Help me with my IT career
January 21, 2011 12:15 PM Subscribe
IT Career Help: Help me I'm stuck on moving on from an IT Director generalist role.
I recently left my first career job out of college after being asked to relocate. I worked for a Fortune 1000 and moved up from a Client Tech Contractor position to IT Field Operations Director in 7 years. I was in various manager and director positions for the last 5. I consider that very successful. Within my company I was well liked and well respected.
However now I'm stuck. In managing IT operations for that amount of time I'm in the classic "manager with no tech skills" box. My client and networking hard skills are out dated.
I've done some strategic career planning utilizing various resources and here is what I can tell you. My 10-15 year vision is to be in an IT Architect or in a Sr. Service/Solution delivery position. Very important to me is the desire to "be the expert". One book described this a a "maestro" personality. I'm also an EMTP on Myers-Briggs if that helps. . . Given that, I'm looking to transfer away from management and more towards technical. My goal is not CIO, it's the Sr Architect the CIO turns to for advice.
I don't have a preference as to a specific field of expertise. I enjoy all aspects of infrastructure and product management. Given an opportunity in any would allow me to focus more on that particular field of expertise. For instance, if I were to start in position with some like UC . . I could easily master that position and skill set within a year.
In my planning I've defined my core competencies at this point as: Project Management, IT Worker Management, Business Relationship Management, Technology Adoption & Learning, Technology Troubleshooting/Problem Solving.
The types of roles I've identified that would be logically targeted then are: Solution/Service Delivery, Sales Engineer, Project Manager, Product Expert, Solution Strategist, Customer Solutions Architect
My challenge then is that for most of these roles, I seem to need one of two things I lack: Sales experience or specialty in a specific IT field. (Things I could probably convince a hiring manager I could overcome, but things a recruiter dismisses me on before I can talk to them)
My questions: What type of job descriptions should I be targeting if you think I'm on the wrong path?
Other than working on certifications (which I'm doing in my spare time), how can I get past the recruiter's need to "check all the requirement boxes" and I understand I can adapt to a position where I may be lacking one requirement?
Misc other background. BS and MS in Info Sys Management. Desired range $90-110k. Chicago area, can't relocate. I got some certs over 5 years ago when I was a tech . . A+, Net+, Project+ . . I've done a little development on the side . . PHP/MySQL . . but nothing in a structured dev environment.
Thanks!
I recently left my first career job out of college after being asked to relocate. I worked for a Fortune 1000 and moved up from a Client Tech Contractor position to IT Field Operations Director in 7 years. I was in various manager and director positions for the last 5. I consider that very successful. Within my company I was well liked and well respected.
However now I'm stuck. In managing IT operations for that amount of time I'm in the classic "manager with no tech skills" box. My client and networking hard skills are out dated.
I've done some strategic career planning utilizing various resources and here is what I can tell you. My 10-15 year vision is to be in an IT Architect or in a Sr. Service/Solution delivery position. Very important to me is the desire to "be the expert". One book described this a a "maestro" personality. I'm also an EMTP on Myers-Briggs if that helps. . . Given that, I'm looking to transfer away from management and more towards technical. My goal is not CIO, it's the Sr Architect the CIO turns to for advice.
I don't have a preference as to a specific field of expertise. I enjoy all aspects of infrastructure and product management. Given an opportunity in any would allow me to focus more on that particular field of expertise. For instance, if I were to start in position with some like UC . . I could easily master that position and skill set within a year.
In my planning I've defined my core competencies at this point as: Project Management, IT Worker Management, Business Relationship Management, Technology Adoption & Learning, Technology Troubleshooting/Problem Solving.
The types of roles I've identified that would be logically targeted then are: Solution/Service Delivery, Sales Engineer, Project Manager, Product Expert, Solution Strategist, Customer Solutions Architect
My challenge then is that for most of these roles, I seem to need one of two things I lack: Sales experience or specialty in a specific IT field. (Things I could probably convince a hiring manager I could overcome, but things a recruiter dismisses me on before I can talk to them)
My questions: What type of job descriptions should I be targeting if you think I'm on the wrong path?
Other than working on certifications (which I'm doing in my spare time), how can I get past the recruiter's need to "check all the requirement boxes" and I understand I can adapt to a position where I may be lacking one requirement?
Misc other background. BS and MS in Info Sys Management. Desired range $90-110k. Chicago area, can't relocate. I got some certs over 5 years ago when I was a tech . . A+, Net+, Project+ . . I've done a little development on the side . . PHP/MySQL . . but nothing in a structured dev environment.
Thanks!
I think you are spending way too much time planning for your next job, and not nearly enough time actually talking to real live human beings about working for them. Get out to the networking events in Chicago and woks the room. You'll either pick up a full time gig, or find yourself busy with a couple of consulting gigs. Either beats unemployment.
Recruiters will not get you a job. You need to get yourself a job. If a recruiter happens to call with a great opportunity, consider it a bonus.
posted by COD at 12:39 PM on January 21, 2011
Recruiters will not get you a job. You need to get yourself a job. If a recruiter happens to call with a great opportunity, consider it a bonus.
posted by COD at 12:39 PM on January 21, 2011
woks = work. Sigh. I need a spell check that understands context...
posted by COD at 12:40 PM on January 21, 2011
posted by COD at 12:40 PM on January 21, 2011
Response by poster: Other than LinkedIn . . any suggestions for finding networking events in Chicago?
posted by patrad at 1:03 PM on January 21, 2011
posted by patrad at 1:03 PM on January 21, 2011
I would suggest that if you want to move laterally within this field you find yourself a job working for a small company that needs "jack of all trades" type folks. You may have to take a pay cut (almost certainly if it's a startup), I don't know, but you will acquire really valuable skills in a multitude of areas that you can then easily spin on a resume to look however you want. You will have more opportunity to decide what you want to do and how you want to do it, especially if you get in on the ground-floor in a start-up and tech decisions are in the process of being made.
Of course, going freelance/starting your own consulting firm is another way to do just that, but the tradeoffs are, of course, more work and less pay for you, but vastly increased flexibility and, perhaps, satisfaction (depending on your personality).
posted by dubitable at 1:34 PM on January 21, 2011
Of course, going freelance/starting your own consulting firm is another way to do just that, but the tradeoffs are, of course, more work and less pay for you, but vastly increased flexibility and, perhaps, satisfaction (depending on your personality).
posted by dubitable at 1:34 PM on January 21, 2011
more work and less pay for you
I want to clarify this—I mean, "at first."
posted by dubitable at 1:36 PM on January 21, 2011
I want to clarify this—I mean, "at first."
posted by dubitable at 1:36 PM on January 21, 2011
Also, if you want to go the route of looking for interesting start-ups to work at, you might check out startup weekend. May be a reasonable way to network in general, actually.
posted by dubitable at 1:41 PM on January 21, 2011
posted by dubitable at 1:41 PM on January 21, 2011
Somebody in Chicago probably runs a blog highlighting all the local tech networking events. Get your Google on and find it!
posted by COD at 1:44 PM on January 21, 2011
posted by COD at 1:44 PM on January 21, 2011
Any technology consulting firm would love to have you. But you might have to travel for work, work quite a bit.. and given your experience, they probably wouldn't want you devoting all your time to developing a technical skillset. But it is a place that you could transition to.
If you want to move to Canada, I know a firm that would want you, give me a PM.
posted by demagogue at 2:40 PM on January 21, 2011
If you want to move to Canada, I know a firm that would want you, give me a PM.
posted by demagogue at 2:40 PM on January 21, 2011
Response by poster: Networking events . . check.
However more to my question: what are some roles that you would consider good transitional fits for moving from management to solution delivery/architect? Without previous technical knowledge in a specific field?
By "start your own consulting company" do you mean: start my own business as self-employed looking for contracts?
posted by patrad at 3:14 PM on January 21, 2011
However more to my question: what are some roles that you would consider good transitional fits for moving from management to solution delivery/architect? Without previous technical knowledge in a specific field?
By "start your own consulting company" do you mean: start my own business as self-employed looking for contracts?
posted by patrad at 3:14 PM on January 21, 2011
One of the things that you can do *now* is to write conference papers on areas that you want to move in, based on your real life experiences. If, for example, you want to be in the Architecture group, you may be able to produce a paper or two about the architecture revamp project in your organization (it may be an year ago, but that is ok).
Such implementation specific papers and talks, if possible go a long way in building credibility in the industry.
Another high visibility thing that you could do is to start a blog in the areas of your interest. This helps in two ways - crystallize your own ideas so that you have elevator speeches ready (or at least be able to talk meaningfully during networking events) and also give you a "presence." Recruiters these days definitely google your name and having an established blog can earn bonus points for being a thought leader.
posted by theobserver at 3:17 PM on January 21, 2011
Such implementation specific papers and talks, if possible go a long way in building credibility in the industry.
Another high visibility thing that you could do is to start a blog in the areas of your interest. This helps in two ways - crystallize your own ideas so that you have elevator speeches ready (or at least be able to talk meaningfully during networking events) and also give you a "presence." Recruiters these days definitely google your name and having an established blog can earn bonus points for being a thought leader.
posted by theobserver at 3:17 PM on January 21, 2011
go to meetup.com and search for technical meetups in your area. it's a great resource.
posted by memi at 9:51 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by memi at 9:51 AM on January 22, 2011
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Why are you even here on Metafilter asking about how to best dick around with recruiters when you should be out founding your own consulting firm?
posted by mhoye at 12:24 PM on January 21, 2011 [2 favorites]