SYNOPSIS
An Office Specialist, also
known as an application support specialist, or Microsoft Office support
specialist, is an IT professional who is a power user of a Microsoft Office
family of products or a trainer on these products. These professionals may also
perform other job roles such as network managers, webmasters, programmers and
management assistants. This role requires having an in depth knowledge of one
or more Microsoft Office applications so as to be able to quickly and
effectively help users, whether internal (users) or external (customer), with
their problems concerning these applications.
Duties of an Office
specialist include providing answers to Office users’ problems, supplying
training and feedback to those users to lessen the occurrence of future
problems, troubleshooting difficult or unusual situations, and suggesting
workflow improvements to management. Office specialists perform an introductory
to mid-level technical role. A good understanding of PCs, operating systems, and
Office products is necessary. Equally important, however, are strong
interpersonal skills such as effective listening, empathy, patience, and the
ability to carefully walk a user through problem resolution steps either
remotely or in person. In terms of remote support, the capacity to visualize
what’s taking place on the user’s desktop is hugely beneficial.
A person may consider
entering this field after attaining a non-technical university degree or a one
or two year computer diploma from a local technical institute. Also, some formal
training and certification on Office products is highly recommended. The aptitude
to troubleshoot problems under pressure, as well as defuse excited and
sometimes irate users or customers, is also valuable.
An Office specialist will,
in time, move on to more advanced technical roles, such as system or network
administrator, application developer, or database administrator. Some will also
become technical trainers. Whichever path an Office specialist takes, he or she
should also move up the salary ladder.
Salary information is so
dependent on an IT professional’s particular skill set, experience and geographic
location. However, office specialists may have salaries around $35,000 to $50,000
USD depending on what other roles they play in their organization.  |
