Best Entry-Level Tech Jobs to Kick-Start Your New Career

Looking to get into the tech industry with an entry level job, but not sure what options are out there?

Well, good news!

In this guide I share some of the best entry-level tech roles for 2026, that you can either apply for right now, or in 3-6 months once you pick up some required skills online in your spare time.

I also cover:

• How the role works

• What you need to know

• The average salary for each

• Career progression options after these entry level roles

• As well as any resources to help you get started or move to that more senior role and higher salary

So grab a drink and let's dive in!

Customer Support

One of the biggest costs to running a successful business are refunds and cancellations.

However, an easy way to stop this from happening is to have customer support people in place. This way they can help customers who have any issues, answer questions and solve problems, usually on the phone or over a zoom call.

Easy right?

If you've ever had to explain to a parent how to to do anything even slightly technical, then you're perfect for this role. Simply because all you need is a willingness to listen and a desire to help people.

I know it's not a super techy role but it does get your foot in the door at tech companies and opens you up to perks such as remote work. (You're not really needed in the office if all you're doing is chatting on the internet). It also opens up other opportunities but we'll cover that in a second.

Skill requirements:

• Communication Skills: Your entire job is to communicate with others, so strong written and verbal communication skills are essential

• Technical Knowledge: A basic understanding of the company's products or services and the ability to troubleshoot common technical issues is often required. This will often be provided by the company, but if you can get some experience using the product in advance, you'll ace the interview

• Patience and Empathy: Dealing with frustrated or upset customers is not easy, and requires patience and empathy. The ability to understand and address customers' concerns in a positive manner is crucial

• Problem-Solving Skills: Although the majority of problems will be recurring (Not plugged in etc), you'll also need to be analytical to try and solve outlying issues. This can actually be quite rewarding

• Multitasking: Customer support representatives may need to handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously, so good multitasking skills are beneficial

Average Salary

Because this is an entry-level role with no prior experience needed, the average salary for customer support roles in 2026 is around $39,926.

Nothing huge but good money for something you could do right out of high school from home. Especially when you could work for these companies from pretty much anywhere.

Speaking of which, did you happen to notice that the average salary is higher in California? This is because the REALLY big tech companies are there, so the salary is more competitive. (This will be the same for all the roles on this list).

However, because customer support is usually a remote role, there's nothing stopping you from applying for these companies and working for them from wherever you're located.

Potential Career Path

OK so let's say you get this role and that's awesome, but what's next after this?

Well, there are a few options from here. You could stay in customer support and gain experience into a more senior role, or you could pivot into a Customer Success Manager.

That being said, if you're already good with people then you could even apply for that CSM role right away instead, which leads us into role #2 on our list...

Customer Success Manager

This role is similar to the previous one, however the CSM role is more proactive.

You see, another main issue that causes refunds is when people buy your product and then never start using it. So if you can help them get set up and started fast, they're more likely to stay a customer. Especially if you can keep helping them so they get better results.

And that's the core of the CSM role. You're usually focused on 'onboarding' new users so that the customer can learn how to use the product ASAP. This is either done in person, via email, or over video conferencing software such as Zoom.

So again, a good chance for remote or hybrid work.

Skill Requirements

• Education: A high school diploma or equivalent

• Communication Skills: Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Technical Aptitude: Basic understanding of the technology and an ability to learn and adapt to new software and systems

• Customer Focus: A customer-centric mindset with a focus on providing positive experiences

• Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to analyze issues and provide effective solutions

You may need some niche skills or experience with the tool or product that you're helping them with, but you can pick that up in advance and also get on the job training.

Average Salary

Salary varies based on company and location, but the average salary for an entry-level customer success manager role is much higher than customer support. In fact its almost double at around $83,064 per year.

Not bad, but it gets better...

Potential Career Path

There are a few paths you can take with this role. You could continue to skill up and apply internally for other roles such as programming, or, you can take this particular career path further.

In fact, senior technical support at some companies can have a salary as high as $166,000.

That's some serious money!

Tech Sales

Tech companies will often have different versions of their product at different price points:

• The free version to get it out there so you see it, try it and use it

• The paid version for the general public

• And then the Enterprise version that can cost 6 figures a year

For example

Google Analytics is a free tool that literally millions of companies use. Anyone can sign up for a free account and tracking their website traffic.

However, they also offer Google 360, which is another analytics tool that has a heap more features and more nuanced tracking.

