10 best entry level tech jobs and skills required to get hired

In today’s world of technology, IT is the most flourishing field. In fact, industry body NASSCOM has recently pointed out that before the pandemic, Indian IT companies were reporting annual growth rates of around 6-7%, which have now increased to around 15-20%. [1]

IT industry is one sector which is growing very fast worldwide. It helps to provide jobs and opportunities for professional success. It can really be a source of quick employment, opportunities in all sectors, numerous career paths, and well-paid salaries. Here we describe the 10 entry-level IT positions while you search for a job.

It is important to note that some roles do provide entry-level positions but some of these are specialized roles and generally companies do look for knowledge of systems and networks as well as prior experience, so it is a good idea to start with roles 1-5 and then opt for the other roles based on your interests and experience.

1. Help Desk Technician

Help Desk technician forms the first level of IT support, a help desk technician provides technical support/assistance, whether on the phone /in-person/ or remotely. When an employee/computer user (within the organization or at a client’s end) has problems with hardware, software, or a network, they call on a help desk to assist. As a help desk technician, your main responsibility is to receive the requests and be responsible for responding to email, chat, or phone queries, and offering technical support to customers using the tools available.

The title for the role may vary, help desk technicians may also be called, help desk analysts, desktop support, service desk technicians, etc. collectively referred to as help desk positions. Many IT professionals start their career in help desk roles, it is a good position to consider if you don’t know where to start in IT, you get the necessary exposure to the domain and as you gain experience and knowledge you can further decide your career path.

Skills required: Help desk roles need basic IT / Troubleshooting skills, normally organizations don’t as for certifications. Even non-IT graduates are eligible for these roles. You will need good communication and process handling skills for these roles.

2. Technical Support / IT Technician

Technical Support roles are similar to help desk technician in way that they also support the technical issues faced by end users, but while help desk job is to support user issues, technical support works on actual technical issues that cause the problem. Technical support is a trained person who has the knowledge of operating systems and networks and is able to troubleshoot the issues that arise due to them.

IT technicians can also be called IT associates, IT analysts, or IT specialists. Some companies may have IT technicians do help desk work as well. This position is a very good start to enter in IT sector jobs and later when you gain experience, you can enter other fields such as network administrator, DBA, or IT security specialist.

Skills required: Technical Support / IT technician roles need to be from IT background, companies seek good knowledge of operating systems, Networking, and in some cases SQL as well. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.

3. Application Support Engineer

Application support engineer role is similar to IT Technician, as they also need to work on technical issues, but in this case in addition to the general operating system and network issues they actually support the applications issues as well which is a product of the company or for which company offers the services.

Here in addition to the operating system and network knowledge, additional knowledge on SQL, HTML, and Scripting may also be required, the organizations also provide product-specific training to those who join in these roles. Similar to IT Technician, this position is a very good start to enter in IT sector jobs as this provides the necessary exposure and once you gain experience, you can enter other fields such as network administrator, DBA or IT security specialist.

Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with good knowledge of the operating system, Networking, and SQL. Apart from these companies also seek knowledge in web technologiesGood communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.

4. System Administrator

System Administrator is a very important person in the organization as he is responsible for the smooth working of the IT systems on day-to-day basis. He looks after servers, network performance, security tools, operating systems etc. Unlike tech support roles system administrator roles are more specialized in ensuring systems within the organization function smoothly. Their roles can overlap with the Network Administrators.

System Administrator’s should have full knowledge about hardware and software and have plans to resolve any issue. They should also have good communication with management employees so that they can reach out to them whenever required. This role also provides opportunities to grow, as you gain experience and expand your skill set you can advance to roles like systems engineer or systems architect. 

Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with experience and sound knowledge of networking. Companies look for certifications and associated degrees. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.

5. Network Engineer / Network Support Engineer

Network Engineer / Network support engineer role is similar to technical support role, but the focus here is limited to networking knowledge and troubleshooting of network / “network device” related issues, In a way, this is a more specialized role.

