Advice on breaking into management

With the state of the economy right now, I know I'm not going to be getting a promotion at any point in the next year or two. So, I'd like to use this time to improve my skill set so I can be ready when opportunities become available. I'm looking for advice on breaking into a management position within IT and also advice on what certifications look good for managers.

Right now I am finishing my master's degree in information systems management. I will be finished in August. After that I was thinking about possibly getting a yellow belt six sigma certification or even the intro PMP cert. But, I'm kind of lost in finding a way to pad my resume.

What do you think?

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Comments

hollow666

Sigma six is a big buzz word I hear all our executives throwing around including my CIO. In fact that was one of the prereqs they were looking for our new project manager director position.

UnixGuy

you are in the right direction with the master degree. Although I personally prefer MBA, but still any master degree is a huge plus.

certifications wise, I hear about PMP a lot...also consider ITIL V3...it's very popular among managers.

shednik

MS/MBA(or both is even better), Six Sigma, PMP, ITIL, & CISM to name the few things off the top of my head. Maybe try to start leading some project at your company or even freelance jobs if you have the time. I've learned in my short career that business/comminication skills are more important than technical skills at times. Maybe sit down with your boss and see if there are any opportunities for you at your company and go over your goals. I know some companies may not want to hear about it and other will encourage you develop yourself. Best of luck to you! Do you have a particular part of IT you'd like to manage? Projects, Operations, Architecture, Security?

Jordus

The six sigma thing is probably pretty respected, but i have to laugh quite a bit at a professional level cert that copies the "belt" thing from martial arts.

I actually thought six sigma WAS martial arts until i looked it up.

eMeS

IMO, about the most useful thing you can do is learn to speak in public, to any size audience. Toastmasters is excellent for this, and relatively inexpensive.

Regarding Six Sigma, honestly the heyday for that was many years ago (like 2000). However, I am getting quite a few requests for it recently so it might be making a comeback.

"Yellow Belt" in Six Sigma is simply an awareness type class, and is not really that useful. Go for a Green Belt at the least, or a Black Belt if you really want to be able to do Six Sigma work. I have a 2-day "Yellow Belt" class that I rarely deliver...I'd be happy to send my courseware to you free of charge. You'll get about as much out of reading through it as you would attending a class and having someone read it to you.

Be VERY careful with Six Sigma certifications. There's a lot of scamming out there because there is no governing body. I received my Black Belt certification from The American Society for Quality.

American Society for Quality - ASQ

ASQ is one of the few credible professional organizations that offers Six Sigma certifications that aren't a scam. They will verify your experience and require that you pass a really difficult 4 hour exam. It's open book, but that doesn't help much. I literally saw guys in my exam rolling in shopping carts full of books. It wouldn't have helped much if you didn't know the topic pretty well.

Do not get into Six Sigma unless you are very familiar with statistics and different complex statistical methods. Studying for a Six Sigma Belt is not the time to learn statistics, instead you should come to it with a strong knowledge of statistics and statistical methods. I had about about 1 year of stats undergrad + 1 year of stats in graduate school. I would say that this gave me the foundation I needed to understand the techniques that fall under the Six Sigma body of knowledge.

As mentioned, ITIL and PMP are popular. IMO, these things are fairly useless unless you have actually worked in either (or both) of those areas.

Additionally, I would recommend anything related to business process modeling and/or business analysis. A certification that is about to be hot is the CBAP, which can be found at International Institute of Business Analysis | Home .

Also, join a professional society and participate. There are many to choose from, and they can help your career quite a bit. My only advice is don't join one unless you can contribute/participate in some way.

Best wishes,

MS

Turgon

johnnyg5646 wrote: »

With the state of the economy right now, I know I'm not going to be getting a promotion at any point in the next year or two. So, I'd like to use this time to improve my skill set so I can be ready when opportunities become available. I'm looking for advice on breaking into a management position within IT and also advice on what certifications look good for managers.

Right now I am finishing my master's degree in information systems management. I will be finished in August. After that I was thinking about possibly getting a yellow belt six sigma certification or even the intro PMP cert. But, I'm kind of lost in finding a way to pad my resume.

What do you think?

You are already pretty qualified. I would have a look at Project+ first of all as it touches on some of the people type issues you can encounter when trying to get things through and it's a very doable cert. It will also teach you something about the kind of processes you work with to some extent as an IT Manager which is why I don't think the certification is exclusively of use to project managers because even support professionals have projects to manage from time to time. If you are serious about management consider any training or outside work activities that will help you develop people skills as these will help make your job a little easier as a manager. Remember though, while courses, training and certification are certainly potentially helpful you will have to work hard on working relationships to be really effective as a manager. Finding helpful ways to motivate different people and keeping morale up. There are many more managers than there are good ones. Some people are natural at it, most others have to work at it, some never work at it and problems ensue! Getting inside people's heads can be pretty demanding work. That's something that people who have never managed underestimate at times!

Good luck!

johnnyg5646

Thank you very much for all of the suggestions. I've got some research to do based on all the information I was given.

I took a couple of 2 day training seminars in the last few months. One was called, "7 habits of managers" and was based on the Franklin Covey training material. The other was a project planning and managing training seminar that was put together by a local project manager. Unfortunetly with the current recession, I am no longer getting the money from my job to go to these. So, now I'm going to have to focus on learning on my own.

