as scheduling meetings, monitoring office supplies, storing documents and necessary paperwork, handling customer inquiries and appointments, coordinating in company events, and accomplishing other clerical tasks and administrative support. Office assistants are also required to communicate any observation that would possibly make an impact on the company's performance.

Student employee vs office assistant salary

Student employees and office assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Student Employee	Office Assistant
Average salary	$24,086	$31,517
Salary range	Between $17,000 And $32,000	Between $24,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	Denver, CO	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Colorado	Vermont
Best paying company	University of California, Berkeley	Analysis Group
Best paying industry	Education	Government

Differences between student employee and office assistant education

There are a few differences between a student employee and an office assistant in terms of educational background:

	Student Employee	Office Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 42%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Western Carolina University

Student employee vs office assistant demographics

Here are the differences between student employees' and office assistants' demographics:

	Student Employee	Office Assistant
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 46.1% Female, 53.9%	Male, 17.3% Female, 82.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 10.3% White, 58.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%	Black or African American, 10.1% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 8.3% White, 54.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between student employee and office assistant duties and responsibilities

Student employee example responsibilities.

Manage club documents and advertise several events through Facebook.
Install structures and fixtures, such as windows, frames, floorings, and trim.
Instruct in helping students who struggle with mathematics.
Enhance, retouch, and resize photographs using Photoshop.
Create posters promote special guest speakers visiting CNM using Photoshop.
Coordinate college recruitment activities at career fairs, high school scholarship awards and specific industry requests.

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Office assistant example responsibilities.

Manage filing, photocopying, collating, and faxing public and seal case documents.
Manage CI s SharePoint pages and serve as CI s subject matter expert on SharePoint working groups.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Compile payroll records, detect and reconcile discrepancies, accurately report outcomes using QuickBooks.
Maintain office services by organizing office operations and procedures, preparing payroll, controlling correspondences, and designing filing systems.
File client paperwork upholding HIPAA standards.

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Student employee vs office assistant skills

Common student employee skills

Customer Service, 22%
Food Safety, 9%
Financial Aid, 7%
Front Desk, 7%
Food Preparation, 5%
Public Facilities, 4%

Common office assistant skills

Data Entry, 16%
Patients, 14%
Customer Service, 9%
Telephone Calls, 7%
Scheduling Appointments, 6%
Front Desk, 6%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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