IT Specialist / Engineer

Career Area: Information Technology

Occupation Group: Network and Systems Support

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical IT Specialist / Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $68,167

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $74,537

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Provides information technology support for a business or organization. Coordinates installation, maintenance and upgrades of computer software and hardware. Maintains computer networks, monitors network security and provides database management. Manages communication with system users and vendors.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every IT Specialist / Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
• Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
• Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Information Systems: An information system (IS) is an organized system for the collection, organization, storage and communication of information.
• Technical Support: Technical support (often shortened to tech support) refers to a plethora of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other informatic, electronic or mechanical goods.
• Customer Service: Working experience with the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
• Hardware and Software Installation: Experience of performing the sequence of tasks to ensure a hardware and software environment is ready for execution.
• Microsoft Active Directory: Working experience of Microsoft Active Directory, which is a directory service that Microsoft developed for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services and is an umbrella title for a broad range of directory-based identity-related services. Active Directory stores information about objects on the network and makes this information easy for administrators and users to find and use. Active Directory uses a structured data store as the basis for a logical, hierarchical organization of directory information. A set of rules, the schema, that defines the classes of objects and attributes contained in the directory, the constraints and limits on instances of these objects, and the format of their names.

Distinguishing Skills

Any IT Specialist / Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Information Assurance: Information assurance (IA) is the practice of assuring information and managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information or data and the systems and processes used for those purposes.
• System/Network Configuration: A system configuration (SC) in systems engineering defines the computers, processes, and devices that compose the system and its boundary. More generally, the system configuration is the specific definition of the elements that define and/or prescribe what a system is composed of.
• Local Area Network (LAN): A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed.
• Computer Networking: Experience in the design, use, and governance of wireless and physical interconnection standards to allow groups of people within a business to work together using computers and other communication devices.
• Network Support: Working experience with the maintenance of corporate networks, either as part of an organization's internal IT support team or as technical support staff of a third-party network technology provider.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• It Specialist
• Information Technology Specialist
• It Engineer
• Infrastructure Analyst
• It Specialist Appsw

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Technical Support Manager / Supervisor