Student employee vs office specialist

The differences between student employees and office specialists 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 specialist. Additionally, an office specialist has an average salary of $33,477, 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 specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.

Student employee vs office specialist overview

	Student Employee	Office Specialist
Yearly salary	$24,086	$33,477
Hourly rate	$11.58	$16.09
Growth rate	-5%	-5%
Number of jobs	12,497	98,760
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
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 specialist do?

An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.

Student employee vs office specialist salary

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

	Student Employee	Office Specialist
Average salary	$24,086	$33,477
Salary range	Between $17,000 And $32,000	Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	Denver, CO	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Colorado	Massachusetts
Best paying company	University of California, Berkeley	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Best paying industry	Education	Finance

Differences between student employee and office specialist education

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

	Student Employee	Office Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Western Carolina University

Student employee vs office specialist demographics

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

	Student Employee	Office Specialist
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 46.1% Female, 53.9%	Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%
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, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between student employee and office specialist 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 specialist example responsibilities.

Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.

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Student employee vs office specialist 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 specialist skills

Customer Service, 18%
Data Entry, 10%
Patients, 9%
Office Equipment, 6%
Phone Calls, 6%
Word Processing, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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