How much to pay a technical support specialist: a complete guide

A technical support specialist is an essential member of a technical support team when it comes to resolving complex software and hardware problems. Having an excellent technical support specialist can make the difference between fixing your client’s issue and having them pick your competitor to help them instead.

This article will help you understand how much you should pay a technical support specialist, what their skills and responsibilities are, and how pre-employment tests like our Problem Solving test can help you hire the right technical support specialist for your business.

First, let’s go over what a technical support specialist does.

What does a technical support specialist do?

A technical support specialist assists other employees or even helps solve customers’ problems directly. They provide technical assistance, mainly when a technical support representative can’t fix a problem for the customer on their own.

On top of that, a technical support specialist also maintains all of the systems and hardware in the office. This involves checking the run reports on systems’ status, installing new systems, updating configurations, resolving bugs and malfunctions, and troubleshooting software.

Because a technical support specialist has plenty to do on a daily basis, they need to stay up to date with the latest technological innovations.

Technical support specialist skills

The following are some of the skills a technical support specialist needs to succeed in their role: 

1. Communication skills

A technical support specialist must have excellent oral and written communication skills. Technical support specialists need to lead and communicate internally with their team members, share information with colleagues from other teams, and communicate with clients and customers. This means they must be able to explain technical terms and concepts to people with and without technical backgrounds.

2. Leadership skills

A technical support specialist oversees technical support representatives on their team. Therefore, they have to ensure the team is functioning efficiently and hitting its objectives and goals. 

3. Problem-solving

Working in technical support involves dealing with customers’ and clients’ problems on a daily basis. A technical support specialist requires a solution-oriented mentality to thrive in their position. 

4. Technical skills

A technical support specialist deals with hardware malfunctions and software issues on a daily basis. On top of soft skills like emotional intelligence and problem-solving abilities, they must have the technical skills necessary to solve these complex issues.

5. Time-management skills

The right technical support specialist requires excellent time-management skills. They must be capable of overseeing others and ensuring that their team members meet all deadlines.

What is a technical support specialist’s salary? 

The median yearly salary for a technical support specialist in the US is $58,694. The average salary is $48,667 a year, though the salary range varies from state to state.

A technical support specialist who is new to the field can expect to earn around $30,000. After gaining around 10 years of experience, a technical support specialist can expect to climb to the 90th percentile in their profession and can make more than $78,000.

The US states in which technical support specialists make the most are New Jersey, New York, California, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

If you want to keep your technical support specialists in your organization, you should ensure that you provide them with a good salary and some attractive bonuses and incentives.

And if you’re looking to attract new technical support specialists, you should consider revising your hiring process and making it faster, more accessible, and better for candidates.

How TestGorilla can help you evaluate technical support specialists’ skills

Implementing TestGorilla’s pre-employment tests can benefit your hiring process in many ways. We’ve already helped more than 6,000 companies reap the advantages of incorporating skills testing into their recruitment processes. 

Here are some of the ways pre-employment tests can help you find top talent with ease: 

1. They create a bias-free process.

Traditional hiring processes are vulnerable to various human biases. In contrast, you can simply send a pre-employment test like the Customer Service test to all your candidates and wait for the test results. You’ll receive numerical scores that enable you to compare candidates objectively.

2. They’re easy to use.

You can send the tests to all of your candidates instantly with a single click. Compare this with CV screening, which requires you to manually review dozens or hundreds of resumes. Pre-employment tests are a scalable solution that saves you time, effort, and resources.

3. They eliminate your reliance on CVs.

With pre-employment tests, you no longer need to screen CVs. This means that instead of evaluating candidates’ ability to write convincing CVs, you can assess the technical support specialist skills they actually need for the role.

So don’t leave your hiring process to chance – use pre-employment tests like the Technical Support Help Desk Representative test and hire the best candidates. Get started for free today.