How to hire a desk support technician

How to hire a desk support technician, step by step

Here's a step-by-step desk support technician hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a desk support technician job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new desk support technician
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a desk support technician do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The desk support technician hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect desk support technician also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of desk support technician salaries for various roles:

   Type of Desk Support Technician	Description	Hourly rate
   Desk Support Technician	Computer support specialists provide help and advice to people and organizations using computer software or equipment. Some, called computer network support specialists, support information technology (IT) employees within their organization... Show more	$12-29
   Administrative Technical Support	Administrative technical support maintains every technical set-up used in a company. Their primary responsibility is to inspect a company's systems, evaluate for issues, and repair any problems immediately... Show more	$13-36
   Technical Support Engineer	A technical support engineer is responsible for responding to customer issues, providing immediate resolutions to their system issues through remote assistance. Technical support engineers must have strong knowledge of software and hardware applications to diagnose system defects and process troubleshooting... Show more	$29-57

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Technical Support
   • Troubleshoot
   • Phone Calls
   • Desk Side Support
   • Remote Troubleshooting
   • Network Troubleshooting
   • Phone Support
   • Network Printers
   • Laptop Computers
   • OS
   • Customer Support
   • Mac
   • Computer System

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage backups, replications and disaster recovery plans of company mission critical servers and database files to ensure redundancy.
   • Use multiple monitor setup display and remote desktop applications via VPN to access associate computers.
   • Utilize desktop deployment tools in order to deploy and maintain inventory for PCs, monitors, and printers.
   • Assist with network connectivity with PCs, laptops, and mobile phones including TCP/IP settings and internet connections.
   • Provide administrative support and troubleshooting for VPN users.
   • Maintain company networks security systems and infrastructure hardware including firewalls and switches and install software security and firmware patches or upgrades.

   More desk support technician duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your desk support technician job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A desk support technician salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, desk support technicians' average salary in alaska is 49% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level desk support technicians earn 58% less than senior-level desk support technicians.
   • Certifications. A desk support technician with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a desk support technician's salary.

   Average desk support technician salary

   $40,715yearly

   $19.57 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level desk support technician salary

   $26,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 22, 2025

   Average desk support technician salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$54,201	$26
   2	Virginia	$51,485	$25
   3	Connecticut	$50,604	$24
   4	New York	$50,227	$24
   5	Rhode Island	$44,089	$21
   6	Texas	$41,863	$20
   7	Georgia	$41,623	$20
   8	Missouri	$39,510	$19
   9	District of Columbia	$38,608	$19
   10	Arizona	$38,497	$19
   11	Massachusetts	$37,556	$18
   12	North Dakota	$37,283	$18
   13	Alabama	$37,062	$18
   14	New Mexico	$35,860	$17
   15	Kansas	$35,860	$17
   16	Colorado	$34,556	$17
   17	Florida	$34,323	$17
   18	Ohio	$33,751	$16
   19	Utah	$33,391	$16
   20	Indiana	$32,330	$16

   Average desk support technician salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	BNY Mellon	$74,426	$35.78	12
   2	Edvenswa Tech	$67,057	$32.24
   3	Boeing	$59,717	$28.71	75
   4	BMO Capital Markets	$54,259	$26.09
   5	HSBC Bank	$52,436	$25.21	1
   6	Blue Origin	$50,442	$24.25	24
   7	Realogy	$48,681	$23.40
   8	Vencore	$48,303	$23.22
   9	NANA	$43,886	$21.10	17
   10	Zayo Group	$43,706	$21.01
   11	Mercedes-Benz of Escondido	$43,398	$20.86
   12	Invision Technologies	$43,385	$20.86
   13	Aqueduct Technologies	$43,066	$20.70
   14	Peraton	$42,967	$20.66	66
   15	Motion Recruitment	$41,346	$19.88	15
   16	Interfor	$41,333	$19.87
   17	MyrtleBeach.com	$40,929	$19.68	2
   18	Robert Half	$40,378	$19.41	191
   19	ApTask	$40,292	$19.37	2
   20	Randstad North America, Inc.	$40,258	$19.35	17

4. Writing a desk support technician job description

   A job description for a desk support technician role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a desk support technician job description:

   Desk support technician job description example

   At Perkins Coie, we look for individuals that are self-motivated, dedicated to providing value and superior services and, above all, people who have a high degree of integrity and enthusiasm for their work. We've created a company culture that is based on collaboration, devotion to serving our clients, and mutual respect. Perkins Coie is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion both within the firm and throughout our collective communities. Work for one of the 100 Best Workplaces in America, get great health insurance, tuition reimbursement, your birthday off, and paid sabbaticals.
   
   Perkins Coie has an immediate opening for a Service Desk Support Technician. The individual in this role will serve as a member of the Immediate Response Team (Service Desk) designed to be a “top of the funnel” concept for all support requests across the Firm. The Service Desk Support Technician will become proficient in routing all support requests to a standard and centralized Support Desk in an effort to maximize resources in the local offices and allow for higher quality desk-side/concierge-level service as well as a more dynamic A/V experience. This position is remote with preferred locations being Georgia and Idaho. This Service Desk Support Technician will work 9am EST to 6pm EST.
   Essential Functions
   Quickly resolve end-user issues that come into the team over the phone, through e-mail, or potentially via chat.Handle approximately 275 daily support requests with other team members via various communication channels.Properly and thoroughly document all elements of a support case within the Incident Management System (ServiceNow).Prioritize properly and communicate effectively. Escalate issues as appropriate.Ensure user requests and issues are clearly documented in tickets and create written documentation for hardware and software installations or other technical matters as requested.Assist in the creation and editing of Service Desk processes and procedures including Knowledge Base articles.
   Required Skills
   Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.Ability to quickly assimilate advanced technical information, organize and prioritize multiple competing deadlines.Troubleshooting skills, including the ability to use a wide variety of resources including technical manuals, on-line vendor knowledge bases, and specification documents.Knowledge of computer hardware and peripherals, including the ability to test and troubleshoot a variety of complex hardware configurations.Knowledge of software including operating systems, ability to navigate and manipulate the Windows Registry and troubleshoot interaction errors between multiple software packages.
   Education and experience An Associate's or Bachelor's degree is preferred.
   Requires 0-1 years of experience in a technical support environment or equivalent solid functional knowledge of standard PC hardware and software used in office environments.
   A+ Network+, MCSE, or equivalent technical education strongly preferred.
   Law firm experience beneficial.
   
   Working Environment
   The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and ability to adjust focus.
   
   Will work in a standard office environment with frequent usage of standard office equipment; including, but not limited to a personal computer, copy/fax machine, and telephone. Overtime may be required the meet project schedules and ensure timely completion of deliverables.
   
   This position is remote with preferred locations being Boise and Savannah, Georgia.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right desk support technician for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with desk support technicians they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit desk support technicians who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your desk support technician job on Zippia to find and recruit desk support technician candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit desk support technicians, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   If your interviews with desk support technician applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new desk support technician

   Once you have selected a candidate for the desk support technician position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a desk support technician?