What Does a Help Desk Specialist Do?

In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take information technology/support technician for example. On average, the information technology/support technicians annual salary is $5,474 lower than what help desk specialists make on average every year.

Even though help desk specialists and information technology/support technicians have vast differences in their careers, a few of the skills required to do both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require customer service, troubleshoot, and desk support in the day-to-day roles.

There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a help desk specialist responsibilities require skills like "technical support," "client facing," "remedy," and "provide technical assistance." Meanwhile a typical information technology/support technician has skills in areas such as "database," "computer software," "thin clients," and "phone system." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

Information technology/support technicians receive the highest salaries in the technology industry coming in with an average yearly salary of $53,210. But help desk specialists are paid more in the technology industry with an average salary of $60,916.

The education levels that information technology/support technicians earn is a bit different than that of help desk specialists. In particular, information technology/support technicians are 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a help desk specialist. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Now we're going to look at the desktop support consultant profession. On average, desktop support consultants earn a $4,332 lower salary than help desk specialists a year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Help desk specialists and desktop support consultants both include similar skills like "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "technical support" on their resumes.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that help desk specialist responsibilities requires skills like "desk support," "phone calls," "client facing," and "pcs." But a desktop support consultant might use skills, such as, "desktop support," "pc," "laptop computers," and "encryption."

Desktop support consultants may earn a lower salary than help desk specialists, but desktop support consultants earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $51,314. On the other side of things, help desk specialists receive higher paychecks in the technology industry where they earn an average of $60,916.

In general, desktop support consultants study at similar levels of education than help desk specialists. They're 1.9% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is desktop support technician. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than help desk specialists. In fact, they make a $9,273 lower salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several help desk specialists and desktop support technicians we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "technical support," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from help desk specialists resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "desk support," "phone calls," "client facing," and "provide technical assistance." But a desktop support technician might have skills like "desktop support," "laptop computers," "user data," and "hardware support."

Desktop support technicians make a very good living in the finance industry with an average annual salary of $49,591. Whereas help desk specialists are paid the highest salary in the technology industry with the average being $60,916.

When it comes to education, desktop support technicians tend to earn similar education levels than help desk specialists. In fact, they're 1.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Now, we'll look at information technology specialists, who generally average a higher pay when compared to help desk specialists annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $30,176 per year.

While their salaries may vary, help desk specialists and information technology specialists both use similar skills to perform their jobs. Resumes from both professions include skills like "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "technical support. "

Each job requires different skills like "phone calls," "client facing," "remedy," and "provide technical assistance," which might show up on a help desk specialist resume. Whereas information technology specialist might include skills like "database," "dod," "system software," and "provides technical support."

In general, information technology specialists make a higher salary in the technology industry with an average of $84,905. The highest help desk specialist annual salary stems from the technology industry.

Information technology specialists reach similar levels of education when compared to help desk specialists. The difference is that they're 3.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.