Computer Technician Salaries

How much does a computer technician make? Is it a career worth pursuing?

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You gotta start somewhere, plus it beats webdev

Where can you go from a computer technician job?

Depends on the job, what you are doing, and the area.

If you work at a normal computer repair shop, about $10-15 is the average. Help Desk can depend on if you are working for a temp place or call center, usually around $12-18. If you do actual help desk stuff for a corporation and do more stuff, about $18-25 is the average. Lead positions usually are not much more, usually a few dollars extra. Big bucks though is if you can get a job that has no issues with overtime. Downside is you are usually on on-call rotation, but this can also be good if you are 40/week and want some overtime on your check.

Contract pays more, but generally does not offer any or few benefits/health insurance options are shit. You generally want to start with a few contract gigs to get your resume going or get your A+ to get your foot in the door, and use that to get hired on directly with a company. Stay far away from recruiters, they are the scum of the IT industry and are pretty garbage.

Also, to give you a idea: I started out with help desk for Dell and was making $13/hr. I was also in a pretty poor state and my pay was usually around $10-15 until I moved out. Making about $50,000 a year now. I have more then enough to live on and I am pretty well off, but I do live in a more expensive area than before.

This is the most spot on advice I've seen on Jow Forums I've worked in every one of these settings and he even nailed the pay.

Lots of info, thank you. I'm getting my associates in C.S this semester and I'm just looking for a job because I have no interest in continuing on to a B.S. I'm thinking about trade school instead and I'm not sure where to go from here. A technician is probably my skill level as of right now.

CS or IT?

Why would you study CS unless you want to be a programmer or computer engineer

I am a manager at a local computer repair shop. I am also lead technician and our only microsolderer.

I make 12/hr

>fixing computers for $20/hr
>beats a six figure webdev salary
This nigga jealous.

>20/hr

I wish bro

>microsolderer
What is this? Soldering under a microscope?

Depends
I've made around 60-70k doing basic PC repair because I was willing to drive and work in small shops for an MSP.

Got like 45k flat, and got up to 2-3k in bonses per month depending on hours billed and HW sold.

Yes, that is exactly what it is. Like replacing blown components on motherboards.

Pic related is some soldier’s custom build I reassembled for him. Wires were a rats nest but I got it pretty. It fun assembling computers that are way too expensive for you to actually buy yourself.

I think he used the whole tube of paste though, lol

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Thermal paste is non conductive dude

I dont see your point. Machine oil is non consuctive. I dont hose down my computer though. There was so much thermal paste it was dripping everywhere. It was on him m.2 shield, his gpu, the back of his motherboard somehow, some even got under his cpu. It was an excessive amount of paste.

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>I dont hose down my computer WITH IT though*

typo

>How much does a computer technician make?
Fuck all
>Is it a career worth pursuing?
It’s a job.
>Where can you go
That’s on you. Learn and apply and get lucky and you might get a sysadmin role, or work in an MSP. Coast and you’ll basically be doing retail except sometimes you turn pooter off and on again

>20/hr
>Actually earning 10/hr
>lives in south america.
>Fixing pentium 4, pentium D and first pentium dual core pc´s.

What im doing with my life.

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I also fixed a Pentium 4 recently

I'd do it for fun and not have any complaints for a solid year or two at the very least

It's an entry-level position. In the US you'll make $13-20/hr.

About $9/hr, extremely competitive job market, low turnover, not worth pursuing.

>Computer technician
>Career

>$20hr

Lol no

I work at Geek Squad making $19/hr and that's fucking high for my position. Most make in the middle teens. I fucking hate this job but help desk spots here want to pay less than what I make,

MSP in a small town, $17.50/hr full time, AMA

What do you do and how do you get your foot in the door?

>What do you do
Small businesses (usually 3 to 50 people/devices) need an IT department but can't afford to hire a full-time IT staff so they contract that service to us. It's mostly simple things such as setting up new computers, fixing internet outages, installing printer drivers. Sometimes its more interesting like getting VPNs set up between different sites. It's hard to say exactly what we do every day because no two days are alike. Just imagine you're the IT staff for 90 different small businesses. Sprinkle old people dropping off old computers and expecting them to get fixed when about half the time we tell them it will cost more to fix than to get a new one, so we do data transfers to the new ones.
>and how do you get your foot in the door?
Be a people person who can hold a conversation about, essentially, Networking 101 (router vs switch, what DHCP is and does, why thats important for servers versus clients). But honestly being able to deal with the public as well as business clients is key, so communication is important.
Experience is good, essential for anything beyond a tier 1/bench technician/helpdesk.

I'm 23 with an associates and basic networking and programming skills. Just like half the people in America. Where's the money at?

Lower your expectations and you'll probably find something like an MSP. We just hired someone with no experience for a tier 1 position paying $16.50/hr. Just be honest and work on being someone who is pleasant to be around. Skills can be taught but you need to be teachable and tolerable

Essentially that's my only skill. I'm real good with people and I'm a fast learner. I'm just not good at teaching myself. That's why I feel like a technician job might be good for me.

>get your A+ to get your foot in the door, and use that to get hired on directly with a company.

This is how I got my desktop support job. Then became a Linux sysadmin later cuz I was smart and kept learning/studying/certifying.

Keep at it user, get certs if you can afford it

you are watching louis rossman on youtube right?