Moving out of IT to get into operational / project management?

If your goals are to transition into a manager (project or operational), would moving out of IT into another industry be a wise decision? My ultimate goals are to get into a position where I am doing it all. Managing the financials, scheduling, products, projects, requirements, strategies, business, marketing etc.

Do you think moving out of your field and into another to obtain a higher level position is a wise move?

I've been curious about this for a while and have been afraid to make the move, but I have been approached by several companies for supervisor, project management, and even operational management type roles. I almost feel like labeling myself with IT is hurting my chances of landing these higher level positions. My ultimate goal is not a DBA or network admin it's a business process manager, project manage, operational manager. etc.

A lot of these potential offers are all outside the IT industry. Some flirt with IT, but none are completely entrenched in the field.

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Comments

ptilsen

If you don't want to work in IT, why would you work in IT?

If you specifically want to manage IT projects or IT departments, that's still IT-relevant. If you just want to manage and don't particularly care if it's in IT, you're in the wrong line of work.

Obviously there can be a lot of crossover, and there is definitely a need for hybrid business/IT professionals to do this type of management. But if what you want to be is strictly a business professional, spending anymore time in IT seems like a waste of your time.

paul78

You just described IT management - its still IT

N2IT

ptilsen wrote: »

If you don't want to work in IT, why would you work in IT?

If you specifically want to manage IT projects or IT departments, that's still IT-relevant. If you just want to manage and don't particularly care if it's in IT, you're in the wrong line of work.

Obviously there can be a lot of crossover, and there is definitely a need for hybrid business/IT professionals to do this type of management. But if what you want to be is strictly a business professional, spending anymore time in IT seems like a waste of your time.

I was hinting towards getting out for a bit doing straight business side management and then popping back in an IT role with all that management experience. All the "IT" management positions requires 5+ years of management experience, they rarely mention IT management experience, in fact I can't recall a company asking for "IT management experience or IT project management" experience.

The more I think about it the more sense it makes to take the highest level management positions you can get regardless of the industry and learning and accruing years ~5 and then circling back with "real" management knowledge.

****Besides I am just talking strategy here, not action at this point. That's how I think always holistically and always trying to see the big picture.

N2IT

paul78 wrote: »

You just described IT management - its still IT

Even if you are managing a business unit not related to it?

erpadmin

N2,

You want to get into a role where you can parlay the IT management skills/project management you gained and are gaining from ITIL and PMP. You are finding that there a project management jobs available, but not necessarily in IT.

Focus your job leads to a supervisory position, IT management role. You have the acumen for those type of positions and can spout out enough IT knowledge to manage an IT team. Otherwise, you're gonna focus your search on a business analyst role that will act as a liaison between IT and business units.

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

N2,

You want to get into a role where you can parlay the IT management skills/project management you gained and are gaining from ITIL and PMP. You are finding that there a project management jobs available, but not necessarily in IT.

ERP This is exactly right. I want to be careful to not stretch the truth, but I would say in the last 2 months I have been offered interviews for 10-15 positions with 12 of them non IT related. The drive is far the pay is good. The experience is better than both. It's getting really really hard passing up on these "non-IT related" positions. They offer PM experience and OM experience. One for instance is for the park service and they are looking for a PM who can management construction projects. Nothing to do with IT, but they want you to manage and create a budget and create and manage a schedule. Things I did before, things I am not doing now, things I enjoy doing.

Focus your job leads to a supervisory position, IT management role. You have the acumen for those type of positions and can spout out enough IT knowledge to manage an IT team. Otherwise, you're gonna focus your search on a business analyst role that will act as a liaison between IT and business units.

I think this is what it has come down to. I got in the game late relatively speaking and was never given a chance to let my technical skills fly. The most technicial I got was monitoring networks and troubleshooting and administrating some manufacturing server based applications. Something so vertical if the industry went south the software would soon follow.

Again thanks for chiming in I really do appreciate it.

PS I would still love to get into a BA role.

erpadmin

You know what?

