How To Become A Support Lead: What It Is and Career Path

What is a support lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A support lead guides a team of customer support representatives. They ensure that customers receive timely and effective assistance. Support leads monitor performance, identify areas for improvement, and implement training programs. Additionally, they work with other departments to resolve customer issues promptly. An effective support lead must have excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills. Overall, a support lead serves as a critical position for any organization that values customer satisfaction.

ScoreSupport LeadUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $86,816

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.7

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.41%

Asian 14.65%

Black or African American 10.47%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 5.30%

White 54.05%

Gender

female 47.66%

male 52.34%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.5

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.4

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a Support Lead?

Pros

Work with a diverse range of customers and team members
Opportunity for career advancement within the company
Competitive salary and benefits
Opportunity to work on cross-functional projects
Ability to work remotely or from multiple locations

Cons

High stress levels due to dealing with customer complaints
Limited ability to directly influence company strategy or decisions
May require dealing with difficult or irate customers
Lack of recognition or appreciation for hard work and efforts
Can be emotionally draining due to dealing with customer issues repeatedly

Key steps to become a support lead

Explore support lead education requirements

Most common support lead degrees

Bachelor's

58.5 %

Associate

17.2 %

Master's

10.2 %

Start to develop specific support lead skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	12.29%
Cash Management	11.71%
POS	7.49%
Sales Floor	6.67%
Payroll	4.73%

Complete relevant support lead training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New support leads learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a support lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real support lead resumes.

Research support lead duties and responsibilities

Manage chemical and gas specifications, ensuring they are in line with ISO requirements.
Lead a team of services professionals to provide store operations and point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software solutions.
Develop and manage a unify desktop/notebook PC image.
Manage ticket queues and prioritize escalations base on establish SLA's and resource availability.

Get support lead experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a support lead. The most common roles before becoming a support lead include customer service representative, sales associate team lead and cashier.

Prepare your support lead resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your support lead resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a support lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Support Lead Resume templates

Build a professional Support Lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Support Lead resume.

Apply for support lead jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a support lead job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do support leads rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Support Lead reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020

Cons

Lifting wheelchair bound individuals to change pull ups and pampers, cleaning bowel movements. No support from leadership when problems arrive. Over crowding classrooms which causes stress to staff and individuals.

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2019

Pros

i love solving computer problems, assembling and programming , networking, performing data recovery and backups, i love opening computer motherboard and fix those spoiled chips and capacitors.