An IT technician will have a specific set of responsibilities at an organization, such as installing, testing, and maintaining the computers, networks, and software systems used to store, send and receive digital data. However, to excel in tech support, an IT tech’s skills must go beyond their ability to perform these tasks. They must also have certain qualities that support their aptitude and technical knowledge.

Especially now that most of the teams are working from home, hybrid or in office, it has become even more important to look beyond just skills.

Five Qualities every IT Technician should have

Here are five qualities that an IT technician should have. These are the traits you should look for in new candidates:

1. Self-Discipline

Whether you are hybrid or working from the office, the support tech at your company will be largely unsupervised and in control of their own schedule. Flexibility comes with the job. Often, computer problems occur after hours, in the middle of the night, and on weekends. A support tech will often be a loner, working on projects alone.

Your technical team member must be self-disciplined and be able to prioritize tasks in order to meet deadlines, deliver solutions by the promised date, and stick to a task until it’s finished. If you find a self-disciplined IT technician, you’ll have a dependable and reliable employee working for you.

2. Excellent Problem-Solving Skills

For many of your team members, it may be the first time that they are working from home. This means they will need your technical team's support more than ever to navigate through setting up their home office.

The IT tech’s job is largely about support — about fixing issues that arise and ensuring that all technologies are operating smoothly. This takes analytical skills. The support tech you hire will need to be an excellent problem solver, able to see a problem through until its resolution. They will need to keep working until the solution is satisfactory and the user is happy. They will need to be knowledgeable enough to diagnose the cause of the issue and innovative enough to figure out how to fix it, even in a crisis or with the most difficult or rare problems that may occur.

3. Attention to Detail

Many IT issues are caused by the smallest, almost imperceptible mistakes that will affect how a program runs or a web page looks. Your IT technician will need to have great attention to detail to be able to detect tiny miscalculations and errors. They will need to be patient enough to go through every minute detail to detect the source of any glitch. 

4. Great Communication Skills

Your IT tech support person will be representing your company with users as an intermediary between them and the IT department. Communication is critical for the proper resolution of issues. The support technician must have great listening skills. They must be able to decipher the problem by listening to the user and then translating the descriptions in tech language to the IT department. They must then go back and explain the solution in simple terms to the user with limited tech knowledge so they can understand it. They should be able to educate the user. Often, they will have to handle stressed-out or angry users and learn how to deal with these types of situations appropriately.

Additionally, the support tech will need to be able and willing to share technical knowledge with their team and higher-ups. Companies are vulnerable if only one person in the office possesses unique knowledge, so your tech will need to be willing to share knowledge as a team member. There needs to be a steady stream of open communication.

5. Passion for Technology

Technology is always changing, and your support tech will need to be able to keep up in order to solve problems with the latest tech devices, networks, and software on the market. This is easy when they are passionate about technology and always hungry to learn more. A great IT resource is excited about tech and is always trying to advance their knowledge and better himself or herself as an employee. The best IT technician is always up to date on the latest tech developments. They will live, sleep, and breathe technology.

Virtually every organization needs an IT technician to support and maintain its computers, and networks. Make sure you look for these five critical traits in a new employee: self-discipline, problem-solving skills, attention to detail, great communication skills, and a passion for technology.

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