They both do the same thing to some extent, but Google 360 pricing starts at $150,000 a year.

Obviously there's a big difference between free and $150k a year, which is why Google hires sales people to run product demos for potential customers, and help answer questions, or even reach out to companies that would be a good fit.

Now I'll be honest, sales isn't right for everyone. But if you think you have what it takes, sales can be extremely lucrative as these roles often have high salaries and bonuses for each sale that you make.

Responsibilities

• Prospecting: Identifying and reaching out to potential customers. Maybe you have a list of companies using standard Google Analytics, with X traffic and revenue, and so you reach out

• Product Knowledge: You will often need a deep understanding of the products or services being offered. Most companies will train this up

• Customer Engagement: To some extent you may need to build up relationships with customers, during the prospecting phase before hand off to the CSMs

• Sales Presentations: Delivering presentations to potential customers about the benefits of the company's products

• Closing Deals: Successfully closing sales and meeting or exceeding sales targets

Requirements

• Education: A high school diploma is typically the minimum requirement, though some companies may prefer a bachelor's degree in business, marketing, or a related field. Honestly though, if you know the product, what it's for, and have a go-getter attitude, you can score these roles with zero other education

• Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential. Your entire job is communicating and understanding the user's needs

• Sales Aptitude: When it comes to Enterprise sales, it’s less about being pushy (as sales cycles can take a while), and more about educating, helping, and then following up. If you can show them how much value it gives and the money saved, it is almost always a no-brainer not to buy from you

• Tech Savvy: Basic understanding of technology and the ability to learn about complex products

• Team Collaboration: Ability to collaborate with other sales team members and cross-functional teams

Average Salary

Again, this can vary based on company and location. Some early start-ups may even offer salary plus commission which opens up the opportunity for huge earnings.

For non-commission roles, the average salary is currently around $79,117 on ZipRecruiter, going as high as $85k for tech companies in California.

However, if you find a salary plus commission role, you could easily clear $10,000 a month or higher, depending on the company and your skills. It doesn't end there though...

Potential Career Path

Good salespeople can often be head-hunted by new startups for crazy salaries. (They want the best so they can get growth ASAP).

However, if you want to stay in the same company, you can usually move up to a more senior role such as an Account Executive, Sales Manager, or even into broader roles in business development, product management, or marketing.

And the salaries in these more senior roles can be huge:

That's almost $200k before bonuses!

IT Support Technician

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Rather than being an external-facing role, IT support is an internal role that assists other people in the company with technical issues and ensures everything is set up, up-to-date, and working correctly.

Responsibilities

• Technical Support: Assisting employees with IT-related issues

• Hardware and Software Installation: Installing, configuring, and maintaining computer hardware and software

• Network Support: Troubleshooting network issues and ensuring connectivity

• System Maintenance: Performing routine maintenance tasks, updates, and patches

• Documentation: Documenting IT procedures and resolutions for future reference

Requirements

Here’s where we start to get a little more niche, as you will need specific skills or training to perform this role before you can be hired.

If you're anything like me, and have nerded out and built your own PC, then you're probably fine with this role already.

• Education: A diploma or degree in information technology, computer science, or a related field is typically required. Like I say though, if you can show specific relevant experience, you can often get brought in as a junior support role

• Technical Skills: Basic knowledge of computer hardware, operating systems, and software applications

• Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to analyze and solve technical issues

• Customer Service Skills: Effective communication and customer service skills

• Adaptability: Willingness to learn and adapt to new technologies and tools

Average Salary

According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for this role is around $52,143 per year:

Potential Career Path

The IT technician role is a great starting point for more advanced roles in a company, such as a Systems Administrator (current average salary $88,927 a year).

Or you can even take it a step further and become a full DevOps Engineer.

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It’s a little more effort, but the average DevOps Engineer salary is around $139,112 a year, so not bad at all!

Quality Assurance Engineer

There's nothing more annoying than when a product isn’t functioning as it should. You click something and it doesn’t work, you get frustrated, and eventually, you stop using it or look for a competitors' products instead.

This is why tech companies will hire Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers to use and test the products to see if everything is working as intended. They identify and reporting bugs, collaborate with dev teams to address issues, and contributing to the overall improvement of the software development lifecycle.

The faster they iron out the kinks, the quicker the product goes to market and makes money!

Responsibilities

• Test Planning: Developing test plans based on project requirements. What would the average user do?

