New Manager, not very knowledgeable
markulous
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Anyone have a manager, particularly in infosec, that just is in way over their head?
Our old manager ended up taking a job somewhere else because of some politics and the guy that replaced him doesn't have the first idea about security. I don't expect someone super technical but for a director I'd expect at least CISSP knowledge.
Is this something you just truck through or bail? I'm going to stay for a little bit longer to take advantage of training, but maybe my expectations are too high. It's just frustrating a lot when he's lost a lot of times and tries to act like he knows more than he does.
Our old manager ended up taking a job somewhere else because of some politics and the guy that replaced him doesn't have the first idea about security. I don't expect someone super technical but for a director I'd expect at least CISSP knowledge.
Is this something you just truck through or bail? I'm going to stay for a little bit longer to take advantage of training, but maybe my expectations are too high. It's just frustrating a lot when he's lost a lot of times and tries to act like he knows more than he does.
Comments
Use these new found friendships to your advantage by getting the new "boss" fired or at the very least turning everyone against him with the intention of creating a hostile work environment (very hard to prove in court without concrete evidence ) covertly and with subtly.
Once he gets fired or inevitably quits you have create an opportunity that you can now seize upon to advance your career, congratulations.
Also, now you have successfully obtained knew knowledge on how to social engineer a security firm by dividing the workforce against management creating inherent inefficiencies within the implementation of knew security policy. I am very tired and adjusting to a new overnight schedule so this may not make sense.
Now you can get a job in espionage and go after the Russians and Trump as a master spy.
If you would like to hire me as a consultant please contact me via message.
If he's rude, abrasive, no fun to work for or a complete fraud - and everyone else in the team is struggling to maintain morale making the trip to work each day seem like hell - then thats a different argument altogether. I've been there a couple of times, gave the new bosses a couple of months grace and then got out if I still felt the situation wouldn't improve. Life is too short to work under a really bad manager.
My first manager at my current position was a non-technical person. He had experience managing a customer service team (call center) and I believe he came in pretty cheap which is why upper management took a shot on him. Either way, he was pretty decent with the actual people management and administrative duties, however, where he fell short was with his ego and how it wouldn't allow him to be humble and admit that he didn't know everything. He started not trusting our opinions and expertise as technicians and started coming up with his own solutions, selling to customers and sales teams impossible solutions...this eventually lead to his firing.
As sort of a contrast to that last paragraph, a lot of the higher enlisted/officers I worked for in the Navy were non-technical as well. Most of them had no problems walking up to me and asking to explain things to them technically so it can be used in a brief or asking advice on how to implement a circuit, etc. They understood that they didn't know everything about every system onboard but they trusted the technicians that did. I guess in my mind that's the biggest difference between being just a manager and being an effective manager.
Long story short...Not sure exactly what your role is but I'm not sure that I would bounce just yet. I agree with what t93cpbra said, give it some time, keeping doing you, make the best of the situation, and reevaluate once things level out.
Hiring internally is a nice idea, but at some point you have to realize that you'll pave a few deer trails for every 4 lane that you develop...
Oddly enough he outright quit the morning he was going to be let go.
IIRC your previous job situations I would stick it out as long as you can. I probably would regardless. How long has it been since he was hired? Maybe he will gradually become humbled as time goes on and stop pretending?
He really doesn't do anything though. We ask him for help and he doesn't action on anything. All he does is just kind of kick down whatever the CIO says (we don't have a CISO).
Our first intro to him as our manager, he announced to everyone that security sucks, no one likes us, and that we are just roadblocks so we kind of got off on the wrong foot.
I personally can live with someone that's not super technical but he doesn't really make up for it in any other way. I think the plan now is to get my CISSP, hopefully get a bonus in September, then bail if nothing improves. That puts me there over a year so I don't look too job hoppy
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:]
The link didn't work but maybe it's my phone.
He started a few months back. Haven't really seen any improvement. Other managers and employees don't really think much of him since he seems more like a politician than a manager.
My previous manager actually went to a super popular security company and gave me an interview but guess I bombed it since I haven't heard anything. I think I'll stay for the time being unless that comes to fruition
If it's been a week I would follow up with him. He must of liked you since he wanted to give you an interview. If you didn't pass the interview I'm guessing your previous manager would let you know where you screwed up on and what you can do better. Possibility for next time...
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But yeah, let him ruin himself in the eye of the management. If he really sucks it's only a question of time before he makes a huge consequences misstep.
It's been a month. Sent the interviewer two emails and my former boss has been busy and said he doesn't know, so I'm guessing it's a no. But yeah, I totally agree, I wanted some feedback to know what to improve on. It's almost the same environment and job description so guessing it was just me interviewing poorly
Ah, sounds like almost the same situation. Did you stick around?
The previous manager was great but he wouldn't play politics so I think that's part of the reason this manager will be favored. He's the polar opposite where he sucks with security but kisses the CIOs butt and he eats it up
You will be surprise how many top guys that hire people that are dumb because they are not a threat to them.
Yes, for as long as it was making sense for my career. I did my job well (always do), I was paid relatively well, communication was mainly formal anyway, so it didn't bother me much. I didn't try to override whatever he did or sabotage anything, I did all the tasks he assigned to me well without much concern of how much did it hurt or benefited the company or wasted company resources (it's not my company anyways). Actually, this thing happens quite often, so you'd better get used to it. So I'm used to it and pretty cynical about it. "Whatever".
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**** roles down hill, do you really think most middle managers get in trouble and they don't just pass it off on the guys below them?
I would strongly advise against doing this. He's hired by someone who is his superior, and already has good relationships within upper management. They won't fire him because it will make them look bad.
Get on his good side, be professional and offer your technical expertise to help him get the hang of things. Get him on your side and make him be your supporter and promoter.
Late this year we will be deploying ISE, so that seems like a project to stick around for to put on the resume. Maybe next year I'll look unless I'm blown away by am offer