Desktop Support Engineer Description, Jobs and Salary

A desktop support engineer's job is to solve technical problems of a computer user. His/Her job is to make the user comfortable. As the usage of computer grows, the positions requiring desktop support engineer will also grow.

A new Desktop support engineer's job requires assembling and installation of desktops, keeping all the systems up to date with patches and security fixes, and helping out end-users do their job more efficiently.

The other duties of a desktop engineer is that when a new software or any other new IT regulations comes in the working of the company, they have to train the end-user, or implement the new strategy, and make the user comfortable with the technology.

The normal routine here is that the software department of the company designs an application that will further make the day-to-day operations of the company easier and faster.

The other a company can do is that they will buy an official enterprise version of the software and let the user work on this. For both of this, a team of Desktop support engineers will act as a bridge between the users and the new software. They will interact with the users and train, fix, and offer their expertise.

As the company will invest a huge amount of money into this, the company wants that the vision of this must get achieved. The job of a Desktop support engineer here is to first get trained and then train the entire users of the company.

One other thing that various multinational companies follow is to keep a meeting of new employees and let them know the various operations of the company. This type of meeting may be called, say "New Employees Meeting" OR "New Employee Training" Or "New Employee Discussion", "Induction" etc. This type of meeting generally is comprised by each department's representative giving a brief about their operations. As a team member of Desktop support engineers or the IT network department, you might have to give a brief about your department to the new employees.

This will need good communication skills and a lot of patience. The job of a Desktop support engineer is complex at times - or relaxed at times. The meaning is that, imagine, suddenly that the entire network of computers is down. There should be an immediate and well-informed decision to get fix the network. On the other hand, if every thing is going smoothly then you would probably be on Facebook.

Likewise, the CEO or MD of the company may have some problem with the laptop, the next minute you would probably be talking and trying to solve the problems of the person who is on the highest position of the company. So, excellent communications along with sound technical knowledge is a must to constantly thrive and move to higher positions.

For this you should always update yourself with new technologies and try to improve your soft-skills.

The number of vacancies in this sector is increasing and jobs are growing in an unprecedented way. The positions of a Desktop support engineer are divided in 3 levels viz. Level 1 (L1), Level 2 (L2), Level 3 (L3). L1 being the entry-level position and L3, the highest level engineer.

Level 1 (Trainee) engineers will perform basic jobs such as installing operating system, helping out users, and other easier jobs such as assembling a computer.

Level 2 (Sr. Desktop Engineer) are involved in keeping the computer network up to date with essential security patches, interact with various vendors, and perform small tasks on the Server.

Level 3 (System Administrator) is the lead engineer and is responsible for everything that is related to computers and the network. System Administrator mainly involves performing tasks on the Server, interaction with other department for any changes, or if the entire network is being updated with critical changes.

As computers are omnipresent, your job could be in any sector. Like you could be working in the retail sector or working in a large hospital. Because of this, many businesses call for contracts to large or medium-sized Information Technology companies. Many a times, you will be employed by such a company (For example, Wipro) and will work for the third-party (For example, Reliance or may be Maersk).

Girls are also increasing in this profession, but are probably only involved in Helpdesk support. After they gain experience and technical certifications they can move to higher positions such as Systems Administrator or System Engineer.

As with every profession, Salary will be depend on your experience, educational qualifications, attitude, the company's policies, and your capability. One other factor in the Information Technology sector is international vendor-specific IT certifications. Certifications like CCNA, MCSE etc are of great help, at least in my opinion.

Desktop engineers are called by many names such as Desktop support specialist, Technical support engineer, Help Desk support, Customer support engineer.

Below are the approximate annual salary that you will get in various countries. All the below data is courtesy Payscale.com

But as I said, salary depends on many factors, keep this only as a reference.