How to transition to Lead/Supervisory/ Managerial Roles - feedback requested

TheFORCE

I was just wondering, what does it take for someone in an analyst role to transition to a Lead/Supervisor/Manager role? How did you guys move up when you had no direct experience or those titles? I believe I could be a really good manager eventually, I have really good work ethics and always help my team. But I am not even considered because according to recruiters or HR reps, I do not have any direct exposure to the roles. Now, in my previous roles, I always took initiatives and I was considered the back up person for the manager, and my managers would tell me that I am the Lead of this group, they would tell the other team members that I was the Lead for all the projects etc etc. But, unfortunately for me, HR never recognized me as such and I never had an official title. Can I use "Team Lead" on my resume if my direct managers considered me as such or does it have to be official title from HR?

I come across managerial positions that require the skills and experience that I have but because I do not have official Lead/ supervisory roles I am not even considered. I mean, I am willing to be a Helpdesk manager at this point just to get that experience/Title in, but I am not even getting any call backs for those either, and when I do, they tell me, everything looks good on paper except the lack of previous managerial experience and that it would be a tough sell and of course I am being passed. So, how do I make the transition? Should I study for ITIL, would that cert help? Should I push my current manager so that I get a "Lead" title? I mean, even my current supervisor, on their LinkedIn profile has "Manager of xxxxx" when in reality they are only a supervisor.

Chitownjedi

The moment I started referencing ITIL and got certified was the moment that about 25 - 30% of the cold calls and job board postings I had up became calls for Management, and Leadership positions.

I think ITIL has good ROI, actually great ROI. And the concepts can help you "Speak" in a more service orientated way that jives better with the business. Good luck with management.

shodown

The easiest way I have seen people get those jobs is to just stick around long enough until they become the lead. Also while in that process start leading projects and getting buy in from the other people you work with. Also keep in mind the skill level that you want to move into management. Its pretty easy to lead a desktop support group or NOC lead as people want to move onto higher skill set jobs. Moving onto engineering lead roles will require much more technical skills with the management skills to go on top of those.

Management is kinda a whole different story than the lead supervisory roles.

anhtran35

Agree with SHODOWN. I've ended up sticking around long enough in the Customer Service field that I became a Supervisor. I managed to parlay that experience managing help desk people in smaller shops.

Polynomial

Chitownjedi wrote: »

The moment I started referencing ITIL and got certified was the moment that about 25 - 30% of the cold calls and job board postings I had up became calls for Management, and Leadership positions.

I think ITIL has good ROI, actually great ROI. And the concepts can help you "Speak" in a more service orientated way that jives better with the business. Good luck with management.

This 1000%.

bubble2005

My best advice would be to obtain an MBA. Upper level executives absolutely love technical folks who have an MBA. Its like a "now you can join our upper circle" kind of impression. Also obtain IT mgmt certifications such as ITIL, PMP, or even agile. Since you lead a few projects, you may qualify for the associate PMP. However in my humble opinion, I got an MBA. I'm under 30 and I wasn't automatically placed in a mgmt position as soon as I got my degree, but that next year I surely was. Just remember what you love though because Mgmt and Technical are two sides of the same coin but it will take time to be great at both. I decided to choose the mgmt track while my friends prefer the technical track.

TheFORCE

I recently passed ITILF and was informed through the forum that there will be a new track in ITIL, called ITIL Practitioner which will probably try to get also. I'm already being noticed in the company because of ITIL i think even though I just got it, my name is mentioned in conversations. That's a start.
As far as MBA is concerned, my school years were tough so i got my BS degree with the lowest possible gpa so that automatically disqualifies to apply for an MBA program i beleive. I'm doing better in the real world with work than I did with school. What can I say, wanted to play more counter strike lol. Certainly if i was to go the MBA route I'd probably have to get an another degree with high gpa to qualify for MBA.

networker050184

Show you have what it takes. I was first made a lead because I was the most competent member on the team. From there you have the stuff to put on the resume. That's the most important factor to get calls from future employers.

bubble2005

TheFORCE wrote: »

I recently passed ITILF and was informed through the forum that there will be a new track in ITIL, called ITIL Practitioner which will probably try to get also. I'm already being noticed in the company because of ITIL i think even though I just got it, my name is mentioned in conversations. That's a start.
As far as MBA is concerned, my school years were tough so i got my BS degree with the lowest possible gpa so that automatically disqualifies to apply for an MBA program i beleive. I'm doing better in the real world with work than I did with school. What can I say, wanted to play more counter strike lol. Certainly if i was to go the MBA route I'd probably have to get an another degree with high gpa to qualify for MBA.

