Career tracks

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Berg0

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 16, 2005
Messages
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Hello all. I guess i"ll start out by saying that I'm not sure if this is the right part of the forum to post this in, but since there is a resume's thread stickied, and a lot of talk about certifications and career tracks, I figured I'd put this here.

At present I am a Systems Administrator who's duties include managing VMware ESX environments, windows and Linux application servers, and a bit of network security work. (sounds like I"m all over the place, but it's by choice, keeps things interesting). I work in a small department of about 10 people, and enjoy what I do.

Recently, there has been some restructuring, and two positions have opened up. One is to manage the team I am presently a member of (Sys Admins, DBA, and Network Admin) and the other position is to manage the companies Helpdesk department, who also look after internal applications (exchange, AD, company's wiki, issue tracking system, and hardware deployment). I was offered the position to Manage the Helpdesk team.

Cool, I thought, more money, but, is it what I really want to do?

Have any of you [H] users left the technical track to pursue the management of a technical team? Anyone have experience managing a hell-desk? (haha, jokes).

confused.
 
Berg0 said:
Cool, I thought, more money, but, is it what I really want to do?
Click to expand...

That question is something only you can answer.

Either management position, you'll be managing people, pretty much gone are the days of rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. To move up in the corporate world...you go from doing the work yourself...to making sure other people get the work done.

So your decision is "Can I get work done through other people"...and another question you have to ask yourself....."Can I trust other people to get the work done..instead of pushing them out of the way and doing the work myself". That's part of being a supervisor/manager.
 
If you're good enough to manage the help desk team.. why doesn't management think you're good enough to manage the team you currently work on?
 
someone in a position with more authority expressed interest in the position. One of the questions the CTO asked me during the interview was who I would choose to fill the position other than myself, I happened to answer person X, and then stated that it was unlikely that they would want the position, as they are currently in a "better" position. Turns out person X wanted the position, and got it. I agree with the CTO, she is a better fit, and has far more HR experience. The helpdesk team is smaller, so it was offered to me, I hadn't applied for it.
 
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