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The differences between technical support advisors 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 support advisor and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical support advisor has an average salary of $107,198, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a technical support advisor include customer service, technical support calls and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Technical Support Advisor | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $107,198 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $51.54 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 186,490 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A technical support advisor specializes in assisting customers, mainly through diagnosing and solving issues using their product and service expertise. In most companies, they communicate with clients through calls or correspondence. Through this, they get to identify their needs, answer inquiries, give technical advice, troubleshoot problems, and solve issues and concerns, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Moreover, a technical support advisor works together with the company's internal departments to optimize customer support operations and resolve any issues or vulnerabilities in the current procedures.
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 support advisors and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Support Advisor | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $107,198 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $81,000 And $141,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Sacramento, CA | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Apple | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a technical support advisor and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Technical Support Advisor | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between technical support advisors' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Technical Support Advisor | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 53.6% Female, 46.4% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.5% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.3% 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% |