Where do you want your career to be directed towards? Management or Technical? Of course in each one, there will be various upper levels, but one will be upper level of the business (CIO, CTO, CISO) and the next will be upper level of technology (Security Manager, Network Manager, <name of vendor or technology goes here> Senior Manager). Just be sure to select a side, DON'T try to fit in the middle. Of course with experience you can work your way up.

TheFORCE

bubble2005 wrote: »

Where do you want your career to be directed towards? Management or Technical? Of course in each one, there will be various upper levels, but one will be upper level of the business (CIO, CTO, CISO) and the next will be upper level of technology (Security Manager, Network Manager, <name of vendor or technology goes here> Senior Manager). Just be sure to select a side, DON'T try to fit in the middle. Of course with experience you can work your way up.

My goal is to be on the level of a security manager or at least the lead/supervisor of a small security team.

Cyberscum

Management jobs suck. I would love to be technical again.

...Maybe its just my exp though

TheFORCE

Cyberscum wrote: »

Management jobs suck. I would love to be technical again.

...Maybe its just my exp though

I just think that you can acomplish more when you are in management level. I had a very good manager earlier in my career and they were very hands on with everything, knew the strength and weaknesses of every team member and managed the team very efficiently. Things run very smoothly. Even when they were not getting paid oncall, they did the on call just like the rest of the team. They were later promoted to a director role and 1.5 years after that I moved on from the company. I learned a lot from them and think I could apply the same level of commitment to the team I'm assigned.

paul78

Good luck in reaching your goal. I can definitely understand your desire to be in management. There really is no secret formula from my own experience. The first step is to articulate to your manager that you have a desire to be in management. If your employer is big enough or if it's growing, perhaps that opportunity will present itself - but your management needs to know that you are interested.

The second step is intangible. What makes an individual stand-out as a potential manager is their leadership talent. Not everyone can lead or manage. Too often, I've seen people promoted into technology management not because they can lead but because they were the best technician. People will follow good leaders but not good managers.

The last talent trait is business judgement. If you can demonstrate that you exercise practical judgement that is aligned with the business goals that will make you stand out as well.

Just my 2 cents - others may pick managers differently.

UnixGuy

There are some great suggestions in this thread! Definitely all are great options.

Something that hasn't been mentioned that I would personally do: Keep applying for management positions (and keep getting rejected) until you get an opportunity for an interview; someone will give you a chance specially that you have good IT experience already.

zxbane

paul78 wrote: »

Good luck in reaching your goal. I can definitely understand your desire to be in management. There really is no secret formula from my own experience. The first step is to articulate to your manager that you have a desire to be in management. If your employer is big enough or if it's growing, perhaps that opportunity will present itself - but your management needs to know that you are interested.

The second step is intangible. What makes an individual stand-out as a potential manager is their leadership talent. Not everyone can lead or manage. Too often, I've seen people promoted into technology management not because they can lead but because they were the best technician. People will follow good leaders but not good managers.

The last talent trait is business judgement. If you can demonstrate that you exercise practical judgement that is aligned with the business goals that will make you stand out as well.

Just my 2 cents - others may pick managers differently.

As always, Paul has great advice. I'm slowly making this transition myself. I feel like being on the management side you have the potential to get a lot done if you are able to understand the goals and utilize the team members to achieve those goals. I've found myself less and less interested in knowing the down in the weeds technical aspects of things and more concerned with knowing how to get those who do have those skills to collaborate and work efficiently.

bubble2005

Cyberscum wrote: »

Management jobs suck. I would love to be technical again.

