Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between help desk managers and technical support specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a help desk manager and a technical support specialist. Additionally, a help desk manager has an average salary of $96,278, which is higher than the $48,667 average annual salary of a technical support specialist.
The top three skills for a help desk manager include customer service, technical support and help desk. The most important skills for a technical support specialist are customer service, technical support, and troubleshoot.
| Help Desk Manager | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $96,278 | $48,667 |
| Hourly rate | $46.29 | $23.40 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 75,971 | 157,425 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.6 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A help desk manager oversees and coordinates the daily performance of help desk teams, ensuring clients get to receive optimal support and services. They are in charge of setting goals and guidelines, establishing budgets and timelines, performing assessments and inspections, and monitoring the progress of operations, resolving issues or conflicts should any arise. There are also instances when a help desk manager must facilitate the communication between internal and external parties, recruit and train new members of the workforce, and implement policies and procedures to optimize operations.
A technical support specialist is responsible for assisting customer's and businesses' concerns and system issues by performing troubleshooting and remote solutions. These specialists must have extensive knowledge of system applications, including software and hardware database to handle complex processes that might affect the end user's experience or the business' daily operations. Technical support specialists should maintain excellent communication skills to guide the client and business on solving network problems. They must also document concerns and progress promptly for reference and quality checks.
Help desk managers and technical support specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Help Desk Manager | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Average salary | $96,278 | $48,667 |
| Salary range | Between $74,000 And $125,000 | Between $30,000 And $76,000 |
| Highest paying City | Berkeley, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Meta | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a help desk manager and a technical support specialist in terms of educational background:
| Help Desk Manager | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between help desk managers' and technical support specialists' demographics:
| Help Desk Manager | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 70.3% Female, 29.7% | Male, 75.4% Female, 24.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.5% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 10.5% White, 55.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 11.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |