The ins and outs of technology can be a daunting labyrinth for even the most savvy of internet users. Enter the tech stack wizards.
Despite the explosion in accessibility and vast improvements to overall user experiences that categorize the modern internet, the actual nitty-gritty of new technological improvements is an ever-shifting maze of advancements. Intense specialization is necessary to successfully understand, execute, and manage the different aspects of crucial tech systems. If you want to do this sort of work, not just any role will do.
You need to become an IT manager.
In essence, an Information Technology — IT — manager is someone who is responsible for owning, comprehending, and organizing the different aspects of any given companies technology stack.
How long does it take to become an IT manager?
These positions require a bachelor’s degree in a relevant subfield of computer engineering which generally takes 4 years to complete. On top of this, you’ll need 3 to 5 years of high-performing work experience to even be considered for the role.
The day to day of IT management can take a variety of forms. Despite this, there are a few commonalities from company to company and industry to industry.
While a good IT manager is able to roll up their sleeves and tackle any tech problems their business might be facing, their vast experience and knowledge is best utilized through the development of overall plans for tackling problems at a high level as well as managing other employees to ensure that short and long term goals are being met.
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To the rest of the company, the work of an IT manager goes largely unnoticed: their primary goal is to stop problems that could potentially disrupt business as usual from occurring in the first place.
A crucial part of this delegation and management job is being able to quickly and effectively communicate complex, technical issues with upper management who might not always have such a specialized background. To that end, having good written and verbal communication skills are essential tools in the IT management toolbox.
IT manager job description
Below, you can find the job listing for an IT management position to help give you a better sense of what your daily work might look like:
Position title: Senior IT Manager
About the role: “You are an experienced IT professional with a passion for helping others. You understand the needs of a rapidly growing company and know-how to scale systems and processes accordingly. You can identify issues before they arise and tackle them with speedy yet thoughtful and effective solutions. Primary responsibilities include the management of the team’s work queue, leading the global service staff, developing support processes/procedures, tracking performance metrics and effectively communicating with company leadership.”
Responsibilities:
- Lead the global IT Service team, which includes the US and EU based staff
- Ensure consistent and effective support for our global employees through standard processes, procedures, and necessary training
- Establish, meet and continuously improve defined service levels for incident resolution and request fulfillment. This includes ownership of both help desk and video conferencing performance
- Develop and maintain both IT and employee training materials/documentation
- Manage the corporate IT function for ClassPass, including IT budget and policies, inventory management, wifi/networking configuration, A/V support, data security and retention initiatives, remote office support, and more
- Research new technologies and drive large-scale infrastructure improvements to support a fast-growing, ever-changing work environment with fiscal responsibility in mind
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science or a related discipline
- Minimum 6 years of IT experience with at least 4 years in IT management and at least 3 years leading a global service team
- Experience recruiting, coaching and retaining a distributed (preferably global) team
- Experience driving the adoption of one or more infosec compliance standards
- Strong time management skills and ability to juggle multiple requests at once
- Experience selecting best-in-class cloud enterprise applications and managing them to a budget
- Familiarity with managed network solutions
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
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What is an IT manager’s salary?
Alright, you know what an IT manager needs to succeed, but what kind of compensation can you expect for your time and hard work?
While salaries are, first and foremost, variable by the geographical location — the same role in Columbus, OH is going to make a lot less than the comparable position in San Francisco, CA, after all — the general range for an IT manager can be anywhere from $90,000 a year up to over $120,000 a year.
IT managers are vital employees responsible for ensuring that business can be conducted in the first place. Doubly so with the advancements in tech and data that have transformed the world of work in the past decade. Because of this, it’s important to find a salary the reflects upper management’s understanding of this crucial fact. Of course, this also means that the pressure placed on the IT manager’s shoulders is great indeed, so make sure you’re up to the stress before shooting for one of these rolls.
TechNo trouble
The job of an IT manager is only going to grow as we incorporate more and more advanced technology into the day to day operations of global business. Now is the perfect time to assume the mantle of responsibility and grow alongside these trends. Now that you know what to expect moving forward, the road ahead will be just that much easier to navigate.
Interested in learning more about IT? Check out our guide on load balancing a server for everything you need!