How to hire a desktop support technician

How to hire a desktop support technician, step by step

Here's a step-by-step desktop 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 desktop support technician job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new desktop support technician
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a desktop support technician do?

Post a desktop support technician job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the desktop support technician you need to hire. Certain desktop support technician roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a desktop support technician to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a desktop support technician that fits the bill.

   This list presents desktop support technician salaries for various positions.

   Type of Desktop Support Technician	Description	Hourly rate
   Desktop 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	$15-25
   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
   • Desktop Support
   • Troubleshoot
   • Technical Support
   • Remote Desktop
   • Laptop Computers
   • Network Printers
   • Computer System
   • OS
   • Mac
   • PCS
   • SCCM
   • User Support
   • VPN

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage and troubleshoot network connectivity with TCP/IP
   • Coordinate and manage a large-scale VOIP phone system conversion project for high-profile corporate customer.
   • Manage backups, replications and disaster recovery plans of company mission critical servers and database files to ensure redundancy.
   • Deploy WINTERMS on CITRIX platform.
   • Blackberry and android setup and activation.
   • Support a legacy system which requires a client certificate and a specific Java version and configuration.

   More desktop support technician duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your desktop support technician job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A desktop support technician can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, desktop support technicians' average salary in mississippi is 32% less than in pennsylvania.
   • Seniority. Entry-level desktop support technicians 41% less than senior-level desktop support technicians.
   • Certifications. A desktop support technician with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a desktop support technician's salary.

   Average desktop support technician salary

   $41,792yearly

   $20.09 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level desktop support technician salary

   $32,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 19, 2025

   Average desktop support technician salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Pennsylvania	$51,065	$25
   2	California	$51,009	$25
   3	Massachusetts	$49,607	$24
   4	New York	$45,591	$22
   5	Virginia	$44,841	$22
   6	Connecticut	$43,605	$21
   7	District of Columbia	$42,299	$20
   8	Minnesota	$42,109	$20
   9	Arizona	$41,800	$20
   10	Wisconsin	$41,471	$20
   11	Texas	$41,352	$20
   12	Florida	$40,123	$19
   13	Illinois	$39,774	$19
   14	Georgia	$39,701	$19
   15	Utah	$39,626	$19
   16	Ohio	$39,278	$19
   17	Missouri	$39,033	$19
   18	Colorado	$39,004	$19
   19	North Carolina	$38,439	$18
   20	Nebraska	$38,286	$18

   Average desktop support technician salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	NTT Data International L.L.C.	$65,226	$31.36	85
   2	Infosys Public Service	$64,658	$31.09	33
   3	Brookhaven National Laboratory	$64,141	$30.84
   4	DeWitt LLP Law Firm	$60,973	$29.31
   5	Cognizant	$58,486	$28.12	69
   6	Houlihan Lokey	$56,757	$27.29
   7	Pamten Inc	$56,444	$27.14
   8	General Dynamics Mission Systems	$55,098	$26.49
   9	PROLIM	$54,675	$26.29
   10	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$54,027	$25.97	104
   11	Minnesota State Fair	$53,335	$25.64	3
   12	CAI	$53,149	$25.55	70
   13	Northrop Grumman	$53,063	$25.51	28
   14	Raydon Corporation	$52,633	$25.30	2
   15	Stellar	$52,623	$25.30	4
   16	Data	$51,896	$24.95	3
   17	Filanc Construction Co.	$51,648	$24.83
   18	Strategic Systems International	$51,616	$24.82	1
   19	Axiom Space	$51,496	$24.76	2
   20	Blue Origin	$51,403	$24.71	20

4. Writing a desktop support technician job description

   A job description for a desktop 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 desktop support technician job description:

   Desktop support technician job description example

   Installs, operates, maintains, repairs and modifies equipment. Performs a variety of maintenance and technical support on products such as equipment, integrated systems and subsystems, and software at customer and/or field locations. Analyzes and evaluates products and related performance. Troubleshoots and diagnoses malfunctions to eliminate problem in minimum time. Installs, upgrades and removes products ensuring coordinative engineering field change. Maintains effective customer communications and relations. May provide onsite training of customer support personnel. May be needed to provide Service Desk support during surge periods.
   Required Education, Experience, & Skills
   Extensive knowledge of PC Hardware
   Extensive knowledge of Window OS (Win7 - Win10)
   Working Knowledge of MS Office products
   Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
   Detail oriented.
   Must have prior Team Environment experience.
   Basic Active Directory knowledge
   Customer service oriented
   
   Preferred Education, Experience, & Skills
   CompTIA A+ certified
   Working knowledge of Red Hat Linux a plus.
   
   About BAE Systems, Inc.
   BAE Systems, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, an international defense, aerospace and security company which delivers a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions and customer support services. Improving the future and protecting lives is an ambitious mission, but it's what we do at BAE Systems. Working here means using your passion and ingenuity where it counts - defending national security with breakthrough technology, superior products, and intelligence solutions. As you develop the latest technology and defend national security, you will continually hone your skills on a team-making a big impact on a global scale. At BAE Systems, you'll find a rewarding career that truly makes a difference.
   
   Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
   At BAE Systems, we work hard every day to nurture an inclusive culture where employees are valued and feel like they belong. We are conscious of the need for all employees to see themselves reflected at every level of the company and know that in order to unlock the full potential of our workforce, everyone must feel confident being their best, most sincere self and be equipped to thrive. We provide impactful professional development experiences to our employees and invest in social impact partnerships to uplift communities and drive purposeful change. Here you will find significant opportunities to do meaningful work in an environment intentionally designed to be one where you will learn, grow and belong.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right desktop support technician for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   To find desktop support technician candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting desktop support technicians requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a desktop support technician applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and 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 desktop support technician

   Once you've found the desktop support technician candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   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.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

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