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The differences between services desk 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 services desk technician and a technical support technician. Additionally, a services desk technician has an average salary of $42,123, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a services desk technician include service desk, customer service and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Services Desk Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $42,123 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $20.25 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 145,853 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Service Desk Technicians are technicians who specialize in providing support to clients. They are usually in fields related to information technology, and they provide technical support to the employees of the organization. They usually help clients in installing, updating, repairing, or maintaining technical components. They are technology-savvy and should be able to communicate well. Most of the time, Service Desk Technicians are contacted through phone calls and thus should be able to guide callers over the phone. They are also expected to be patient and to be customer service-oriented.
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.
Services desk technicians and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Services Desk Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $42,123 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $55,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Forum Energy Technologies | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Government | Finance |
There are a few differences between a services desk technician and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Services Desk Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Information Technology | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between services desk technicians' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Services Desk Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 79.0% Female, 21.0% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 10.9% 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% |