Moving from techi into da Management

I’ve been working on the techi side of IT infrastructure for 15 years.

Although I’m not desperate to move away from the engineering side of things I’m thinking of making plans to at least give me the opportunity of moving more into the management side of things should the opportunity arise and to have some base skills so I’m not completely out of my depth.

I would like to start investigating (mainly online) courses that I can start to take/study which would give me some useful diplomas.

I’m thinking firstly something that covers IT as a broad base, what’s the process IT takes with regard to the business and their needs and basic broad skills. I’m very specialist so although I can follow most things with regard to different technologies a good bit of base IT knowledge wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I never studied IT at uni and came from an Electrical Engineering background.

Then perhaps concentrating on courses that are more related to the management with concern to IT. With relation to planning, budgets, project management process etc.

Has anyone undertaken anything similar to what I describe above, or have ideas on where and what to investigate….I think just typing a few things into Google may send me off in many wrong directions, so it would be great to hear from anyone who’s done something similar.

Cheers,
GL.

I did a PG Cert and Dip via the OU. I planned to do the MBA but work and a young family put paid to that before I could complete the final stage. The OU is excellent and the individual courses were very good, I would recommend them. They were very good at providing an overview to other disciplines such as finance, marketing, HR etc however I read Economics at Uni so that helped.
I was also a techy (mainly network infrastructure so not too disimliar) but without blowing my own trumpet my communication skills and ability to problem solve etc are quite good plus I enjoy management which isnt for everyone.

Start practising basic stuff like if someone does something well, take all the credit for it. If you completely screw up, blame someone else. If anyone asks you to do anything or for help, just get up and say ‘I’m just off to a meeting, can we schedule something later’ and then spend the next two hours locked in the loo browsing porn.

you sounds just like my old boss

Prince2/ITIL are looked for in less hands on positions as well as understanding of things like TOGAF/SDLC and project management. At least thats what i see mentioned alot

I work in the IT Outsourcing business and there are scary times ahead.

Technical IT & Project Management in the UK is going to take a MASSIVE hammering from the India pure plays over the next couple of years, companies like HCL are actually reducing their Headcount in India now as they move into more automation, UK is struggling and will fall further behind.

If you don’t work in a Civil Service IT role (in house our outsourced) in support of Government (and have UK Gov Security Clearance) then you either need to be ready to move house or get another job, and if you move house it had better be in Bangalore, at least that is the message from my VP Boss in the US…

If you want to stay in IT a move into a formal client facing role is probably the safest.

ITIL would be good for Service Management, but a lot of SM is going off-shore too, an MBA or similar studies would be more useful if you want to be part of the thin client facing onshore layer, and is transferable outside IT too.

How about this? http://www.nopaymba.com/

Managing people is shit.

I did the OU MBA in Technology Management and its served me well. The only difference between the Tech Mgt and regular MBA are modules around Tech Strategy, Tech Management and Innovation. You lose a couple of regular MBA courses like Marketing and Advanced Finance stuff, but the balance was good IMHO.

I already had another MSc, Prince2, MOR and MSP so it was a good way of pulling stuff together.

All I would say is that to get the best out of any MBA course you need to be in a management or supervisory position already so that you can bring personal experience and try out some of the stuff you are learning.

I moved through Design, Project Eng etc, to current Management role.
I relish getting involved in technical stuff but anything management related bores me a little.
Trouble is, if you want more money, that’s the usual route.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a challenge, but give me a tight deadline & a difficult mechanical problem than a gant chart any day. 🙂

Four years on, I still feel like a duck out of water most days.
Delegation is my biggest difficulty, I try to do too much myself.
I keep waiting for the day that management finally clicks for me, & I feel competent, but I don’t think it’s ever going to come.

People are invariably promoted to levels of incompetence.

If you’re good at what you do technically, what makes you feel that with a bit of theoretical learning, you will also be an effective manager?

The skills and attributes required to be an effective people manager are entirely transferable from one industry to the next. Unfortunately, the western form of business and commerce has yet to appreciate this, which is why 95% of all managers are incompetent.

