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Help desk specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Jennifer Richardson Ph.D.,

Anthony Baron

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical help desk specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for help desk specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 12.7% of help desk specialist resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a help desk specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 help desk specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how help desk specialists use customer service:

Identify opportunity for process improvements targeting improved customer service and organizational efficiency
Provided quality customer service while handling various technical related problems and followed up to ensure maximum resolution of customer related issues.

2. Troubleshoot

Troubleshooting is the process of analyzing and fixing any kind of problem in a system or a machine. Troubleshooting is the detailed yet quick search in the system for the main source of an issue and solving it.

Here's how help desk specialists use troubleshoot:

Conducted day-to-day operations, implemented, troubleshoot optimized, maintained and ensured operational integrity and availability of customer's networks.
Worked as tier II/III technical support representative helping customers troubleshoot hardware/software problems in high volume call center.

3. Technical Support

Technical support or tech support are the services provided by any hardware or software company to users. They help in solving the technical difficulties the customers face with their products or services. Moreover, the tech support employees maintain, manage, and repair the IT faults. They are also responsible for resolving the network problems, installing and configuring hardware and software.

Here's how help desk specialists use technical support:

Provide exceptional local/phone/remote technical support while troubleshooting and fixing any software/hardware problems to desktop and network issues.
Provided technical support for internal/external employees by diagnosing and troubleshooting Point of Sale systems to resolution.

4. Desk Support

Here's how help desk specialists use desk support:

Supplied computer help desk support via telephone communications to approximately 200 end users daily.
Help desk support which included monitoring network management systems and responding appropriately.

5. Phone Calls

Phone calls are a wireless or wired connection made over a telephone or a mobile phone between two people. Two parties are involved in a phone call, the caller and the receiver. A caller dials the number of the one he wants to call, and the recipient hears a bell or a tune to which he picks up the call. The call establishes a connection between them through which they can communicate. The voice is converted into signals and is transmitted through wired or wireless technology.

Here's how help desk specialists use phone calls:

Answered telephone calls to assist computer users encountering problems and user inquiries regarding computer software or hardware operation to resolve issues.
Perform other tasks outside of answering application support phone calls, including after call processing documentation and administrative tasks.

6. Client Facing

Here's how help desk specialists use client facing:

Analyze trends of issues, and posting urgent notifications to client facing products.
Communicate current and ongoing issues to client facing representatives.

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7. Remote Desktop

Here's how help desk specialists use remote desktop:

Configured remote desktop server settings to facilitate troubleshooting and reduce user downtime.
Monitored Remote Desktop Services and Virtual Desktop Management connectivity.

8. Help-Desk Support

Here's how help desk specialists use help-desk support:

Provided computer help-desk support and technical training on hardware/software to end users.
Performed help-desk support using remedy ticket daily.

9. Computer System

Here's how help desk specialists use computer system:

Support users in solving technically related computer problems for a statewide network of on-line computer operations and computer systems.
Administered issue tracking software to provide documentation and utilized systems management software to troubleshoot and maintain computer systems.

10. Mac

A media access control or simply MAC is a network policy that identifies or determines how the data is being transferred in two particular servers through a network cable. The purpose of a MAC protocol is to prevent network or technical issues and simplify transferring the information or data.

Here's how help desk specialists use mac:

Maintained approximately 50 workstations divided between Mac and Windows systems.
Provided technical support for Windows, MS Office, Mac OS X and Adobe CS6 to end users of VF Corporation.

11. Network Printers

Here's how help desk specialists use network printers:

Facilitated physical setup and configuration of desktop hardware, software, and local/network printers.
Assisted users in operation of various computer utilities, configured network printers.

12. OS

In technical terms, OS stands for "Operating System". It is a software that is used to run programs on the computer. An operating system acts as a link between the user and the hardware components. Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux are examples of an operating system.

Here's how help desk specialists use os:

Managed network software deployment, imaging/backup and unattended OS installations
Replaced defective components and/or re-image OS.

13. Remedy

Here's how help desk specialists use remedy:

Resolved Remedy issues pertaining to Windows configuration, software application errors and printer failures by reviewing service manuals.
Processed requests for users requiring Remedy access, regularly opening and closing service requests using Remedy/ISRS Systems.

14. Technical Problems

Here's how help desk specialists use technical problems:

Determined and performed troubleshooting on complex technical problems; gathered important and detailed information from customers and document according to procedures.
Identify, research, and resolve technical problems utilizing effective tracking and monitoring systems to ensure timely resolutions.