Bert McGert

IMHO, based on what I've seen in most managers throughout my tenure, here are what I see as being must-have skills:

1) Learn how to delegate as much work as you can to others.
2) Know how to not learn anything useful so that when someone needs something, you can fall back on #1. That way you'll be free to take the credit when it gets done.
3) Buzz-words. Know them and use them as frequently as possible regardless if they make any sense. If other managers don't understand you, they'll think you're smarter than them. I recommend referring to "bullshit bingo" for said buzzwords. If you're not familiar with it, Google it.
4) Be comfortable with the fake credentials on your resume. After all, it's not a lie if you believe it.
5) Know how to disappear to a "meeting" when the going gets tough. No one will know where you are, but you must be in a meeting somewhere with someone else.

If you do most of these types of things already, you have a bright future ahead of you in management. If you find most of these things repulsive, the folks on your team will love you, but you'll not have many manager friends and thus will have a much harder time clawing your way up the ladder.

Bert McGert

I took a couple of 2 day training seminars in the last few months. One was called, "7 habits of managers" and was based on the Franklin Covey training material.

Ahh, Franklin Covey "training"... if you've tricked your company in to believing that these seminars have any value whatsoever, you'll be a VP in no time flat. Hopefully you dropped a pile of $$$ on their literature.

johnnyg5646

Bert McGert wrote: »

Ahh, Franklin Covey "training"... if you've tricked your company in to believing that these seminars have any value whatsoever, you'll be a VP in no time flat. Hopefully you dropped a pile of $$$ on their literature.

Honestly, i have no idea how much that course cost (i'm guessing around $300). But, I got to say I agree with you. There was not a whole lot of useful information. Its really funny though, I think people were impressed with the fact that I cared enough to go. Even though I didn't learn much, I think it was still beneficial for that alone.

networker050184

Bert McGert wrote: »

IMHO, based on what I've seen in most managers throughout my tenure, here are what I see as being must-have skills:

1) Learn how to delegate as much work as you can to others.
2) Know how to not learn anything useful so that when someone needs something, you can fall back on #1. That way you'll be free to take the credit when it gets done.
3) Buzz-words. Know them and use them as frequently as possible regardless if they make any sense. If other managers don't understand you, they'll think you're smarter than them. I recommend referring to "bullshit bingo" for said buzzwords. If you're not familiar with it, Google it.
4) Be comfortable with the fake credentials on your resume. After all, it's not a lie if you believe it.
5) Know how to disappear to a "meeting" when the going gets tough. No one will know where you are, but you must be in a meeting somewhere with someone else.

If you do most of these types of things already, you have a bright future ahead of you in management. If you find most of these things repulsive, the folks on your team will love you, but you'll not have many manager friends and thus will have a much harder time clawing your way up the ladder.

Man you must of had some really crappy managers, I feel for you

Bert McGert

networker050184 wrote: »

Man you must of had some really crappy managers, I feel for you

Ya, I have had some pretty bad ones... and some really good ones, too. Unfortunately the former GREATLY outnumber the latter.

PMPCharmer

Even in midcareer, managers in certain areas of the IT field can benefit from attaining a PMP certification. The PMP demonstrates your project-management expertise, helps correct bad habits you’ve picked up over the years, and makes you both a more valuable employee and a more tempting job candidate.

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sambuca69

Bert McGert wrote: »

IMHO, based on what I've seen in most managers throughout my tenure, here are what I see as being must-have skills:

1) Learn how to delegate as much work as you can to others.
2) Know how to not learn anything useful so that when someone needs something, you can fall back on #1. That way you'll be free to take the credit when it gets done.
3) Buzz-words. Know them and use them as frequently as possible regardless if they make any sense. If other managers don't understand you, they'll think you're smarter than them. I recommend referring to "bullshit bingo" for said buzzwords. If you're not familiar with it, Google it.
4) Be comfortable with the fake credentials on your resume. After all, it's not a lie if you believe it.
5) Know how to disappear to a "meeting" when the going gets tough. No one will know where you are, but you must be in a meeting somewhere with someone else.

If you do most of these types of things already, you have a bright future ahead of you in management. If you find most of these things repulsive, the folks on your team will love you, but you'll not have many manager friends and thus will have a much harder time clawing your way up the ladder.

lol... do we work at the same place and just not know it??

jamesp1983

3) Buzz-words. Know them and use them as frequently as possible regardless if they make any sense. If other managers don't understand you, they'll think you're smarter than them. I recommend referring to "bullshit bingo" for said buzzwords. If you're not familiar with it, Google it.

That is sooooo true

ScottWilliamsonOC

johnnyg5646 wrote: »

With the state of the economy right now, I know I'm not going to be getting a promotion at any point in the next year or two. So, I'd like to use this time to improve my skill set so I can be ready when opportunities become available. I'm looking for advice on breaking into a management position within IT and also advice on what certifications look good for managers.

Right now I am finishing my master's degree in information systems management. I will be finished in August. After that I was thinking about possibly getting a yellow belt six sigma certification or even the intro PMP cert. But, I'm kind of lost in finding a way to pad my resume.

What do you think?

Masters degree would always look great for a management position. Get into project management also. If you have no PM experience, you are not going to get a PMP. You can go for a CAPM and try to get involved in managing small projects for your company.

ITIL is another cert to look at, but it is more than just a cert. It is a whole new way of thinking when it comes to IT services and delivery.

Padding the resume with PMP and ITIL, with no experience is not going to help.

eMeS

ScottWilliamsonOC wrote: »

ITIL is another cert to look at, but it is more than just a cert. It is a whole new way of thinking when it comes to IT services and delivery.

ITIL is a reflection of the way in which organizations worldwide provide services. None of it is what I would call "new", and much of what is described in ITIL best practices has been in use somewhere for literally thousands of years.

MS