Factors that Influence Help Desk Specialist Salaries
There are a few main factors that will have the greatest impact on a help desk engineer’s earnings:
Responsibilities. “Help desk” can mean different things to different companies; these positions can range from very low-level (“level 1,” “tier 1,” etc.) support such as password resets, to very high-level support including backup remediation, corrupt data recovery, mailflow issues, and firewall configuration. Some companies will have very strict delineations between these levels (and the associated salaries), and others will mix them together.
Geography. Aside from the details of the position itself, the biggest factor influencing Remote Engineer salary is the geographical location of the employee. Outside of places like Silicon Valley and New York City, DC is actually the premier location for technology work. DC is among the highest-paying locations for tech jobs in the country, and workers are typically paid 15-20% more in this area than, say, the rural south (though salaries in rural areas are usually appropriate based on their job market and cost of living in that area).
If the Specialist is located somewhere other than the company’s main office, their pay will usually be based on the economics of their region.
Education. We’ve mentioned in the past that experience trumps schooling in the engineering world, but some companies (like ours) do require college degrees for senior-level engineers. Because of the intricacy of the work, the amount of critical thinking involved, and the need to explain abstract ideas to non-technical people, degrees are certainly valuable in this field.
Average Salary Range for Help Desk Specialists
Help Desk Specialists in the DC area can expect a salary of $60 - $70,000 to start.
Those in a management position will generally make closer to $80,000 in our region.
Optimal’s Retention Strategy for Remote Engineers
Given the nature of help desk support, many companies will hire remote workers to fill these positions. Our company, for example, is based in Rockville, but the majority of our SupportCenter engineers are based in Pennsylvania.
In this case – in order to avoid harmful turnover – companies need to pay special attention to bringing these workers “into the fold”; these employees won’t get to actively participate in workplace culture, and that disconnect can have a significant impact on morale.
In order to keep our remote engineers engaged, Optimal Networks has an engineer buddy program where remote workers get to spend some time together. And it works! A vast majority of our remote engineers have stuck around; and almost half of them came via employee referral.
Read More: service desk job
Responsibilities. “Help desk” can mean different things to different companies; these positions can range from very low-level (“level 1,” “tier 1,” etc.) support such as password resets, to very high-level support including backup remediation, corrupt data recovery, mailflow issues, and firewall configuration. Some companies will have very strict delineations between these levels (and the associated salaries), and others will mix them together.
Geography. Aside from the details of the position itself, the biggest factor influencing Remote Engineer salary is the geographical location of the employee. Outside of places like Silicon Valley and New York City, DC is actually the premier location for technology work. DC is among the highest-paying locations for tech jobs in the country, and workers are typically paid 15-20% more in this area than, say, the rural south (though salaries in rural areas are usually appropriate based on their job market and cost of living in that area).
If the Specialist is located somewhere other than the company’s main office, their pay will usually be based on the economics of their region.
Education. We’ve mentioned in the past that experience trumps schooling in the engineering world, but some companies (like ours) do require college degrees for senior-level engineers. Because of the intricacy of the work, the amount of critical thinking involved, and the need to explain abstract ideas to non-technical people, degrees are certainly valuable in this field.
Average Salary Range for Help Desk Specialists
Help Desk Specialists in the DC area can expect a salary of $60 - $70,000 to start.
Those in a management position will generally make closer to $80,000 in our region.
Optimal’s Retention Strategy for Remote Engineers
Given the nature of help desk support, many companies will hire remote workers to fill these positions. Our company, for example, is based in Rockville, but the majority of our SupportCenter engineers are based in Pennsylvania.
In this case – in order to avoid harmful turnover – companies need to pay special attention to bringing these workers “into the fold”; these employees won’t get to actively participate in workplace culture, and that disconnect can have a significant impact on morale.
In order to keep our remote engineers engaged, Optimal Networks has an engineer buddy program where remote workers get to spend some time together. And it works! A vast majority of our remote engineers have stuck around; and almost half of them came via employee referral.
Read More: service desk job
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