A Day in the Life of an IT manager

As with all Internet-related professions there is a need for managers of Internet and Intranet based technologies (IT) has boomed as companies of all kinds scramble to exploit these new and rapidly evolving information systems.

Even though this is a new field generally associated with younger people who have â€œgrown up” with these technologies. 

The average IT manager is in his forties and male, with females largely unrepresented in this field.

IT managers must know the technology and have discipline or corporate experience. Even though Intranets and Websites are new phenomena, experienced network and information systems (IS) managers are their main overseers, and your average IT manager has been in his current position for five years. An IT manager will spend his time multi-tasking in several areas, including managing programmers and designers who implement the systems that make IT technologies a working reality, prioritizing strategies aimed at accomplishing specific corporate goals, distributing often tight budgets to accomplish these goals, writing proposals concerning the best use of a company’s IT resources, and overseeing development and implementation of strategic plans. In addition to all of the technical and managerial responsibilities, IT managers also spend much of their time in meetings, catering to the needs of their employees, or, if they work as independent consultants, to their clients. Delivering what their boss, the board of direcitor's or other stake holders, want can be quite stressful. “Expectations have mushroomed in the last year,” says a senior IT architect at Lockheed Martin. “As they discover what it can do, they want it done yesterday.” Although IT managers earn roughly the same salaries as network/IS managers, they report more satisfaction with their work, even if the hours tend to be long. It is relevant to note, though, that according to a survey conducted by Network Computing Magazine, salary was the biggest cause of dissatisfaction (20 percent) among Web/Intranet managers, with the number of work hours the second biggest gripe (13.5 percent).

To be a successful IT manager you should have good communications skills, strong technical skills, and an eagerness to meet the challenge of working with new technologies, since the technology are changing so quickly in this field that what you know today may be outdated tomorrow.

For those who can keep up with the pace of this profession, six-figure salaries are in the future.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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