Here you need limited knowledge of operating systems, and hardware but sound knowledge of networking concepts and specialized certification for any of network hardware vendors like cisco is needed., and they support the technical issues in the network or network devices.

Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with experience and sound knowledge of networking. Companies look for certifications and associated degrees. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.

6. Database Administrator

Database Administrator is responsible for the business aspects of the organization. They manage and maintain company databases. They monitor the database performance and take corrective action, address any issues related to the database, and ensure security and backup of databases as per company policies.

It is a specialized role generally companies look for experience candidates, basic knowledge of operating systems, networking, etc is also required as databases are also a part of the systems. Database is offered by different vendors ( MS SQL, Oracle etc or NoSQL databases or opensource database like mysql and postgresql). Companies either look for skills in a specific database technology or in some cases general skills across databases.

Skills required: Again, this is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and IT background with solid knowledge of systems, operating systems, servers, cloud technologies, and networking. Apart from this companies look for the ability to program in high-level languages like python, knowledge of microservice architecture (Docker, Kubernetes) ability use Devops / CICD tools

8. Information Security Analyst

In this era when everything is online and tech-based, a lot of companies have faced the problem of breaches. An Information Security Analyst is a person who helps to protect you from such issues.

Their job is to detect the different aspects of security like network security and software security. He also makes sure that data is available to the authorized people in the company. They conduct security audits, are responsible for conducting security assessment tests, and coordinate with key stakeholders to ensure remediation activities are performed.

Skills required: This is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and IT background with strong knowledge of systems, operating systems, servers, cloud technologies, and networking. Apart from this companies look for a sound knowledge of penetration testing principles, tools and techniques, knowledge system and application security threats and vulnerabilities, and skills in scripting languages.

9. Cloud Engineer

Cloud Engineer is someone who deals with cloud computing. This includes managing, planning, architecting, and monitoring cloud systems. He should also know how to implement the best practices to deploy an application on the cloud.

Sometime back cloud computing was considered a luxury but today it has become a necessity. There is a lot of scope and high salary in this field.

Skills required: This is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and companies not only look for skills in cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, Oracle) but also the knowledge of operating systems, networking, and fundamentals of hardware (cpu, storage, RAM etc)

10. Web Developer / Software Developer / Mobile Developer

Requirements: Ability to program / Experience with programming languages. Associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degrees may be requested.

Web Developers / Software Developers need programming skills, and depending upon the role the expertise may wary. Web developer roles in generally attributed to those building websites, whereas software developers build the applications/ software products and applications, with a lot of businesses having their web portals as their prime products these roles also overlap.

Skills required: Companies look for skills in front end technologies, back end technologies or full stack developers, with proficiency in programming languages. For web development, you will need skills in HTML, CSS, and Javascript while for backend you will need skills in python, Ruby or PHP. For software development, you will need skills in programming languages like Java, C++ etc . While for mobile development you will need skills in specific mobile app development languages

References
1 – https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/indian-it-crosses-200-bn-revenue-mark-hits-227-bn-in-fy22-nasscom-122021500828_1.html

Learning on the job / Learnability

How you learn while working makes a lot of difference in your journey towards building a great career in tech. Even if we assume you got the right education in your school or college but it will never be possible that you acquire all the skills during your education.

As you grow in your career you have to continuously become proficient in what you already know and also learn new skills. Further, tech jobs come in all different shapes and sizes, even the same role with the same KRA in two organizations will require a different skill set to succeed.

It becomes imperative once you start working to understand the needs of the role and start learning, not every skill and expertise will come in the form of an official training assignment, you have to learn the art of acquiring skills and knowledge from daily events and experiences.

Learning itself has multiple theories around it, once you are on job it will be a combination of listening, seeing, reviewing, practicing, and it starts with curiosity and a can-do attitude is a must. Your ability to form questions from daily problems and then seek answers, will be important, for example, you were unable to solve a problem but a colleague or senior was able to do it, so the first thing is curiosity and the attitude that what was the case that you were not able to close but there were? The second would be to actually know the solution and how they figured it out. The third would be to understand the solution using any reference material physical or online, and the last would be to actually apply it.