• Test Case Design: Creating detailed test cases to validate software functionality. Can we cause it to break in X situation?

• Execution: Performing manual or automated testing of software applications. What if we click 30 times in a minute? Would that affect the page?

• Bug Reporting: Identifying, documenting, and tracking software defects

• Collaboration: Working closely with developers and other team members to address and resolve issues

Requirements

• Education: A bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field is often preferred. That being said, you can take courses to cover major components of a CS degree and sidestep the huge costs

• Analytical Skills: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to identify and document software defects. What is happening and why?

• Communication Skills: Effective communication to collaborate with development teams and document testing processes

• Attention to Detail: You have to be able to spot even minor mistakes

• Technical Skills: Familiarity with testing tools, programming languages, and understanding of software development processes

Average Salary

The average salary for a QA Engineer is around $100,970.

Not bad for an entry-level role right?

Potential Career Path

Senior QA engineers don’t make much more money (on average) than others on the team, with the average salary being around $117,737.

However, because you’ve been working directly with the product in a technical role, you could continue to skill up and transition into the software development side if you so wished.

Junior UX Designer

Interested in design? Then a junior UI/UX Designer might be the perfect role for you!

This role involves understanding user needs, visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces for digital products, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver a positive user experience.

Responsibilities

• User Research: Conducting user research to understand target audiences and their needs

• Wireframing: Creating wireframes to outline the structure and layout of digital interfaces

• Prototyping: Developing interactive prototypes for user testing and feedback

• Visual Design: Designing the visual elements of digital interfaces, including color schemes, typography, and imagery

• Collaboration: Working closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to implement design solutions

Requirements

• Education: Either a bachelor's degree in graphic design or simply showing you have experience with the latest design technologies (having a great portfolio website is key). It’s about being able to show you can do the work more than anything else

• Design Tools: Proficiency in design tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Figma, or other UI/UX design tools

• Portfolio: A strong portfolio showcasing design projects and problem-solving skills

• Creativity: A creative mindset with an understanding of design principles and trends

• Communication Skills: Effective communication to present and justify design decisions

Average Salary

The average salary for a Junior UI/UX Designer is around $56,000.

Potential Career Path

Once you start to skill up further and gain more experience, you can apply for Senior UX designer positions. These currently have an average salary of around $139,080.

Or, you could even specialize further into specific design fields (ex: motion design, user experience, illustrations, game design, etc).

Like all tech, the more you specialize and improve, the higher your earning potential as you gain experience.

It should also be worth mentioning that design is a great career if you want to freelance and earn money on the side. Likewise for our next option...

Junior Web Developer

Want to build websites or apps? Well, the junior Web Developer role is the perfect entry point for this.

You can either work on:

• The front end (the stuff that the user sees)

• The backend (that make its all work)

• Or become full-stack and work on both front and back

I highly recommend learning full-stack as this open up more opportunities and higher salary.

Responsibilities

Building sites and apps, as well as:

• Coding: Writing clean and efficient code

• Testing: Conducting testing and debugging

• Collaboration: Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including designers and other developers

• Problem-Solving: Identifying and solving technical issues

• Learning: Continuously learning and staying updated on new technologies

Requirements

• Education: A degree in computer science, web development, or a related field is common but becoming increasingly less important. In fact, the vast majority of people who work in tech are all self-taught via online courses

• Programming Skills: Proficiency in programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

• Frameworks and Tools: Familiarity with web development frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, or Vue.js) and version control systems (e.g., Git)

• Problem-Solving Skills: Strong problem-solving and analytical skills

• Portfolio: A portfolio showcasing web development projects and coding skills

Average Salary

The average salary for a junior front-end Web Developer is around $79,224 right now.

However, the average full-stack junior developer salary is around $88,976.

$10k more and that's just for the junior salary.

It gets even better as you get more experience and move from junior to senior, where the average salary right now is $123,262.

The crazy thing is, it's not that hard to go from junior to senior either.

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Potential Career Path

The great thing about a web dev role (and learning to code in general), is it pretty much opens the doors to any career in tech. You can keep going to become a Senior Developer or transition into other areas of focus.

No joke, but experience in Web Development can help you transition to pretty much any other role, as it's all applicable. Sure learning to code isn't the easiest thing (simply because it's a brand new skill), but the payoff can be massive.

Just like with design, it's also a great skill if you want to add in freelance web dev work.

