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The differences between production support engineers 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 production support engineer and a technical support technician. Additionally, a production support engineer has an average salary of $78,599, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a production support engineer include java, infrastructure and linux. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Production Support Engineer | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $78,599 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $37.79 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 194,203 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Product support engineers are in charge of managing the technical requests ordered by the customer. Their primary role is to repair and resolve errors, constantly register details for later reports, and update customers with the improvements. They help other engineers by enhancing processes and assisting in product development. Also, they provide recommendations for feature improvements and efficiency enhancement based on the customers' preference. These specialists are critical and analytical thinkers as well as technical experts. They are able to communicate well to customers while doing multiple tasks and pay attention to detail to track errors and record them.
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.
Production support engineers and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Production Support Engineer | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $78,599 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $107,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Salesforce | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a production support engineer and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Production Support Engineer | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Business |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between production support engineers' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Production Support Engineer | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.1% Female, 14.9% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.8% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | 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 | 9% | 11% |