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The differences between technical experts 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 technical expert and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical expert has an average salary of $120,223, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a technical expert include customer satisfaction, technical problems and technical troubleshooting. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Technical Expert | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $120,223 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $57.80 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 125,017 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Technical experts are professionals who are responsible for managing technical programs and products of a technology-based company by providing customer service, staff training, and web development. They must provide technical support on products and current issues through phone calls or face-to-face customer end support. They must conduct technical assistance to help solve operational problems faced by customers while train users to operate automation and communications equipment. They must also research for costing-effective and new technologies while coaching employees on selling those new technologies.
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.
Technical experts and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Expert | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $120,223 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $88,000 And $162,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Apple | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Media | Finance |
There are a few differences between a technical expert and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Technical Expert | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between technical experts' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Technical Expert | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 77.1% Female, 22.9% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 12.0% White, 55.3% 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% |