what kind of IT department do you like?

gregee

do you like a huge IT department or a small one?

gregee

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Olajuwon

gregee wrote:

do you like a huge IT department or a small one?

gregee

Huge = more $$$

strauchr

After working in all shapes and sizes I must say I like medium size better (roughly 30-50 IT staff).

It means you usually have enough professional gear to play around with and you get the opportunity to do a varied role rather than concentrate on only one thing. And its usally big enough so you can work your way up and not get stuck doing help desk or something.

You can get good money in medium and even small companies if you find the right one and often large companies cause you more hassle than their worth.

Currently I am in an absoloutely huge company and really had enough of it. Same crap different day for me now so I am looking to downgrade to a smaller company.

Interesting topic though.

deneb829

If you're in a small IT department, you tend to get the chance to do more. When you're in a large, well-established department, you usually just do the job that you were hired to do.

You do make more money in a larger organization, but you chance for layoffs are better as well.

When you're in a small department, while you could be downsized, I feel that you tend to have a bit more job security.

jkstech

i'm in a small department, local government, around 15-20 people

I can walk in and talk to my director anytime I want, get a chance to get involved in more things, plus, my position was created for me, so I like it, with so few employees it's pretty easy to get training paid for, and any extra materials I may need for my exams

for my first outing in IT, this is my ideal setting, not sure about future but for now I like the small scene, personally I wouldn't like the huge company scene, though I wouldn't mind being a consultant for a large company

RTmarc

I prefer a smaller environment. It allows for job security as well as the opportunity to get my hands dirty with everything. Not to mention I have all of the budget at my disposal versus having to spread it about other groups within the technology division.

blargoe

Smaller companies are great if you are ready to transition to more responsibility.

Webmaster

It really depends on whether I like the job and how large the rest of the organization is. I'd rather work in a 'relatively' small IT department. Which can be made up of 100+ people as long as the organization itself is huge as well. I usually didn't like working at small companies (regardless of the size of the IT department, and unless it's my own

) because there's too often personal politics go before company policy/mission.

RTmarc wrote:

as well as the opportunity to get my hands dirty with everything.

I agree. Being an administrator (and calldesk, desktop and hardware support) for a small company e.g. up to 250-300 users is an excellent way to get a lot of experience in different areas, which in turn allows you to find out in which area you eventually may want to specialize. In such situations the IT 'department' (less than a handful of people) or more often a regular part of the organization, rather than the islands large IT departments often are in large organizations (which has it's pros as well).

Smallguy

at this stage in my career I liek bing and a samll company 50 users and a 3 person IT dept I get to learn alot more than if I ws in a big company wqhere I would problaby be tasked with trivial tihngs liek creating users all day

here I "run the show" and have gotten to learn alot more than I probably wolud have in a big environment

RavenSpawn

I've only worked in a small IT dept ( 5 people including the director and 1 at the company's Toronto site ) supporting about 350-400 users in a call center, between both sites. I thoroughly enjoyed it and got along with my director well enough that he saw me going up faster then the guy who was there since the site opened just over 3 years ago. Since this company has many sites between Canada and the US, we didn't get our hands 'dirty' as much as we would have liked since most of the servers, software was centrally managed from a US site but otherwise still got a good understanding of the hardware, except for the Cisco stuff. I'm in the process of looking for a job with a company that has takes care of everything onsite but looks to have the IT team seperated in groups ( i.e. server team, network team, security team etc. ) supporting the site and other offices and remote users. I would say it depends on your preferences. With small companies or small IT dept., you'll have more of a chance to 'play' and learn on the job while a large IT dept. you'll more than likely be stuck at the job you're hired to do unless you get a different job within the IT dept. I would say though that depending on the company, regardless of size, you might still get the chance to 'play and learn' if they are open to you learning new technology/skills. Since this field is always changing, I don't see why they would not let you learn new skills to keep up and help you advance.

buchatech

Hey All,

I am new to the board. I have been in IT for 6 years now at a few different companies.

At a large corp i was very limited to what I could do. If I tried to provide support beyond my regular duties I was in trouble. We had to escalate it.

Medium Size (50 or more employees) I found this to be the best. You get a variety and have more job security.

At a very small company (less then 10 employees) I got a lot of hands on and and a variety of technologies to work on. Not much of a budget for training though.

My 2cents.

kujayhawk93

My two IT jobs have been at a small company (about 60 employees) and my current job is with a medium-sized company (around 300). At the small company, our IT staff consisted of myself, two programmers, and our director. Currently, I'm part of a staff of 7, but of those, two are DBAs, one is an administrative professional, and one is our director, so there's really 3 of us that do all the dirty work. I agree with the other statement that have been made- the smaller the company, the more potential there is to learn new things and experiment with new technologies that you're interested in. Even though the pay might not be as good as at a huge company, I can't imagine having to specialize in one area and doing nothing but that one thing day in and day out. I'd rather have less pay, but a wide variety of tasks and responsibilities.

garv221

gregee wrote:

do you like a huge IT department or a small one?

gregee

Without question a large IT dept. In a small IT Dept a tech could be configuring a huge Cisco network & at that same moment get a question from an end user regarding their left mouse button not working. Small IT dept's can be annoying.

RATTLERMAN

I support about 900 total between our field offices,call center,executive staff etc. The only problem i have is that the network stuff has to go to the network group and the same for the server stuff. About the only thing i can do is hand it off to them after i troubleshoot my part. I would love to be in a small department where i caould have a few more responsibilties. I guess you have to make do with whatever situation you are in

TechJunky

Big corporations are APITA IMO. Too many politics. I have worked for 2 LARGE companies and hated both after about 6 months. You do the same job, turn over rate is outragious and advancement is hard due to the fact that all the Admin's are comfortable and dont want to move on.

I am now working in for a company that consists of 3 technicians. We are a contracting company for installing and repairing windows systems, database management and migration. I am always busy and I am learning new things everyday. At my old job I dealt mainly with Windows user groups, policys etc. I became very good at it, but became very bored. I now deal with Windows Servers, workstations, domains, Database Administration, writing custom scripts etc. It is a very demanding role and allows me to show my true talents. Growth position isnt here, but I am a Netowork Administrator, so I dont really need any further growth. My job duties also include much of a project manager/analyst. So I really get great experience at different job roles. We have about 500 servers that we maintian and about 2000 workstations.

Couldn't ask for a better boss in the world!