IT Support Specialist Job Description
A complete IT support specialist job description template, the ATS keywords hiring teams screen for, and why this role is tech's real entry point.
IT Support Specialist is the most common entry point into every other role in this field. The people who become network engineers, systems administrators and security analysts overwhelmingly started at a help desk — not because it's glamorous, but because it's where you learn what normal looks like across an entire organization's accounts, hardware and network before you specialize in running or defending one piece of it.
The frustrating pattern job seekers run into here: a posting titled "entry-level" that then asks for a year or two of prior help desk experience. That isn't always a contradiction on the company's part — a lot of teams got burned by a hire with zero exposure to a ticketing queue and now write "entry" to mean "entry into this career path" rather than "zero experience anywhere." Either way, read the requirements list rather than trusting the title; if it asks for prior experience, expect real competition from people who already have some.
This is also one of the few corners of tech where a certification does the work a degree does elsewhere. CompTIA A+, and Network+ soon after, are fast, cheap and verifiable enough that someone without a four-year degree can compete seriously for the same roles as someone who has one. That's not true of most specialties further up this list.
Ormsbury · Raleigh, NC
Full-time · Hybrid
$42,000 – $54,000
About the role
Ormsbury runs its Raleigh office as a second engineering hub, and this role keeps roughly 120 people's laptops, accounts and meeting rooms working. We're hiring an IT Support Specialist to be the first response for hardware, software and access issues, with a clear track to take on systems administration work as you grow into it.
This is genuinely an entry-level opening — we don't expect prior professional IT experience, though it helps. What we do expect is someone who can stay patient with a frustrated coworker on their fourth ticket of the day and still write down what actually fixed it.
What you'll do
- Field help desk tickets and walk-up requests: account resets, hardware issues, software installs, access requests.
- Image, configure and deploy laptops for new hires, and work the offboarding checklist when someone leaves.
- Maintain our device inventory accurately enough that an audit doesn't turn into a scavenger hunt.
- Administer user accounts and group memberships in our identity provider under senior staff guidance.
- Troubleshoot conference room AV and network connectivity issues in the Raleigh office.
- Document fixes in our internal knowledge base so the next person doesn't start from zero.
- Escalate anything that looks like a security issue — phishing reports, suspicious logins — to the security team promptly.
- Support basic network troubleshooting: Wi-Fi, VPN connectivity, printer access.
What we're looking for
- Genuine interest in IT as a career, shown through coursework, a home lab, certification study, or prior informal tech support.
- Comfort administering user-level settings on Windows and macOS.
- Clear, patient communication with non-technical coworkers under mild time pressure.
- Basic understanding of networking concepts: IP addressing, Wi-Fi, VPN.
- Willingness to be in the Raleigh office several days a week for hands-on hardware work.
- Ability to document what you did clearly enough for someone else to follow.
Nice to have
- CompTIA A+ certification, in hand or in progress.
- Exposure to a ticketing system: Zendesk, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, or similar.
- Familiarity with an identity provider such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID.
- Any scripting exposure — PowerShell or Bash — for automating repetitive tasks.
- Prior retail, hospitality or other customer-facing work; the patience transfers.
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision coverage, with employee premiums covered in full.
- 401(k) with a 4% company match after one year.
- Hybrid schedule: three days a week in the Raleigh office.
- CompTIA certification exam vouchers covered after six months.
- Fifteen days of paid time off plus company holidays.
Salary range
As posted for this sample role. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience.
$42,000–$54,000/ yr
ATS keywords for this role
The applicant tracking system (ATS) — the recruiting software a hiring team searches and filters applicants with — will screen for these. Weight shows how central each one is to this specific posting.
Required and central (3)
Important (8)
Mentioned in passing (7)
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a college degree for IT support?
No — this is one of the more degree-agnostic corners of tech. A CompTIA A+ certification plus a demonstrated interest in the field carries real weight in screening, sometimes more than an unrelated bachelor's degree does.
Why do so many 'entry-level' IT support postings ask for prior experience?
Usually because the company means entry-level for this career path, not zero experience of any kind — often after a bad hire with no exposure to a ticketing queue at all. If a posting asks for a year or two, expect real competition from candidates who already have it. Don't assume 'entry' in the title always means what it says; read the requirements list.
Where does this role lead?
For most people who take it, somewhere else in IT within two to three years: systems administration, network engineering, or security, depending on which part of the job you gravitate toward. Very few people plan to stay in help desk work long-term, and most employers know that and hire accordingly.
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