Junior Cyber Security Analyst

Cyber security is a huge growth industry, thanks to everything we use nowadays being online. This means we need more and more people to help protect these systems.

A Junior Cyber Security Analyst plays a critical role in protecting the organization's computer systems and networks from security threats, under the supervision of a team lead.

If you fancy implementing security systems or even trying to hack your teammates to find vulnerabilities, then this is the role for you!

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include monitoring security systems, analyzing potential vulnerabilities, and implementing measures to safeguard digital assets.

• Security Monitoring: Monitoring security alerts and events to identify potential threat

• Incident Response: Assisting in the response to security incidents and breaches

• Vulnerability Assessment: Conduct vulnerability assessments to identify and address potential weaknesses in systems. Did Karen from HR click the fake email you sent from Amazon and now has a keylogger on her machine? Boom - now it’s time to train team members in web hygiene

• Security Policies: Contributing to the development and enforcement of security policies and procedures. This means you’re always learning something new

• Security Awareness: Educating employees on security best practices and promoting a security-conscious culture. No clicking dodgy emails Karen!

Requirements

• Education: A bachelor's degree in cybersecurity, information technology, or a related field helps. But you can also just take courses online to get the skills you need to get hired

• Certifications: Industry-recognized certifications such as CompTIA Security+, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), or Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) may be beneficial. Some companies will even want this before you’re hired, as it shows a baseline level of current skills

• Technical Skills: Knowledge of security technologies, tools, and techniques. Why do things work the way they do, and why are their weaknesses?

• Analytical Skills: Strong analytical skills to assess and respond to security incidents

• Communication Skills: Effective communication to collaborate with IT teams and convey security concepts to non-technical stakeholders

Average Salary

Salary starts at around $66,802.

Potential Career Path

This career is cool in that there are a lot of different focuses in Cyber Security. You can build defensive systems, hack systems to find areas that are weak so they can be improved, find bugs, and more.

The salary for each of these roles can vary but is generally higher the more experience you get or the more you specialize. For example, a Senior Cyber Security Analyst earns around $113,704 a year on average.

You can also make really good money on the side finding bugs. This one is offering $75k if you can find a tier 1 issue!

Junior Data Analyst

The Data Analyst role is less about inputting data, and is instead more focused on understanding what that data means, so that it can be used to support business decision-making.

If you love numbers and solving problems, then this might be the perfect career for you.

Responsibilities

• Data Collection: Gathering data from various sources, and then ensuring its accuracy. (You can’t make good decisions on bad information right)

• Data Analysis: Analyzing data sets to identify trends, patterns, and insights. What is happening? What is trending? What actions should we take?

• Data Visualization: Creating visual representations of data through charts, graphs, and dashboards

• Reporting: Generating reports and presenting findings to stakeholders

• Collaboration: Working with other teams to understand business requirements and provide data-driven insights

Requirements

• Education: A bachelor's degree in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or a related field is considered a plus. But like all these entry-level roles, you don't HAVE to have a specific degree. You can also follow this career path of courses here instead and get hired

• Analytical Skills: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Technical Skills: Proficiency in data analysis tools (e.g., SQL, Python, R) and data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI)

• Communication Skills: Effective communication to convey findings to both technical and non-technical audiences

• Attention to Detail: A keen eye for detail to ensure accurate data analysis

Average Salary

The average salary for a Junior Data Analyst is around $79,352.

Potential Career Path

Understanding data is so important, which is why if you continue to work down this path, you can make some serious cash. You could go on to become a Data Scientist and earn around $122,738, or a Data Engineer and earn$129,716.

Which job will you choose?

So there you have it. 11 of the best entry-level tech jobs for 2026 and beyond.

Some of them you can start right now on lower salaries, while others require a little more training, but have a serious bump up in cash.

The crazy thing is, you can pick up the skills to get started in most of these in around 6 months or so of focused learning. We've had so many students start off with zero experience and get hired at some of the biggest tech companies in the world.

The key is to pick one and start learning today, so you can get that 6-figure salary and all the other tech job benefits.

Not sure which of these careers would be best for you?

Well you can either read our guide on how to pick the best tech career for you.

Or better yet take our tech career path quiz below:

You answer a few questions and it’ll help you figure out the best tech career for you, and give you a personalized step-by-step roadmap to make it happen.

All you have to do then is follow the path, and you'll be working in that entry-level tech role before you know it!