How To Become A Support Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a support manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Support managers oversee a team responsible for providing technical or customer support to clients. They are responsible for ensuring that customer inquiries and complaints are handled in a timely and efficient manner, and that their team is meeting performance goals. Support managers provide coaching and training to their team members and may implement strategies to improve support operations. They may collaborate with other departments to resolve more complex issues or implement new projects.

ScoreSupport ManagerUS Average

Salary

7.1

Avg. Salary $90,297

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.65%

Asian 5.69%

Black or African American 10.40%

Hispanic or Latino 17.09%

Unknown 4.80%

White 61.38%

Gender

female 40.20%

male 59.80%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a support manager?

Pros

Opportunity to help and support others
Good salary, benefits, and job stability
Opportunities for career advancement
Chance to work with diverse teams and customers
Potential for flexible work hours or remote work

Cons

Long working hours or being on-call outside of regular hours
Limited control over the product or service being offered
Potential for burnout or compassion fatigue from dealing with customer issues all day
Risk of feeling under-appreciated or not valued by the company or customers
May require working holidays or weekends

Key steps to become a support manager

Explore support manager education requirements

Most common support manager degrees

Bachelor's

50.6 %

Associate

19.6 %

High School Diploma

14.5 %

Start to develop specific support manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	7.46%
Technical Support	6.43%
PowerPoint	6.33%
Windows	5.59%
Logistics	5.38%

Complete relevant support manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New support managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a support manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real support manager resumes.

Research support manager duties and responsibilities

Lead the team to a successful ISO audit with commendation for processes and documentation.
Utilize AutoTask for managing tickets, field technicians, and scheduling POS installs with store owners or managers.
Manage dependencies for the build out, maintenance, and ongoing support of QA environments during the CME/NYMEX and CME/CBOT mergers.
Manage eight AS/400 and Unix lab technicians, responsible troubleshooting and maintaining the AS400 & UNIX systems that support customer functionality.

Prepare your support manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your support manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a support manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable support manager resume templates

Build a professional support manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your support manager resume.