15. VPN

A Virtual Private Network, VPN encrypts a device's internet access, activity, and identity through a secure server, making data theft and third-party traceability more difficult, and increasing the privacy and security of public and private networks, the internet, and Wi-Fi hotspots. The VPN is designed to protect one's system and network from being compromised.

Here's how help desk specialists use vpn:

Developed, implemented, and supported customized managed VPN solutions for customers.
Developed, implemented and monitored gateway-to-gateway and client-to-gateway VPN solutions.

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What skills help Help Desk Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on help desk specialist resumes?

Jennifer Richardson Ph.D.

Professor, Purdue University

Always the soft skills - they stand out I think first and foremost regardless of where you are coming from and where you are going to. Without the ability to communicate, collaborate, facilitate, and problem-solve it is tough to succeed in today's environment. Experience is also key no matter the position; without prior experience to demonstrate the skills you are indicating you have trained for it is hard for those doing the hiring to know if you have learned the skills or if you have learned and experienced (or applied) those skills. Students should seek out opportunities to apply their skills while still working through their program. I believe going forward with K-12 educators we will see that those that have training or professional development with teaching at a distance will go a long way. Before COVID-19 hit we were already planning a new offering for virtual instruction licensure, it is now garnering a lot of attention.

What soft skills should all help desk specialists possess?

Anthony Baron

Teaching Assistant, Associate Software Engineer, American University

The main soft skills I would say are needed for Computer Science software engineering are patience, perseverance, creativity, respect, teamwork, and openness to learning and teaching. Programming involves a lot of trial and error, researching, and learning better techniques for solving a problem. Due to this, patience and perseverance to reach the final goal in mind are crucial. When it comes to the learning aspect, there are many languages, frameworks, and libraries, and working with them involves a steeper learning curve than others. On top of this, there are often more elegant ways to program a solution, and many new frameworks and libraries are released throughout the industry. This is where patience and perseverance is also a virtue. Lastly, programming and creating a product are often done in teams, where working together and learning from each other is important.

What hard/technical skills are most important for help desk specialists?

Anthony Baron

Teaching Assistant, Associate Software Engineer, American University

The main technical/ hard skills, I would say, are mainly the same as in part 1. Another hard skill that will come through with experience in programming is learning how to Google, more specifically knowing exactly what to search to solve an issue in the code.

What help desk specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Ranganathan Chandrasekaran

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Illinois

With remote-working and virtual collaborations becoming routine, more firms are increasing their investments in technology. In my opinion, irrespective of the location, many companies will seek to hire technology professionals.

What type of skills will young help desk specialists need?

Joshua Davis Ph.D.

Lecturer, Carleton College

Studying mathematics is good practice for rigorous thinking and problem solving, which are valued across the workforce. For science and engineering applications, it is often also helpful to have R, Python, Matlab, or another popular programming language. But technical abilities get the graduate-only so far. They need interpersonal communication skills so that they can understand the needs of stakeholders and cooperate with colleagues. For this reason, many faculty at my school emphasize writing, speaking, listening, and teamwork skills.

What technical skills for a help desk specialist stand out to employers?

Chirag Parikh Ph.D.

Computer Engineering Chair, Grand Valley State University

If you ask me, I consider valuable experience over good paycheck. Once you have gained that experience the paycheck will follow. As soon as you are out of college, the knowledge gained is very fresh and raring to go. If put into the right place can enhance your technical skills and you can do wonders.
As a Computer Engineering professor, I would say the job opportunities are tremendous for students out of college as they can venture into hardware field (technical support, hardware engineer, test engineer and much more) as well as software field (software engineer, software developer, software tester and much more). The possibilities are endless.
With COVID and employees working remotely there is still ample opportunity to enhance your technical and interpersonal skills as I believe remote working might stay for a while till things get back to normal.

Do you want to know more?

List of help desk specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a help desk specialist resume and required skills for a help desk specialist to have include:

Customer Service
Troubleshoot
Technical Support
Desk Support
Phone Calls
Client Facing
Remote Desktop
Help-Desk Support
Computer System
Mac
Network Printers
OS
Remedy
Technical Problems
VPN
User Accounts

PCS
SCCM
Provide Technical Assistance
User Support
Technical Assistance
Helpdesk Support
Citrix
Switches
Software Issues
Customer Support
Customer Satisfaction
Workstations
VoIP
Microsoft Windows
Windows Server
Technical Issues

Password Resets
Problem Resolution
Network Troubleshooting
Trouble Tickets
Lan
PowerPoint
SharePoint
Software Applications
Android
Level Support
TCP/IP
Windows XP
Network Connectivity
VMware
Linux

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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