For a lot of people, technical support specialists are their best friends. Maybe not in a literal way, but a lot of people need support when it comes to technology. And guess what? Technical support specialists are their support system.
You're there to help answer questions, explain how certain things work and provide advice on all things technology. For the most part, you'll probably have specific technology that you'll be helping with, depending on your employer and industry. Since there are so many different industries you can work in, the level of education requirements are varied. But the good news is that you can go into almost any industry with this position. Hello, job opportunities.
How to Become a Technical Support Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a technical support specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.87 an hour? That's $55,893 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 83,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Technical Support Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many technical 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 problem-solving skills.
How To Become a Technical Support Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a technical support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 50.4% of technical support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.8% of technical support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most technical 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 technical support specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a technical support specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on technical 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 technical support specialist. In fact, many technical support specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many technical support specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as computer technician or help desk analyst.
Technical Support Specialist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a technical support specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as systems administrator, progress to a title such as information technology manager and then eventually end up with the title information technology director.
Technical Support Specialist
Information Technology Director
10 Years
Information Technology Manager
7 Years
Vice President Of Information Technology
12 Years
Senior Information Technology Manager
10 Years
Service Delivery Manager
10 Years
Chief Technology Officer
11 Years
Show More
Average Salary for a Technical Support Specialist
Technical Support Specialists in America make an average salary of $55,893 per year or $27 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $86,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $35,000 per year.
Average Technical Support Specialist Salary
$55,893Â Yearly$26.87 hourly
$35,000
10 %
$55,000
Median
$86,000
90 %
What Am I Worth?
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Top Colleges for Technical Support Specialists
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
5. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,309
Enrollment
9,142
6. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
7. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,488
Enrollment
30,018
8. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,948
Enrollment
17,238
9. New York University
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,828
Enrollment
26,339
10. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,530
Enrollment
4,571
Top Skills For a Technical Support Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.4% of technical support specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and listening skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Technical Support Specialist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Technical Support Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Technical Support Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Technical Support Specialist Demographics
Technical Support Specialist Gender Distribution
Male
75%
Female
25%
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among technical support specialists, 24.6% of them are women, while 75.4% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among technical support specialists is White, which makes up 58.9% of all technical support specialists.
- The most common foreign language among technical support specialists is Spanish at 54.5%.
Online Courses For Technical Support Specialist That You May Like
Advertising Disclosure  The courses listed below are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the course, we may receive a commission.
Desktop IT Support Level 1 & 2 in real life (Troubleshooting
Learn everything in real life Troubleshooting for IT Help Desk, Helpdesk, IT Support, System Administration and IT...
IT & Technical Support Guide to Helpdesk, Desktop & Servers
Learn how the different levels of IT technical support work, from service desk to infrastructure and server support...
Technical Support Fundamentals
This course is the first of a series that aims to prepare you for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, you'll be introduced to the world of Information Technology, or IT. You'll learn about the different facets of Information Technology, like computer hardware, the Internet, computer software, troubleshooting, and customer service. This course covers a wide variety of topics in IT that are designed to give you an overview of what's to come in this certificate program...
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Full Time
Part Time
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Best States For a Technical Support Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a technical support specialist. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New York. Technical support specialists make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $71,814. Whereas in New Jersey and New Hampshire, they would average $71,593 and $70,742, respectively. While technical support specialists would only make an average of $69,960 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
Total Technical Support Specialist Jobs:
2,842
Highest 10% Earn:
$107,000
Location Quotient:
1.1 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$69,960
Avg. Salary
2. Louisiana
Total Technical Support Specialist Jobs:
727
Highest 10% Earn:
$98,000
Location Quotient:
1.13 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$59,305
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
Total Technical Support Specialist Jobs:
268
Highest 10% Earn:
$93,000
Location Quotient:
1.06 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$60,275
Avg. Salary
How Do Technical Support Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
Nestor Gil Trinidad • February 2020
5.0
Nestor Gil Trinidad • February 2020What do you like the most about working as Technical Support Specialist?
Different approach of solving problem in hardware and software. Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
User is not available for investigation how hardware and software had problem. Show MoreTop Technical Support Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ technical support specialists and discovered their number of technical support specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that T-Mobile US was the best, especially with an average salary of $31,484. AT&T; follows up with an average salary of $50,785, and then comes Dell with an average of $79,332. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a technical support specialist. The employers include U.S. Bank, UBS, and Siemens
Most Common Employers For Technical Support Specialist
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unisys | $108,040 | $51.94 | 252 |
| 2 | Oracle | $96,434 | $46.36 | 500 |
| 3 | Lockheed Martin | $95,092 | $45.72 | 225 |
| 4 | Apple | $91,681 | $44.08 | 256 |
| 5 | IBM | $80,575 | $38.74 | 762 |
| 6 | Dell | $79,332 | $38.14 | 764 |
| 7 | Xerox | $63,615 | $30.58 | 344 |
| 8 | TEKsystems | $61,438 | $29.54 | 415 |
| 9 | Robert Half | $59,723 | $28.71 | 523 |
| 10 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | $59,659 | $28.68 | 359 |
Becoming a Technical Support Specialist FAQs
Do you need a degree for tech support?
No, you do not need a degree for tech support. In fact, over 49% of the IT job postings do not list a college degree as a requirement for applicants. Moreover, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 26% of IT workers in the United States do not hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
How long does IT take to become a technical support specialist?
It takes about two years to become an IT technical support specialist. At a minimum, an associate degree or certification coupled with on-the-job training and certification can be sufficient to get hired.
How much do technical specialists make?
Technical specialists make $82,524 per year ($39.67 per hour), on average. Technical specialists in the lower 10%, such as entry-level positions, only make about $61,000 a year, while the top 10% average $110,000 per year.
Have more questions? See all answers to common computer and mathematical questions.
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