Another way learning happens is when you stay with the problem until it is solved, this may require additional efforts, especially when you are designing or developing something, work-life balance is important but these are crucial situations that can make all the difference in whether we were able to learn something in totality or not when we stay with the problem till the end and arrive at the solution, it really helps us to connect the dots, and fill in the gaps in our concepts, and yes it makes a huge difference to our confidence and helps to build the right attitude.

When you implement something (a solution, a process) and complete the feedback loop, you can also learn a lot, as compared to when you are only a part of the implementation. When you are able to see the impact, take the feedback, and then correct things as per feedback, you are able to see the cause and effect and this helps in building a deep understanding of the problem and solution which leads to real learning.

Your curiosity in learning something new will allow you to seek new skills which may not be a part of your KRA but complementary to it, learning these skills to some level helps to do your job better, and even open opportunities for you to progress further. For example, for a tech support engineer, learning programming concepts will help you understand what is happening around you better, you will be able to communicate with right artifacts and terminologies, helping you reach solutions faster, it does not only help in improving your concepts but also provide you visibility across the teams.

In a nutshell, learning on the job or your learnability skill will be a key differentiator on how you perform and grow in your career, like other skills it is also a skill that has to be developed as you go along in your career. This doesn’t only impact your initial career but this allows you to have a deeper understanding of the work you do, helping you build and long and lasting career in Tech Industry..

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Author

Nikhil Ahluwalia
Founder Upspir
Nikhil has over 16years of experience in the industry, before starting UPSPIR he was heading the support, services, and delivery function at Exotel. and he has vast experience in managing and leading technical support and delivery teams, With Upspir he aims to take his passion of developing and mentoring people to next level by sharing his experiences and learning with those who want to build their career in the tech support domain.

How A Tech Support Job Opens Multiple Career Options

How A Tech Support Job Opens Multiple Career Options.

When we start our careers, many of us aspire to become programmers or move straight into specialized roles like DevOps or database administrators. These are high-demand jobs that offer good salaries, so it’s understandable why we would want to pursue them. However, if you’re unable to break into these fields right away, consider tech support as your launchpad into the IT industry.

A tech support job gives you hands-on exposure to various technologies, sharpens your problem-solving skills, and builds your customer service expertise, critical assets in any IT role. More importantly, tech support isn’t a limited role; it’s a stepping stone to specialized careers like DevOps, Cloud Engineering, and Cybersecurity.

So if you’re not sure where to start your tech career, don’t overlook tech support. It could be the smartest way to launch your journey in tech industry and build a thriving tech career.

What is a technical support engineer role?

A technical support engineer is a professional who provides technical support to customers and users of software, hardware, and other technology. Their primary tasks include troubleshooting technical problems, providing guidance, and ensuring smooth system operations.. Technical support engineers work in a variety of industries, including IT, telecom, healthcare, and finance.

From job opportunities point of view, nearly every medium and large company have its own IT or support department. These teams either either provide technical support to the organization or its employees or providing support to the clients on the product and services offered by the organization. This demand makes technical support a widely available and promising career path with diverse growth opportunities.

Responsibilities of a Technical Support Engineer

The responsibilities of a technical support engineer vary depending on the specific role and industry. However, some common responsibilities include:

  1. Troubleshooting and resolving technical issues
  2. Providing technical support to customers and users
  3. Documenting and tracking technical issues
  4. Keeping up-to-date on new technologies
  5. Developing and maintaining relationships with customers and users
The roles range from helpdesk to L3,  Organizations also have different roles with similar job specifications like tech support engineer, application support engineer, support engineer, system administrator, system engineer etc.

