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The differences between printer technicians and technical support technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a printer technician and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical support technician has an average salary of $40,210, which is higher than the $36,677 average annual salary of a printer technician.
The top three skills for a printer technician include latent prints, troubleshoot and preventative maintenance. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Printer Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $36,677 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $17.63 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 50,147 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
The printer technician primarily does the installation of new printers. Proper printer configuration on the network ensures and maintains the function of individual printers, scanners, or network printers. The printer technician regularly takes care and does routine repairs, including printer replacements of new ink cartridges. They are also comfortable copying, faxing, producing images, and other related printer issues. It is part of their responsibility to identify and resolve malfunctions, procurement, including the installation of those parts and resolving hardware failures.
Technical support technicians are skilled professionals who resolve computer or information technology-related concerns. They may do installations, repairs, or maintenance activities of various applications or computer hardware. They are sometimes assigned specific issues or concerns to resolve so that they will not be bombarded with various issues. This means that they can now specialize in a specific family of concerns. Technical support technicians may provide on-site support, going directly to the person who needs help and doing what needs to be done or troubleshoot the problem in person. They may also be offsite and would usually be manning helpdesk hotlines. Offsite technical support technicians walk the caller through the steps they should do to fix the issues. As such, when a technical support technician is offsite, they are expected to be good communicators and will be able to provide clear instructions.
Printer technicians and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Printer Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $36,677 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $26,000 And $50,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Aurora, CO | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | Colorado | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | HP | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a printer technician and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Printer Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Graphic Design | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between printer technicians' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Printer Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.6% Female, 24.4% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 55.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |