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The differences between supervisors, technical support 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 supervisor, technical support and a technical support technician. Additionally, a supervisor, technical support has an average salary of $87,039, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a supervisor, technical support include customer service, customer satisfaction and direct reports. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Supervisor, Technical Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $87,039 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $41.85 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 147,833 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A supervisor of technical support oversees the technical support operations in a company, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. It is their duty to set guidelines and timelines, monitor the daily operations of staff, coordinate with managers and engineers, delegate tasks among teams, and liaise with potential business partners. There are also instances where they assist clients through calls and correspondence, assisting them with their concerns and inquiries. Moreover, a technical support supervisor must lead teams while enforcing the company's standards and policies.
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.
Supervisors, technical support and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Supervisor, Technical Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $87,039 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $121,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Applied Materials | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a supervisor, technical support and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Supervisor, Technical Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between supervisors, technical support' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Supervisor, Technical Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.6% Female, 25.4% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.7% 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% |