Skills and Qualifications for a Technical Support Engineer

The skills and qualifications required for a technical support engineer role vary depending on the specific role and industry. You can read more about 10 best entry level tech jobs and skills required to get hired. However, some common skills and qualifications include:

  1. Strong technical knowledge
  2. Excellent problem-solving skills
  3. Excellent communication skills
  4. Ability to work independently and as part of a team
  5. Ability to work under pressure

Tech support roles can range from helpdesk support to L3 (advanced technical support). Additionally, organizations may have different job titles for similar roles, such as:

    • Technical Support Engineer
    • Application Support Engineer
    • Support Engineer
    • System Administrator
    • System Engineer

Technical Support Role opens Multiple Career Options

Upspir - Technical Support Role opens multiple career options

Working in a technical support role can provide you with the opportunity to learn about different technologies, processes, and practices. If you are focused and willing to put in the effort, you can become an expert in any of these areas and build a strong career.

For example, if you are providing support for a particular application, you will gain experience working on the daily issues that users face. You will also learn how to resolve these issues and coordinate with customers to understand their pain points. This experience can give you the opportunity to grow into a consultant or product manager role in the future.

Even if you don’t choose another career path,  you can expect to advance to the senior technical support level in 1-2 years. With continued experience, you can then grow to become a technical lead, manager, or other senior-level position.

If you are technically inclined, you can grow into roles such as tech lead, solutions engineer, QA engineer, or software developer. You can also build your career in DevOps or SRE roles. If you enjoy interacting with people and coordinating with customers, you can grow into roles such as customer success manager, account manager, or solution consultant. The possibilities are truly limitless.

How to Get Started in a Career in Technical Support

There are a few things you can do to get started in a career in technical support:

  1. Get a degree in computer science or a related field
  2. Get certified in a technical field
  3. Gain experience working in a technical support role
  4. Network with people in the tech industry

If you’re interested in a career in technical support, I encourage you to learn more about the field and explore your options. It could be the perfect way to launch your journey into the world of technology.

About Upspir

Bridging the Gap: Skilling Professionals, Solving Resourcing

At Upspir we are on a mission to help young professionals build a successful career in tech support domain,  Our programs train candidates on both technical and non-technical skills to prepare them for the jobs and interviews. 

We have partnered with leading companies in India's thriving tech market, and we can help you get hired in one of these companies.

In case you are interested in exploring our programs please feel free to fill the inquiry form here. 

We will be happy to hear from you and address your queries.

Tech support role - Challenges

Yes, initially starting in a tech support role is challenging and so is learning and growing in these career paths. The role itself can be challenging and will need a lot of patience and belief to sustain in these roles. Learning on the job will be the key, and you will have to put additional effort in building your skills while at work to get the chances to progress further.

While you select your strength area, you will again have to put additional effort into enhancing your skills and knowledge and putting your strengths to work. Apart from the effort, you will also need a to have a career plan and a process (within the organization or outside) in place for you, to follow the career plan, and a support mechanism that pushes you to follow the same.

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Author
Nikhil Kumar Ahluwalia
Founder Upspir

Nikhil has over 16years of experience in the industry, before starting UPSPIR he was heading the support, services, and delivery function at Ameyo/Exotel as vice-president, and he has vast experience in managing and leading technical support and delivery teams, With Upspir he aims to take his passion of developing and mentoring people to next level by sharing his experiences and learning with those who want to build their career in the tech support domain.

Building a strong career journey starting in tech support

Having worked in this industry for 16 years, I’ve seen firsthand how individuals who started in tech support have successfully transitioned into project managers, technical managers, and even product managers. A career is not just about how you start—it’s about how you build upon that start.

Career growth isn’t solely about mastering technical skills. As you move into senior roles, soft skills, managerial abilities, and strategic thinking become just as important. This will need introspection, identifying the knowledge and skills that you will need, and then acquiring it. Finally, things like discipline, consistency, and taking responsibility for your work, are also crucial, When your seniors can depend on you, they’ll be more likely to trust you with greater opportunities and career growth.