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The differences between technical support technicians and junior 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 technician and a junior technician. Additionally, a technical support technician has an average salary of $40,210, which is higher than the $39,417 average annual salary of a junior technician.
The top three skills for a technical support technician include customer service, technical support and patients. The most important skills for a junior technician are customer service, HVAC, and fall protection.
| Technical Support Technician | Junior Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $40,210 | $39,417 |
| Hourly rate | $19.33 | $18.95 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 165,677 | 103,780 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 40% | Bachelor's Degree, 34% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
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.
A junior technician is responsible for supporting senior technicians on maintaining the efficiency and optimal performance of various hardware and software systems and applications. Junior technicians assist the end-users and employees on troubleshooting inconsistent programs, identifying its complexities, and reporting findings to the management for resolution. They also update the systems' features to increase its operational productivity and maintain system recoveries. A junior technician must have excellent knowledge of the technology industry, as well as a strong command on programming language and system codes, especially on conducting system analysis and installing applications.
Technical support technicians and junior technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Support Technician | Junior Technician | |
| Average salary | $40,210 | $39,417 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $64,000 | Between $26,000 And $57,000 |
| Highest paying City | Philadelphia, PA | Alexandria, VA |
| Highest paying state | Pennsylvania | New York |
| Best paying company | Ropes & Gray | Citi |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a technical support technician and a junior technician in terms of educational background:
| Technical Support Technician | Junior Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 40% | Bachelor's Degree, 34% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between technical support technicians' and junior technicians' demographics:
| Technical Support Technician | Junior Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% | Male, 82.9% Female, 17.1% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.0% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |