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The differences between student 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 student technician and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical support technician has an average salary of $40,210, which is higher than the $28,926 average annual salary of a student technician.
The top three skills for a student technician include java, javascript and SQL. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Student Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $28,926 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $13.91 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 82,671 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A student technician is responsible for assisting the school personnel and faculty on utilizing class technologies and other learning equipment. Student technicians accept school requests for setting-up audio-visual equipment during school events, class presentations, and related technical support services. They run multiple diagnostic tests on the systems before actual usage to prevent any defects and inconsistencies during operations. A student technician must have excellent knowledge of the technology and mechanical processes to identify preventive maintenance efficiently.
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.
Student technicians and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Student Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $28,926 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $16,000 And $50,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Lakewood, NJ | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | Vermont | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Siemens | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between a student technician and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Student Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Business |
| Most common college | Duke University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between student technicians' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Student Technician | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 60.7% Female, 39.3% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.9% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.2% Asian, 14.4% White, 53.9% 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% |