When people say support specialist, they generally mean an expert who supports organizations or clients with IT issues, troubleshooting and resolving any problem related to hardware, software, networks, and the like.
You will most likely receive calls and emails from frustrated and panicky computer users who have already tried turning it on and off again. You will need all your patience and communication skills to figure out what went wrong and walk them through the process to fix it.
This is a typical 9-to-5 job with salaries usually ranging somewhere between a generous sum of $40,000 to $60,000 per year. You do not necessarily have to have degrees and certificates to prove your knowledge in information technology. The results of a proficiency test are normally sufficient to speak for your skills.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a support specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.42 an hour? That's $44,547 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 83,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many support specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, listening skills and speaking skills.
If you're interested in becoming a support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.8% of support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.5% of support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most support specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a support specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a support specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on support specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a support specialist. In fact, many support specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many support specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or administrative assistant.