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The differences between product support analysts and desktop support analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a product support analyst and a desktop support analyst. Additionally, a product support analyst has an average salary of $59,531, which is higher than the $48,674 average annual salary of a desktop support analyst.
The top three skills for a product support analyst include product support, escalate and technical support. The most important skills for a desktop support analyst are desktop support, customer service, and computer system.
| Product Support Analyst | Desktop Support Analyst | |
| Yearly salary | $59,531 | $48,674 |
| Hourly rate | $28.62 | $23.40 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 165,138 | 99,621 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Product support analysts provide support to clients by addressing their issues through phone calls or emails. They assess the failures, systemic problems, hardware, and bugs. Their responsibilities include application and operating system configuration, recovery and maintenance, database backup, and SQL modifications. They test the products, communicate the mistakes or related issues to QA, and establish customer workarounds. Logical thinking, solving problems, and providing solutions are necessary for this job.
A desktop support analyst's role is to develop strategies and systems to improve and coordinate desktop support efforts. Their responsibilities revolve around testing and modifying existing networks and systems, providing corrective measures on issues and concerns, performing regular inspections, troubleshooting, and maintaining inventories on software, hardware, and other applications. Furthermore, as a desktop support analyst, it is essential to respond to calls and correspondence from clients, all while adhering to the policies and regulations of the company.
Product support analysts and desktop support analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Support Analyst | Desktop Support Analyst | |
| Average salary | $59,531 | $48,674 |
| Salary range | Between $43,000 And $81,000 | Between $36,000 And $65,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New York |
| Best paying company | Meta | Cambridge Associates |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a product support analyst and a desktop support analyst in terms of educational background:
| Product Support Analyst | Desktop Support Analyst | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between product support analysts' and desktop support analysts' demographics:
| Product Support Analyst | Desktop Support Analyst | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 57.7% Female, 42.3% | Male, 87.9% Female, 12.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.0% Asian, 14.1% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.7% Asian, 12.3% White, 54.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |