Trainee vs office employee

The differences between trainees and office employees can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a trainee and an office employee. Additionally, a trainee has an average salary of $39,185, which is higher than the $35,825 average annual salary of an office employee.

The top three skills for a trainee include customer service, CDL and training programs. The most important skills for an office employee are customer service, telephone calls, and customer accounts.

Trainee vs office employee overview

	Trainee	Office Employee
Yearly salary	$39,185	$35,825
Hourly rate	$18.84	$17.22
Growth rate	5%	-5%
Number of jobs	51,490	74,182
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 56%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Average age	43	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does a trainee do?

Trainees' general responsibility is to familiarize themselves with the best practices and processes of their chosen careers. Some of the trainee's duties include shadowing with a tenured employee to understand various tasks, taking practical examinations to test knowledge extent, maintaining the eagerness to learn and a positive working attitude, assisting with customer inquiries, escalating concerns, and maintaining record progress. A trainee should be a team player, a fast learner, and the ability to handle constructive criticisms for improvement.

What does an office employee do?

An office employee is someone who performs clerical and any other tasks usually performed by managers. Office employees are employed as clerical workers in offices or organizations. They execute tasks such as typing and word processing, answering phone calls, bookkeeping, and stenography. It is their responsibility to ensure the smooth daily operations of an office. Their diligence, communication skills, customer service, hard work, and attention to detail are necessary for this job.

Trainee vs office employee salary

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

	Trainee	Office Employee
Average salary	$39,185	$35,825
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $55,000	Between $19,000 And $64,000
Highest paying City	Richmond, CA	East Palo Alto, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	California
Best paying company	Clifford Chance	OSF HealthCare
Best paying industry	Finance	Professional

Differences between trainee and office employee education

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

	Trainee	Office Employee
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 56%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Western Carolina University

Trainee vs office employee demographics

Here are the differences between trainees' and office employees' demographics:

	Trainee	Office Employee
Average age	43	47
Gender ratio	Male, 56.4% Female, 43.6%	Male, 34.4% Female, 65.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.8% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 9.1% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 17.7% Asian, 7.9% White, 59.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	9%	6%

Differences between trainee and office employee duties and responsibilities

Trainee example responsibilities.

Establish and manage Microsoft SharePoint services to servers to achieve higher productivity for each project.
Design scripts to automate the build of developer, QA, and production servers.
Accomplish the experiments on PCB layout, core circuit board of hardware via PCB manufacturing.
Maintain BOM (bill of materials) and manage the team in maintaining coordination between the customer requirements.
Involve using HTML, CSS, PHP, bootstrap, and Jquery throughout the work.
Assist in the creation of a python base ArcGIS profile elevation script tool.

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Office employee example responsibilities.

Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Complete payroll by compiling hours and verifying submissions weekly, via QuickBooks.
File paperwork, organize PowerPoint presentations, assist with typing correspondence and fax documents to appropriate destination.
Demonstrate ability to maintain composure and work efficiently in a fast-pace environment while following HIPAA guidelines.

Trainee vs office employee skills

Common trainee skills

Customer Service, 22%
CDL, 9%
Training Programs, 9%
Work Ethic, 7%
Basic Math, 6%
Math, 5%

Common office employee skills

Customer Service, 72%
Telephone Calls, 5%
Customer Accounts, 4%
Medical Billing, 4%
Computer System, 2%
Front Desk, 1%

Trainee vs. similar jobs

Trainee related careers

Trainee related jobs

Trainee jobs by location

Updated January 8, 2025

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