...Maybe its just my exp though

Oh well, maybe your own might suck or you would prefer technical oriented tasks. Different strokes for different folks Mate.

bubble2005

zxbane wrote: »

As always, Paul has great advice. I'm slowly making this transition myself. I feel like being on the management side you have the potential to get a lot done if you are able to understand the goals and utilize the team members to achieve those goals. I've found myself less and less interested in knowing the down in the weeds technical aspects of things and more concerned with knowing how to get those who do have those skills to collaborate and work efficiently.

Let's also be frank, remember the $$$ too.

Christian.

bubble2005 wrote: »

Where do you want your career to be directed towards? Management or Technical? Of course in each one, there will be various upper levels, but one will be upper level of the business (CIO, CTO, CISO) and the next will be upper level of technology (Security Manager, Network Manager, <name of vendor or technology goes here> Senior Manager). Just be sure to select a side, DON'T try to fit in the middle. Of course with experience you can work your way up.

The downside is that after working on senior technical positions, there is no more room to grow, you are already in the last step in the ladder. All the positions you can get after that are going to be somehow similar. I'm thinking in the long run to switch into management, not because I love it (I don't have enough experience to say I hate it either), but I like the idea of being in a position where there is a lot of room to go up. I don't have a technical position above mine, but I do have 7 spots between me and the CEO, all of them are related to management.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you went into management? What was your reasoning behind it? Do you think if something happens in your work (got tired, laid off, fired), you will be able to get into another place fast or this is a gamble? Technical people have it fairly easy if they want to get into a new place, usually with a better pay, not sure if that happens if you switch into management.

OctalDump

TheFORCE wrote: »

I was just wondering, what does it take for someone in an analyst role to transition to a Lead/Supervisor/Manager role? .

Getting the job title depends also on who you work for. Some companies are very reluctant to give out titles, others give nearly everyone some fancy title. I think that smaller companies might be more open to creative titles.

Certainly if I had lead (led?) teams or projects, then I would put that on my resume. Good concrete statements about what you did and what you achieved, eg I lead a team of 5 in a project to create a full systems audit for a new client. I oversaw the project from beginning to end. I had a budget responsibility of $38,000. The project was successful and lead to an ongoing relationship with the client.

As for LinkedIn, it seems that it's full of lies. It's like the exaggeration that people put into their resumes and then turned up a couple of notches.

If you can speak to the substance of what they want in a manager, and can demonstrate those qualities, then you should be considered. But hiring is a bit of a hit and miss, anyway. People get turned down for some stupid reasons, and hired for stupid reasons. I read somewhere that you are more likely to be hired if your job interview is just (30-60mins) after lunch - people with full bellies are happier and look on you more favourably.

I see the whole hiring process as a bit more two way. You can use your resume, cover letter, interview etc to filter out some of the companies you won't want to work for. Maybe if the company is too attached to a title and ignores your actual experience, they might not be a company that makes good decisions generally. A company that sees your potential might be more inclined to help you grow.

In terms of moving up, then IT service management (ITIL mid level certs) and project management (Agile, Scrum, Prince2, PMP) are the immediate skills. Higher level stuff, C level or senior executive positions, is where you might want to look at a Master IT Management type program. It depends on the institution what they'll call it exactly, some have MBA (IT), or Master of Management (IT) or Master of IT (Management) or whatever. The things you are looking for are the skills to deal with people, with money, and with strategy and governance. Depending on what kind of field you are in, and what skills you already have, there might be other options in there like professional communications, marketing, portfolio management, higher level PM stuff.

I think that when you look at the next steps to take, you ideally consider the longer term pitch as well. So look at the role you want next, but also the next role after that. Look at what you need to develop to get there. Ask the people that are in those roles what they do, what they recommend. Try and make the steps you take complementary.

I've been told a lot of things about success, but I'm skeptical that there is one answer or magic key that will open all doors for everyone.

paul78

bubble2005 wrote: »

Let's also be frank, remember the $$$ too.

Fair point and a very relevant comment. The higher compensation also comes with a different set of challenges as different expectations are placed on managers.

Christian. wrote:

Technical people have it fairly easy if they want to get into a new place, usually with a better pay, not sure if that happens if you switch into management.

There are definitely less jobs for technology managers. But the challenges when switching jobs are the same - and the hiring process takes a much longer time as well.