Finding the right IT manager

[Masta K]

Hi everyone,

So I manage support services (finance, secretarial, compliance and IT) for a mid sized business which currently has no IT professionals and has outsourced 100% of IT services to a large listed IT business.

I'm at the size where I now want to have proper skills in house to drive the technical direction of the business and to manage my outsourced services. I'm also starting a process of finding a proper ERP (strongly leaning towards Dynamics 365) to replace my Pastel universe.

I'm clueless on a number of things but the two which worry me the most are:

1. What skills I should be looking for (I see MCSE and MCITP bandied about but I also saw this thread which has be questioning their credibility)
2. How much & what kind of experience I should be looking for

For context, I have about 50 staff who are client based, 25 office based in one location and another 30 office based in a 2nd location. May 3rd location in the coming 3-6 months.

Any suggestions on scoping the job spec (and the kind of salary range I should consider) would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hamster]

So EOH?

 

[Batista]

For an IT manager, papers dont say much, experience in the industry says much more.
Actually for any IT position, papers dont say much.

 

[Masta K]

What kind of experience counts? Is it just x number of years in company x or a specific type of experience e.g. network administrator.

 

[Kosmik]

So EOH?

ROFL.

 

[Masta K]

So EOH?

Oddly enough no, well not at the moment.

 

[Grep]

I agree with the sentiment that in most cases, qualifications are not really relevant. Do what I do, choose a few candidates and get them to come in and sit in front of a PC. Give them some basic tasks to complete and as they are about to start, take the mouse away.

I have found in most cases that you are worth your weight in gold if you can navigate correctly.

 

[DominionZA]

I agree with the sentiment that in most cases, qualifications are not really relevant. Do what I do, choose a few candidates and get them to come in and sit in front of a PC. Give them some basic tasks to complete and as they are about to start, take the mouse away.

I have found in most cases that you are worth your weight in gold if you can navigate correctly.

Lol - love it. Thought I was the only person anal about constant reaching for the mouse.

 

[DMNknight]

What kind of experience counts? Is it just x number of years in company x or a specific type of experience e.g. network administrator.

It's a really big ask here, let me see if I can shorten it for you.
1) ITIL or equivalent type experience. I'd expect your manager to be able to design the support lifecycle of a product solution, or at least put in a wireframe to support the fleshing out of it.
2) Some kind of Architecture experience and delivering solutions. Take what the execs want and turn it into an IT solution. (back to point 1 -> design/document/support and improve the solution)
3) Overall experience from Hardware (various vendors) to Operating Systems (Microsoft & 'nix), both desktop and server experience, networking equipment, network management, monitoring, messaging and security (firewall/patch management etc)
4) Auditing - being able to define and measure a technical teams delivery of their technology
5) Continuous service improvement. You want someone who is not happy sitting on their laurels and will continuously try and improve whatever systems are in place.

What you want is someone that knows about a lot of the stuff above, knows how to fill in the gaps of the stuff he doesn't know and knows enough not to have the wool pulled over his eyes when speaking to vendors.

The more boxes the manager ticks the boxes, the more he/she is going to cost. Settle on what you want the manager to do, how you want them to grow and budget for it.
Then go hunting for the manager that will accept the package that ticks most of the boxes. Tailor the interview to your company way of work. Like any IT solution, the company is unique in the way it operates and you want the manager to fit into that.

P.S. pulling out the mouse is a typical douche bag move. It shows an immature and biased point of view and the worst kind of micromanaging boss with control issues. I would simply walk, or go and fetch my own mouse if I was giving you a chance.
Every techie has their strong points and weaknesses. As a manager, you need to trust in the skills you have hired and play to the strengths of those you have employed. Use education to help with weaknesses.