Wanting to become an IT manager

Hi, I am currently a service desk supervisor at a large company. I have been in my position for around 2 years. I have recently decided that I would like to be an IT manager. I have around 7 years of IT experience in total, with 3 of those being in supervisor positions. However, I do not have any certs or a degree. In your experience, would this be enough to land me an IT manager gig? If not, what would I need to do to achieve my goal. Also, where I live, IT manager positions are few and far between, which of course makes it harder as more people will be going for each job. Thx

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LordOftheSubnets

Forgot to add, all of my IT experience has been in a service desk position

TheFORCE

Get these in order. ITIL, CISM, PMP

You will be manger in no time.

TechGuru80

I would try to get at least a System admin job or something with enterprise level exposure. Chances are you service desk is a lot of password reset type tasks which is smaller scale than the next level. Of course I could be wrong on your exposure to group policy, architecture, etc...but either way I don’t think you would need a ton of enterprise exposure...definitely have to have some though.

I would get an MCSA to say you know something, then ITIL and PMP would be great additions...CISM would be worthless for you at this point...but maybe eventually a CISA could help make you more versatile.

joneno

Even for a security professional having CISM doesn't mean you're qualified to be a manager.

Bjcheung77

1) Education - get an associates or higher, 2) Certifications - specific to the industry, 3) Experience - start at the lower end of the spectrum and work your way to the higher end. It seems you're lacking in the #1 and #2, the experience seems alright if you would like to continue in an IT Team Lead/Supervisor type of role but without #1 & #2, you're going to have a hard time getting up to Management level. The only way up that chain without those would be if you "know" those people and are "appointed" into that role.

EANx

What does "IT manager" mean to you? Do you want to manage a team within a larger organization that has a big IT shop? Do you want to run the whole show at a small firm? Do you have an understanding of how business needs to use IT? What do you do what two people bring you an issue to solve? What if that issue is related to office politics? Bullying? Sexual harassment? What are your personal rules for drawing the line between defending someone who screwed up and firing them? Are you willing to stand up for your ethics?

When I look for someone to lead a team, I want to know the person is more than simply the most senior person on the team. Heck, usually they aren't. What they are is someone I know will get the job done, do everything they can to keep the team moving in the right direction and most importantly, recognize when something is outside of their ability or authority and escalate it quickly. Now if you want to manage the whole thing, you need to start becoming proficient with HR topics and budgeting in addition to everything else.

cbdudek

Bjcheung77 wrote: »

1) Education - get an associates or higher, 2) Certifications - specific to the industry, 3) Experience - start at the lower end of the spectrum and work your way to the higher end. It seems you're lacking in the #1 and #2, the experience seems alright if you would like to continue in an IT Team Lead/Supervisor type of role but without #1 & #2, you're going to have a hard time getting up to Management level. The only way up that chain without those would be if you "know" those people and are "appointed" into that role.

I agree 100% with this.

If you want to get into management, you need all three bases covered. Without certs or a degree, its going to be difficult to get into a IT management job unless you know someone and can get in by word of mouth.

LordQarlyn

Well, in my chain, I didn't per se need enterprise level experience, though it helped. What got me to IT Supervisor which lead to IT Manager was exposure across the spectrum of IT, not just servers, but the routers and switches. I don't need so much hands on, but I need basic understanding how it works.
You also need to manage people. IT Managers are less hands on, more finding people good in various IT roles, being a boss. This means settling personality conflicts, recognizing the good achievers, counseling the poor performers - and if it comes to it, terminating employees. Furthermore, you need to know how to manage a budget, develop strategies, and use your reports to solve company IT problems. While I still try to stay sharp in my IT skills, I also need to develop management skills.

Fadakartel

Why not get an MBA along with stuff like PMP and ITIL

Masked_King

IT managers jobs are few and far between, ROFL, who told you that and have you updated that stance for "inflation'?

Legacy User

Masked_King wrote: »

IT managers jobs are few and far between, ROFL, who told you that and have you updated that stance for "inflation'?

Is your role on this forum to spew negativity towards everyone?

Bjcheung77

dmarcisco wrote: »

Is your role on this forum to spew negativity towards everyone?

BTW, I just read your tagline. That's so true! If there was an ignore button, I would use it.
I just skim through the ones I don't really need to read and take more time on the posts worth viewing.

Mike R

Bjcheung77 wrote: »

BTW, I just read your tagline. That's so true! If there was an ignore button, I would use it.
I just skim through the ones I don't really need to read and take more time on the posts worth viewing.

Click on his name and view profile. In the upper left there is an option to ignore post from this user. I'm hoping the mods come around and clean up those post.

Masked_King

Mike R wrote: »

Click on his name and view profile. In the upper left there is an option to ignore post from this user. I'm hoping the mods come around and clean up those post.

I see you got a cert, the mighty A+ but I wouldn't rest on that since, imo, it has been antiquated due to proliferation of tech, here here, who's with me on this. A+ isn't relevant, in our opinions. AmIRight?!?!How are you planning on ingraining this stuff in your brain? No plan, no path, bam.