From my Project+ studies, the one thing I took away from the PK0-003 studies was that Project Management can be applied to any industry, even if you aren't terribly familiar with that industry. I can tell you that PMs in construction make a nice piece of coin, in part because they have to put in a lot of hours. The secret though is surrounding yourself with component leads that can advise you on how to best plan out your schedule. The methodology never changes though....you can apply that to anything, including and especially in IT.

So if you found a nice PM job that's more into construction, and they'll hire you...take it (but only if it's at a salary you want...) The years of experience you gain from that will instrumental if you ever decide to go back into IT. Otherwise, keep waiting for that IT job...

chmod

In my country is hard to get a PM job without experience in the field for that specific position.

I agree that the knowledge obtained in the process of getting your certification is good enough to be PM in other fields. But in my opinion is very important the experience in the specific field/industry to either improve thing or find the right/key persons.

As a manager you rely on other persons, if your people have an outstanding performance your business plan probably will be successful . It's always good to understand what means or how it feels to be in the field that is why is so important the experience so you can understand what the other departments/persons/engineers or whatever are doing and how it feel and the IN and OUT of what you and others are doing.

In my case i have always been a techie, i really enjoy learning new things and working in the technical and opposed to you i started very early so i was able to leverage my skills but with the time i wanted something different and i realized that i enjoy organizing things, making things happen and managing business needs/money and planning/improving things in a way that impacts business budget/quality/satisfaction. But i cannot see myself doing this in a non IT position.

paul78

N2IT wrote: »

Even if you are managing a business unit not related to it?

Soorry I didnt mean to seem so flippant. It just my observation. I would say that as anyone advances in their career, its best to stick withtheir core competencies and what excites them. It's possible to raise throught the ranks to run a business through IT. In some industries, its even more appropriate. In really depends on which industry you also have business acumen in. It takes a really long time to learn an industry.

N2IT

paul78 wrote: »

Soorry I didnt mean to seem so flippant. It just my observation. I would say that as anyone advances in their career, its best to stick withtheir core competencies and what excites them. It's possible to raise throught the ranks to run a business through IT. In some industries, its even more appropriate. In really depends on which industry you also have business acumen in. It takes a really long time to learn an industry.

Chmod and Paul

Thanks for your inputs.

I agree to a certain extent with both of you. Believe me I see your points and there are some serious risk leaving your "field".

I just enjoy bringing up topics like this to weight the pros and cons. I still like ERP's thoughts on this, but again you two make some really good points.

chmod

I think that this positions(project manager, business analyst, IT manager, team leader, account manager etc) requires a lot of leadership, leadership is something you demonstrate and usually people follow a leader because they feel respect.

Is nice to know that the people you rely on show respect and cooperate and follow you because they respect you and not only because of your position or the title next to your name in your mail signature.

There is a chance you make rookie mistakes, I'm not saying you or any person is going to fail but i think the learning curve in a new field/industry might include some risk.
Remember that you need to understand in depth the business/customer requirements to make your action plans. Also to identify the key persons

If i were you, and if i were in your position i would do it but not in a project management position, probably i would do it but in a position that requires less knowledge and understanding of the industry/field.

chmod

One case i recall now, i recently started in management position. I was having a hard time to fin in the team because im younger than the rest of the team, some of the old dudes wanted the position.
To be respected i have to gain their respect and show them they can trust me.

By checking their business plan i found a huge mistake in one of the projects, i told them please don't start working on this until i change it this is all wrong, they tried to propose changes but i rejected all of them and asked for 2 weeks. Then i made a presentation with an explanation about what is the right solution for the company and how it should look like and what should be the action plan and what is the ROI and how much money we saved by changing this on time. After this they started to show some respect because i showed them i know my stuff and I'm not here(there) to bother them or to do micromanagement or to implement bureaucracy and/or a big amount of processes and rules.

This is an example of why i think the experience and knowledge of the industry/field is important in developing leadership.

N2IT

chmod wrote: »

One case i recall now, i recently started in management position. I was having a hard time to fin in the team because im younger than the rest of the team, some of the old dudes wanted the position.
To be respected i have to gain their respect and show them they can trust me.

