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The differences between applications technicians and technical support technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an applications technician and a technical support technician. Additionally, an applications technician has an average salary of $87,091, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for an applications technician include troubleshoot, technical support and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Applications Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $87,091 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $41.87 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 88,812 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Applications technicians are professionals who are responsible for providing technical support to the team that is involved in developing business systems applications. These technicians must possess understanding and knowledge in software applications so that they can help users by conducting software training and compiling training manuals. They are required to perform troubleshooting procedures for the propriety business applications and services of the company. Applications technicians must also conduct testing for development trials of their applications.
Technical support technicians are skilled professionals who resolve computer or information technology-related concerns. They may do installations, repairs, or maintenance activities of various applications or computer hardware. They are sometimes assigned specific issues or concerns to resolve so that they will not be bombarded with various issues. This means that they can now specialize in a specific family of concerns. Technical support technicians may provide on-site support, going directly to the person who needs help and doing what needs to be done or troubleshoot the problem in person. They may also be offsite and would usually be manning helpdesk hotlines. Offsite technical support technicians walk the caller through the steps they should do to fix the issues. As such, when a technical support technician is offsite, they are expected to be good communicators and will be able to provide clear instructions.
Applications technicians and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Applications Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $87,091 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $59,000 And $126,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Sunnyvale, CA | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Occidental Petroleum | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Finance |
There are a few differences between an applications technician and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Applications Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between applications technicians' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Applications Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 67.7% Female, 32.3% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.6% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |