Management in IT

I'd like opinions or personal stories of how you or someone you know has reached a management level position in IT. How many years did it take to reach that level and, more importantly, how much of a role did graduate studies play (if applicable)?

If there is one piece of advice you would give to "speed up" the process to reach a management position, what would that piece of advice be?

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mikej412

mikej412 wrote:

Someone I worked with once got the opportunity to jump in with another team that was having problems and my advise to him was "step up, move up." He was a good guy and I helped him every chance I got.... and he became Manager of that other group. And he got the problems fixed.

That was at a Fortune 5 company -- so after he became a manager, he started University of Phoenix classes to get a degree.

Same company, another group -- the lowest paid employee with the worst technical skills was the manager of that group -- one of the biggest weasels I've ever seen. And my guess is he lied about his educational credentials. That guy had the potential to rise to middle mediocre management.

Then there are the CEOs who lied about Ivy League degress.... and resigned with multi-million dollar buyouts when "found out."

A real education is very helpful, but not mandatory.

The PhDs I've worked with have made less than the "good weasely managers." Heck, as a contractor I made more..... And last job as an employee before contracting, I went from Manager of Software Development to Senior Network Engineer (reporting to the directly to the CIO) and got a pay raise.

Before I became the Manager of Software Development, I was there 4 years, 2 years at a previous job, and the Military and College before that. I took the management position with the promise I'd never have to spend more than 10% of my time "Managing" and I got it because I got the job done.

sir_creamy_ wrote:

If there is one piece of advice you would give to "speed up" the process to reach a management position, what would that piece of advice be?

Step up, move up (get the job done) is one way. The other more common way is to be a weasel.

sprkymrk

A 4-year degree and great soft-skills. Be the best in your field. Continually seek self improvement and don't remain stagnant.

Always be willing to reach down and give others a hand-up, otherwise as you climb the ladder of success others will reach up and try to pull you down. (Something I heard Zig Ziglar say once that I found to be very true).

Kaminsky

Degree definately. Preferably business IT.

Another key cert these days seems to become ITIL accredited at least upto the second level.

Remember though that management doesn't necesarily mean your the best techie in the department although as techies we like to think that this is the case and they are someone we can go to whenever we get stuck on a problem. Staff management, finance control, project planning and the ability to make sound decisions are more relevent to any manager, IT included. They hire people to do the techie stuff for the department is all.

This is probably why you hear about IT managers not having much of a clue about IT but they can manage a team. (The nodding dog effect comes into play whenever anyone talks techie to them - so irritating!) Certainly true of the complete goit who used to be my manager when I last was an employee. Put me off permanent employment for many years due to his activities. I am only just daring to go back into permanent employment now mainly because in the 2 hour interview, the it manager came across as a really laid back, nice guy. Someone I can respect.

drakhan2002

Kaminsky wrote:

Another key cert these days seems to become ITIL accredited at least upto the second level.

I'm not necessarily sold on that. ITIL is a great service model and it is important to understand these principals, but as certificate holder in ITIL, I do not see it being something that will take me to the next level. Time will tell, and I hope it does, but right now...at least at my organization...everyone is getting this certification throughout the orgranization. Of just over 1,000 IT people, 200 of us have been certified in ITIL and we host the 2-day ITIL Foundations class every quarter - so more people will be certified. In my class we had a mix of Mainframe programmers, open systems programmers, QA, change management people, IT management, application managers, and (me) information security.

Kaminsky

drakhan2002 wrote:

Kaminsky wrote:

Another key cert these days seems to become ITIL accredited at least upto the second level.

I'm not necessarily sold on that. ITIL is a great service model and it is important to understand these principals, but as certificate holder in ITIL, I do not see it being something that will take me to the next level. Time will tell, and I hope it does, but right now...at least at my organization...everyone is getting this certification throughout the orgranization. Of just over 1,000 IT people, 200 of us have been certified in ITIL and we host the 2-day ITIL Foundations class every quarter - so more people will be certified. In my class we had a mix of Mainframe programmers, open systems programmers, QA, change management people, IT management, application managers, and (me) information security.

You've indirectly proved my point there about the ITIL.

It's not a cert for you to get to prove knowledge but more of a cert for your organisation to prove competency of it's staff to potential clients. ie... "our staff are all ITIL accredited" hence why your organisation is actively certificating in this. Yes, for newcomers to the industry it can be an educational tool into the sort of provision you must give to users but it is a selling point for organisations providing IT services.

Now if you come to an organisation already with this cert and especially higher ITIL certs, it can help a lot these days where certs seem to mean a lot more than actually finding out what the candidate can do or is capable of.