2 answers
Nicholas
Student
Secaucus, New Jersey
2
Questions
Asked
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What is a day to day for an Information Technology Manager?
I'm an incoming college freshman and I am attending Ramapo College of New Jersey. My major is Information Technology Management and I am getting a minor in Business Analytics.
#JULY20
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2 answers
Amy Leonard
Systems Engineer / Engineering Manager
9
Answers
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Updated
Amy’s Answer
Hi Nicolas,
I'm a manager in Information Technology. I work at a company that uses Agile Product Development practices. In my day to day, I play three primary roles: people manager, lead engineer, and (agile) product owner. Each of these roles has unique day-to-day responsibilities, and not all IT managers have to play all three of these roles. However, most will have to play at least the people manager role, and some aspect of technical leadership.
In the people management role, I meet with my team each week, and we talk about the following:
- what excites them
- what do they want to learn / do more
- what does the team need them to do
- what are they doing well
- where do they need to put in more effort to do better
I also manage their annual reviews, career path / promotion discussions, balancing any personal needs with team needs, etc.
In the lead engineer role (which is not always, but sometimes played by the IT manager), I help my team with the following:
- determine what technologies we need to consider/learn in order to best do our jobs (our learning/experimentation plan)
- troubleshoot and resolve issues with our systems
- identify our technical strategy and priorities to ensure our systems are stable and scalable (build our technical roadmap)
- implement new features for customers and/or improvements in how we manage our systems (peer review their code changes)
As mentioned above, I also play the product owner role, which is not always (but sometimes) done by the IT manager. In this role, I do the following:
- understand the needs of our customers (what are their needs that we haven't met yet? what are their pain-points with our products today?)
- understand the trends in the industry (what are others that own the same functions as me doing to make their space better?)
- decide the priority of what we will work on for the customer
- Experiment with new solutions / features to see if they improve customer satisfaction
I hope this information helps you. Also, if you are considering this career, I would encourage you to find an internship within a technology organization where they will let you shadow a manager. This will give you much greater insight into the career at a few companies.
Consider an internship at a company where you can shadow an IT manager
I'm a manager in Information Technology. I work at a company that uses Agile Product Development practices. In my day to day, I play three primary roles: people manager, lead engineer, and (agile) product owner. Each of these roles has unique day-to-day responsibilities, and not all IT managers have to play all three of these roles. However, most will have to play at least the people manager role, and some aspect of technical leadership.
In the people management role, I meet with my team each week, and we talk about the following:
- what excites them
- what do they want to learn / do more
- what does the team need them to do
- what are they doing well
- where do they need to put in more effort to do better
I also manage their annual reviews, career path / promotion discussions, balancing any personal needs with team needs, etc.
In the lead engineer role (which is not always, but sometimes played by the IT manager), I help my team with the following:
- determine what technologies we need to consider/learn in order to best do our jobs (our learning/experimentation plan)
- troubleshoot and resolve issues with our systems
- identify our technical strategy and priorities to ensure our systems are stable and scalable (build our technical roadmap)
- implement new features for customers and/or improvements in how we manage our systems (peer review their code changes)
As mentioned above, I also play the product owner role, which is not always (but sometimes) done by the IT manager. In this role, I do the following:
- understand the needs of our customers (what are their needs that we haven't met yet? what are their pain-points with our products today?)
- understand the trends in the industry (what are others that own the same functions as me doing to make their space better?)
- decide the priority of what we will work on for the customer
- Experiment with new solutions / features to see if they improve customer satisfaction
I hope this information helps you. Also, if you are considering this career, I would encourage you to find an internship within a technology organization where they will let you shadow a manager. This will give you much greater insight into the career at a few companies.
Amy recommends the following next steps:
Amy, you did it with that answer. I say so because your testimony supports the help you offered.
Joseph Anie
Joseph Anie
Instructional Assistant/Support Specialist
17
Answers
Columbus, Ohio
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
You hardly get good Advice as Amy gave you. My personal advice is that IT management comes with training and practice you cannot be a chairperson all the time you should be on the move listening to junior worker complains and suggestions. From there you collaboratively solve problems of customers to the best of your knowledge. Sometimes when something is not within your capacity refer the consumer to another viable provider.
With becoming an IT manager, your job offers are many but many people seek for the experience. That is why you need to get something close to that by getting employed in an IT firm and systematically climb up the ladder.
Training to be an IT manager is good. However, training only does not make a manager competent. The best way is to be on the job and gradually get there.
With becoming an IT manager, your job offers are many but many people seek for the experience. That is why you need to get something close to that by getting employed in an IT firm and systematically climb up the ladder.
Training to be an IT manager is good. However, training only does not make a manager competent. The best way is to be on the job and gradually get there.
Hi Joseph, I noticed that you answered this question 3 times so I combined your answers to one post
Gurpreet Lally, Admin