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

What is a student support specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The primary goal of a student support specialist is to provide adequate assistance to students that need help with adjusting to a new campus, coping with their personal lives, and working through their academic challenges, among many other issues.

The duties of a student support specialist include counseling students, directing students to appropriate services and benefits, maintaining progress reports, and providing students with career advice. When a student support specialist suspects a case of domestic abuse, they are also responsible for reporting it to the authorities and protecting the student to the best of their ability. Furthermore, a student support specialist may also provide academic assistance if they have adequate knowledge of the subject matter.

In many educational institutions, the minimum requirement for this role is a bachelor's degree in business, psychology, counseling psychology, or something similar. Many employers also want their student support specialists to have prior experience working with kids, and perhaps certain certifications depending on their state. With this role, one can earn an average salary of $41,000 per year or roughly $20 per hour. Salaries tend to be higher for student support specialists in colleges and universities, especially if they have advanced degrees and extensive working experience.

ScoreStudent Support SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,449

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.9

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.64%

Asian 7.01%

Black or African American 12.35%

Hispanic or Latino 20.26%

Unknown 4.69%

White 54.05%

Gender

female 62.51%

male 37.49%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress Level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.1

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a student support specialist

Explore student support specialist education requirements

Most common student support specialist degrees

Bachelor's

62.0 %

Master's

16.5 %

Associate

13.9 %

Start to develop specific student support specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Student Support	29.11%
Social Work	13.58%
Support Services	6.57%
Professional Development	6.41%
Behavioral Issues	5.48%

Complete relevant student support specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New student support specialists 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 student support specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real student support specialist resumes.

Research student support specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage SharePoint inventory repository and assign access levels to new hires as needed.
Train staff with methods to meet IEP goals, mandate reporting and effective communication in the classroom.
Monitor student behavior -assist with student IEP and report student activity
Provide individual academic assistance to students having difficulty with college-level mathematics

Prepare your student support specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your student support specialist 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 student support specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Student Support Specialist Resume templates

Build a professional Student Support Specialist 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 Student Support Specialist resume.

Apply for student support specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a student support specialist 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 student support specialists rate their job?

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Student Support Specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Pros

Working closely with students and assisting them with resources.

Cons

The pay. I feel that I don't get paid nearly enough for the amount of work that I do and my responsibilities. I'm expected to be a counselor, security guard, nurse, baby sitter, IT, etc.