Data Entry Clerks: Job Description, Education, Skills and Duties, Earnings and Outlook
Submitted by: paula
Job Overview Data entry clerks are office staff who are responsible in transferring information or data from paper documents to a computerized system.They are the ones who use an alphanumeric keyboard or a 10-key numeric pad to transcribe the data into the computer system. This way, the data are now converted into a form that is readable by the computer system and therefore can be easily preserved, retrieved, read, interpreted or overall, processed as desired and needed.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
The minimum requirement to become a data entry clerk is simply to hold a high school diploma. This high school diploma will be a basis on one's language literacy and computer literacy which will enable him/her to accomplish the tasks expected in data entry. Subjects that are helpful while still in secondary schooling may include English, Business and Computer subjects.
Skills and Abilities
The skills needed to become a data entry clerks are not as sophisticated as those in the other professions. One, they should be able to follow instruction as accurately. And another, manipulative or mechanical skills exemplified by the efficient use of the keyboard in typing in documents, or numeral pads in typing in codes should be developed well to be able to transcribe data rapidly and precisely. Good organization skills is a plus factor as data entry clerks may deal with tons of documents to transfer into the computer.
Duties
The goal of the tasks of the data entry clerks is to be able to transmit the data from a more primitive and paper source into the computerized system. This is being done so as to make the data be read easily, interpreted using several programs, transmitted to the distant sites as needed faster, as well as to be processed in many ways at various times as needed.
The documents that are being transcribed include billing invoices, financial reports, mailing lists, business reports, raw scientific data and the like. From a source documents, the data entry clerks manually type in the information using a keyboard or a numerical pad and enter them into the system. The entry machines are being stored as computer files, or in the past decades, in magnetic tapes .
Earnings and Job Outlook
Since the job of a data entry clerk can be done by just anyone who is literate, efficient in typing and encoding, the salary range starts off from as low as 16,000 U.S. dollars to 23,000 U.S. dollars. Others who hold a higher position and who have been doing other office functions aside from being a data entry clerk may earn around 43,000 U.S. dollars. At present, there is not a very good demand and employment for this profession since for decades, data has been diretly recorded to the computer system which can be done by any computer literate individual.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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