Help Desk Technician / Analyst
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Help Desk Technician or Analyst provides technical support to computer users. Handles customer inquiries and works to resolve technical issues with computer hardware, software or networks. Provides customer support by phone, email, live chat or with screen sharing. May refer customers with complex system or application problems for more advanced technical support. Tracks help requests using a ticketing system.
Job Outlook
There were 1841 Help Desk Technician / Analyst job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 67644 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Computer Support Specialist industry, which includes the Help Desk Technician / Analyst career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Help Desk Technician / Analyst jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $58,829.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $58,804.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Help Desk Technician / Analyst postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $50,693.
Education and Experience
Posted Help Desk Technician / Analyst jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 26.65% |
| Master's Degree | 2.28% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0.22% |
| Other | 21.21% |
Posted Help Desk Technician / Analyst jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 54.95% |
| 3 to 5 years | 38.47% |
| 6 to 8 years | 4.96% |
| 9+ years | 1.61% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Help Desk Technician / Analyst positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (67.33%)
- Customer Service (54.37%)
- Communication (48.23%)
- Problem Solving (34.56%)
- Microsoft Office (26.4%)
- Management (25.8%)
- Information Technology (18.01%)
- Operations (16.17%)
- Detail Oriented (15.28%)
- Writing (14.3%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- End-User Training And Support (8.93%)
- Software Installation (8.13%)
- Microsoft Windows 10 (16.66%)
- Microsoft Windows 7 (7.38%)
- Active Directory (30.18%)
- Mac OS (9.11%)
- Technical Support (41.39%)
- Computer Hardware (21.7%)
- Desktop Support (28.65%)
- Operating Systems (30.3%)
- Issue Tracking (22.02%)
- Network Troubleshooting (10.54%)
- Virtual Private Networks (VPN) (10.99%)
- Peripheral Devices (21.8%)
- Help Desk Support (63.28%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Microsoft 365 (5.85%)
- Microsoft Teams (5.68%)
- Apple IOS (9.28%)
- Microsoft Azure (3.88%)
- Computer Science (15.13%)
- Customer Support (9.63%)
- IT Service Management (10.24%)
- Incident Management (4.5%)
- Call Center Experience (7.15%)
- Service-Level Agreement (7%)
- Local Area Networks (8.87%)
- Microsoft SharePoint (5.05%)
- Windows Servers (5.01%)
- TCP/IP (6.39%)
- Information Technology Infrastructure Library (8.5%)
- Microsoft Office 365 (16.98%)
- ServiceNow (15.94%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Hardware Troubleshooting (8.18%)
- Deskside Support (4.33%)
- Network Printers (3.34%)
- Phone Support (3.57%)
- Remote Access Systems (5.97%)
- Remote Desktop Services (4.93%)
- Microsoft Intune (Mobile Device Management Software) (4.45%)
- User Accounts (6.03%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Network Printers (6.43%)
- Microsoft Windows 7 (14.21%)
- Microsoft Windows 10 (32.11%)
- Active Directory (58.15%)
- Mac OS (17.54%)
- Network Troubleshooting (20.3%)
- Phone Support (6.87%)
- Remote Desktop Services (9.49%)
- User Accounts (11.61%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Help Desk Technician / Analyst skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Help Desk Technician
- Desktop Support Technician
- Help Desk Analyst
- Help Desk Specialist
- Service Desk Analyst
- IT Help Desk Technician
- Service Desk Technician
- Desktop Support Manager
- Help Desk Support Technician
- Desktop Support Analyst
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Technical Support Engineer / Analyst
- IT Administrator
- Technical Support Manager / Supervisor
- Network Support Technician
- Systems Administrator
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Help Desk Technician / Analyst jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Robert Half (2052)
- Allegis Group (2050)
- TEKsystems (1722)
- Apple (1101)
- Insight Global (871)
- Cai (555)
- Logicalis (548)
- Randstad (498)
- General Dynamics (457)
- Worldwide TechServices (413)
North Carolina
- TEKsystems (79)
- Allegis Group (79)
- Robert Half (54)
- Motion Recruitment (18)
- Infologitech (18)
- ASGN (18)
- HCL Technologies (17)
- Excelraise (17)
- Apple (17)
- General Dynamics (16)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.