Here endeth the nugget of wisdom for you to consider OP.

I relish getting involved in technical stuff but anything management related bores me a little.

People management is just tedious drivel.

I went from technical to management and then back to technical and have no interest in ever managing people again. In my experience, if they need managing they’re invariably useless / dysfunctional.

The skills and attributes required to be an effective people manager are entirely transferable from one industry to the next.

Not in my experience. The worst managers I’ve seen are the ones who (a) don’t understand what the business does and (b) don’t understand what motivates the workforce

I said ‘effective manager’ Greybeard! 😉

Hmmmm, some interesting views. Actually when I think about it the idea of managing people because they need managing doesn’t inspire me. I’m very good at getting on with people and getting them to help me out with various things when they don’t really want to due to work loads etc….but generally I’m the same level as these guys. I’ve also met quite a few people who will go out of their way and point out all the faults of managers just because they are argumentative and negative, without understanding that the guy/girl is just trying to make the best of a crappy situation, that’s no fault of their own.

My thoughts were more bringing my technical skills to the table (you see I’ve already got the management wanger words down to a tee) and using my experience to shape and make decisions for the future, rather than just get on with the jobs that land on my lap.

I’m already CCIE and I’m wandering what next to do. I’ve had a few years rest since getting my CCIE and I’m in the mood for something new (apart from learning languages), but not sure whether to go for another CCIE and become even more techi or move more into techi management.

Cheers for the food for thought.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence and will agree that people management isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Especially when things are not going well in the business as Nick is right, i know of 2 major businesses in Birmingham closing down most of their IT team to be managed in the US and the low level work out sourced to Manilla.

My thoughts were more bringing my technical skills to the table (you see I’ve already got the management wanger words down to a tee) and using my experience to shape and make decisions for the future, rather than just get on with the jobs that land on my lap.

That’s not really management though, more technical leadership.

Most companies offer both routes of progression (if they’re any good).

Managing people isn’t always great. If you get it right it’s brilliant but you rarely get credit for making it happen.

Anyway, as a long term techie who ended up as a head of department, I’ll try and pass on some nuggets of wisdom.

You can’t teach people management. Oh, people will try and tell you they can, but they can’t. You can either do it or you can’t. Listen, consider, care.

All that stuff you know about techie-land. Stop talking about it. You’ll never not be a techie but if you keep talking about it you’ll never be considered anything else. There’s nothing more intimidating to non-technical managers than one who knows their stuff. Keep it to yourself.

Never, ever talk about actual solutions to seniors. They want to know you’ve got things in hand, they don’t want to know what it is. Unless they ask. Then give them the crayola version. See my point above.

Learn about budgeting and corporate finance. It’s actually very simple but they’ll use terms designed to confuse non-finance people. Finance geekery is completely acceptable at a management level, unlike technical geekery.

Think long term. think strategic. Tactical fixes are fine, but also think about the longer term view. The bigger the picture you can envisage, the further you’ll get.

Hire, eager, enthusiastic, knowledgable and skilled people. They’ll make you look good. Let them take the credit for what they achieve, they’ll remember you for it.

Always be organised. Plan everything. Always be prepared in meetings. Always have discussion items up your sleeve.

Don’t worry about it too much. Most managers are pretty poor, are absolutely crapping it and haven’t got a clue. They make it up as they go along. You will not believe how many make it up as they go along.

People management is just tedious drivel.

I moved from a technical role to a manager role a cpl of years ago, the people management bit was the most rewarding part of the role. It’s great to see how team members can develop given the right tools and motivation, I really got s lot from this book First Break all The Rules
Easy to read and easy to carry out, and gets results.

Cheers Chaps, some good words of wisdom there.

I said ‘effective manager’ Greybeard!

Sorry, didn’t make my point clearly. Managers who move from one industry to another without understanding the business they’ve moved to or that people in different roles are motivated by different things are not effective managers – ie, management skills are not always transferable; in a different environment, new ones are needed.