Non IT job roles - good or bad?

Danny boy

Hi all,

I work for a small company in IT support, doing basically everything to do with IT. However I've recently been given two non-IT job roles and I'm uncertain whether this is a good or a bad thing.

1 - Dealing with procurement, checking stock levels and placing orders with suppliers.
2 - Health and safety officer for the company - not sure what this will involve but I will have to undergoing training in order become qualified for this.

My job title hasn't changed from a support one, and I expect that the two roles will take up only a fairly small portion of my time. I don't think the experience of the two roles will prove detrimental to my CV but I feel uneasy about the prospect of spending time on activities which won't further my IT career.

I was wondering if anybody has an opinion on this?

tbgree00

Having non-IT responsibilities can show that you're flexable and willing to pitch in when given the opportunity. I don't think that is a bad thing in any company but will be a big positive for smaller firms who see that you have accepted extra responsibility. The real question, though, is why did they add that to you? Were you struggling or was there not enough work for the size of your department?

If you aren't too happy about the change or the roles are taking away too much from support then it may be time to check out other job options. If you like the company and the salary then accept it and come up with a good story for it when the time comes.

N2IT

Danny boy wrote: »

Hi all,

I work for a small company in IT support, doing basically everything to do with IT. However I've recently been given two non-IT job roles and I'm uncertain whether this is a good or a bad thing.

1 - Dealing with procurement, checking stock levels and placing orders with suppliers.
2 - Health and safety officer for the company - not sure what this will involve but I will have to undergoing training in order become qualified for this.

My job title hasn't changed from a support one, and I expect that the two roles will take up only a fairly small portion of my time. I don't think the experience of the two roles will prove detrimental to my CV but I feel uneasy about the prospect of spending time on activities which won't further my IT career.

I was wondering if anybody has an opinion on this?

I was gung ho to become a team lead / manager and I got my wish.

I went from touching routers, switches, event alert applications, SAP reporting, SQL, and a whole list of other technologies.

Now I work with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook. IP no longer means Internet Protocol it now means Improvement Plan.

Technology is a tool set and way to support the business.

LordQarlyn

Danny boy wrote: »

Hi all,

I work for a small company in IT support, doing basically everything to do with IT. However I've recently been given two non-IT job roles and I'm uncertain whether this is a good or a bad thing.

1 - Dealing with procurement, checking stock levels and placing orders with suppliers.
2 - Health and safety officer for the company - not sure what this will involve but I will have to undergoing training in order become qualified for this.

My job title hasn't changed from a support one, and I expect that the two roles will take up only a fairly small portion of my time. I don't think the experience of the two roles will prove detrimental to my CV but I feel uneasy about the prospect of spending time on activities which won't further my IT career.

I was wondering if anybody has an opinion on this?

More to IT careers than technology.

In my view, if your company gives you these extra roles, it, usually, means they have faith you can do them. In a day and age where many workers want to just to the bare minimum of their job description, being willing and able to go above and beyond your duty lets you stand out and get noticed. That, asided from being well connected, is how one can get promotions - and raises.

Let's see:
1 - Dealing with procurement, checking stock levels and placing orders with suppliers. Supply chain management; virtually every organization in the world uses SCM; even in IT, its important for a company to have a handle on its parts and consumables. Having proven skills in this is not a bad thing.
2 - Health and safety officer for the company - not sure what this will involve but I will have to undergoing training in order become qualified for this. Regulatory compliance; not sure how the UK compares to the US; but here in the US we have a moderately high regulatory burden. Indeed, I've seen entire companies spring up who's sole "product" is to help other companies outsource their regulatory compliance. Being able to do regulatory compliance, even in only health and safety, in addition to IT roles will add value to your future employers, particularly in smaller companies where employees are expected to wear many hats.


Take these duties seriously, do them well. Come review time, you can rationally justify an increase in salary, or a promotion, by pointing out how you went beyond your original job description. Even if they don't pony up the money, you've developed additional skills that help you stand out more in the sea of IT applicants.