By checking their business plan i found a huge mistake in one of the projects, i told them please don't start working on this until i change it this is all wrong, they tried to propose changes but i rejected all of them and asked for 2 weeks. Then i made a presentation with an explanation about what is the right solution for the company and how it should look like and what should be the action plan and what is the ROI and how much money we saved by changing this on time. After this they started to show some respect because i showed them i know my stuff and I'm not here(there) to bother them or to do micromanagement or to implement bureaucracy and/or a big amount of processes and rules.

This is an example of why i think the experience and knowledge of the industry/field is important in developing leadership.

Creating baselines and forecast isn't that hard as long as you have the data. I do agree that knowing the industry is key, but knowing how to manage an operation and/or a project is even more critical. If you follow the proper processes and don't take that many shortcuts you are putting yourself in a good situation. In my last management position I was the youngest. We had peopel ranging from 35-50+. I was 35 then and had no problem gaining the respect of the people. I created a communication plan early on and followed it the best I could. I created job roles and sat down with each employee and informed them of my expectations.

I personally feel having the managing experience is critical. Without you are essentially drinking water our of a firehose.

Thanks again for you input.

JoJoCal19

From the managers I have known, and experience I have with seeing managers come and go, especially within big firms, it doesn't always matter what field your management experience is in. Management itself is like an exclusive club, hard to break in but once you do, what you can do is pretty much limitless. Especially with upper management (i.e. not immediate team supervisor) you always see managers come in with different backgrounds. That's just what I've seen in my 11 years of professional/corporate work experience.

I'm in a similar situation as you to where I want to be in operational or project management. I'll have my BS Business Administration in December and am going straight through my MBA. Hoping that with my 7 years of IT experience and 10 by the time I'm done with the MBA, combined with the high end certs I'm going after, will allow me to move into an IT management role. If not I will not hesitate to leave IT for something like retail, finance, real estate or service industries to get management experience if I have to.

chmod

I did not know you already have management experience.

I thought you want to make the move to gain/obtain experience.

My comment was basically about getting experience in PM(as a PM you are directly involved in how thing are done)that's why i consider the experience as a key factor for success , for business operation is different if that is the case and you already have management experience but not as an operation manager, i would say is not that important the experience in the industry as it is the experience in the role itself.

Go get it tiger.

CChN

erpadmin wrote: »

You know what?

From my Project+ studies, the one thing I took away from the PK0-003 studies was that Project Management can be applied to any industry, even if you aren't terribly familiar with that industry.

And THAT, my friends, summarizes the differences between a shell-shocked PM and a results-oriented PM. Without extensive experience in the industry you're managing, how, exactly, are you supposed to ask the right questions? The best managers, project or otherwise, are the technical experts who naturally evolved into the role and can predict missed targets before they happen.

Spend 10+ years hopping between design, implementation, and operations roles, then you can think of a career in project management.

N2IT

CChN wrote: »

And THAT, my friends, summarizes the differences between a shell-shocked PM and a results-oriented PM. Without extensive experience in the industry you're managing, how, exactly, are you supposed to ask the right questions? The best managers, project or otherwise, are the technical experts who naturally evolved into the role and can predict missed targets before they happen.

Spend 10+ years hopping between design, implementation, and operations roles, then you can think of a career in project management.

Completely disagree with this. Most technologist I have seen make TERRIBLE project managers. They have a very difficult time thinking at a high level and are usually more into the technology than the business. Watching them flounder with financials and schedules is frightening and hiliarous all at the same time.

You mentioned a question about how are they suppose to ask the right questions

Well, you utilize your SME and involve them early and often. The PM doesn't do the work, he manages the project and the work effort, which includes and the project plan, stakeholders, and project team. I'll agree with you that a brand new project manager who has never managed a project before would most likely experience deer in the head lights effect. But a seasoned PM who has 100+ high level projects under his belt could walk into an IT environment drive that project home. He would have a better chance than some technologist who has never planned a budget or developed a forecast.