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The differences between technical support specialists 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 specialist and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical support specialist has an average salary of $48,667, which is higher than the $40,210 average annual salary of a technical support technician.
The top three skills for a technical support specialist include customer service, technical support and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Technical Support Specialist | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $48,667 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $23.40 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 157,425 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | 4.6 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A technical support specialist is responsible for assisting customer's and businesses' concerns and system issues by performing troubleshooting and remote solutions. These specialists must have extensive knowledge of system applications, including software and hardware database to handle complex processes that might affect the end user's experience or the business' daily operations. Technical support specialists should maintain excellent communication skills to guide the client and business on solving network problems. They must also document concerns and progress promptly for reference and quality checks.
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 specialists and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Support Specialist | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $48,667 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $76,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Meta | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a technical support specialist and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Technical Support Specialist | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between technical support specialists' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Technical Support Specialist | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.4% Female, 24.6% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 11.3% White, 55.0% 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% |