Danny boy

Thanks for the responses guys, has given me a different perspective on the situation. Will definitely try to make the best of things.

Everyone

It may be hard to see it at times, but it should help your personal and professional growth.

In the military I had a lot of additional duties that weren't related to my main IT job. For example I was CPR and First Aid certified and required to train and certify other people. It didn't help me develop IT skills at all, but it made a great bullet point on my annual performance reviews that helped me get early promotions.

In the corporate world I've found it harder to see the benefits of additional duties. My company chose 800 of its 3000 employes to send through LEAN/Six Sigma training. I was one of them, and now have a certification for it. It annoyed me because it took an entire day out of every week for like 6 weeks of my time when I had other stuff to do. It seemed like a lot of common sense stuff that people should know already. Then on top of that I got thrown into a Six Sigma committee to try and help the hospital implement these processes. I actually enjoyed the committee, because it was a fun group of non-IT people to work with for a couple hours out of every week.

I also got thrown into an Emergency Management Committee, again, nothing to do with IT, where I was the only non-manager on the committee. In fact most of them were Director or VP level.

Neither of these additional duties were mentioned in my performance review, so they didn't help me in getting a better raise, they just took time away from my normal IT work. I can't really fit them into my resume, so they won't help me much in a future job from that aspect either. However helping to shape company policies and having an influence on upper management was a good experience.

LordQarlyn

Everyone wrote: »

My company chose 800 of its 3000 employes to send through LEAN/Six Sigma training. I was one of them, and now have a certification for it.

I also got thrown into an Emergency Management Committee, again, nothing to do with IT, where I was the only non-manager on the committee. In fact most of them were Director or VP level.

Well, I'd spin it on my resume to support my IT career as:

SIGMA Six as I understand is about quality control or process improvement, so I'd say something like "responsible for improving and maintianing network/system reliability"

Emergency Management Committee sounds a little like "developed and maintained Business Continuity Planning for the network/system."

Just me though...

Jinuyr

Danny boy wrote: »

Hi all,

I work for a small company in IT support, doing basically everything to do with IT. However I've recently been given two non-IT job roles and I'm uncertain whether this is a good or a bad thing.

1 - Dealing with procurement, checking stock levels and placing orders with suppliers.
2 - Health and safety officer for the company - not sure what this will involve but I will have to undergoing training in order become qualified for this.

My job title hasn't changed from a support one, and I expect that the two roles will take up only a fairly small portion of my time. I don't think the experience of the two roles will prove detrimental to my CV but I feel uneasy about the prospect of spending time on activities which won't further my IT career.

I was wondering if anybody has an opinion on this?

Getting the ability to do different roles within your organization, including non-IT roles is a blessing.

These roles will give you the perspective needed for future positions within IT. Using what you mentioned as examples:

(1) When dealing with procurement, stock levels, and placing orders it allows you to understand the system that drives and supplies what we do. Not only that, it allows you to find potential defficiencies within that process that you can either improve or find existing methods that can be applied to how you currently operate.

(2) Health and Safety Officer will allow you to become more aware of how these processes affect the people within your organization. Once you start developing Business Continuity plans and involving other departments, you can find relationships between these two to help drive your point and emphasize on the importance of security and enforced policies within your organization.

The two most important books I have ever read that and have had the greatest impact in what I do everyday in IT are How to Win Friends and Influence People and Samurai Selling. They are not IT books but it helped me to understand how everyone else was thinking and operating.

Everyone

LordQarlyn wrote: »

Well, I'd spin it on my resume to support my IT career as:

SIGMA Six as I understand is about quality control or process improvement, so I'd say something like "responsible for improving and maintianing network/system reliability"

Emergency Management Committee sounds a little like "developed and maintained Business Continuity Planning for the network/system."

Just me though...

Yup, process improvement is correct. It's not that I couldn't find a way to word it that would look good on the resume, it's that I don't have the real estate available for fluff like that. I have too much other more valuable experience that would have to be sacrificed to put stuff like that in. No room for irrelevant non-IT fluff on there.