Considering an offer to manage an IT department, страница 2

You might suggest that some specific figure may be required to make the needed progress, perhaps an increase in the IT budget of 20 or 25% annually for the next three years. The organization's response will tell you about its willingness to address its IT problems. Doing IT right can be expensive, especially when an organization has allowed itself to fall behind the technology curve. If the required commitment to building a strong IT function is not going to be forthcoming, it's better that you find that out as soon as possible.

If the company says something like, "A consultant helped us explore the issue and we understand we may have to triple the IT budget over the next three years to get where we want to go. If that is the case, we are fully prepared to make that investment," that is a favorable answer. Conversely, if the answer is something along the lines of, "You know, we have not given too much thought to that, we just feel we are falling behind on technology," caution flags should come up.

Conclusion

Even if you do everything right, there are never any assurances that a new job will work out well, but you can raise the probability of success by laying the proper groundwork. If both parties can ask and answer questions candidly and find they share the same view of the problems, getting together should be mutually beneficial.

Although it can be a difficult process, it is better to avoid a management situation that will not work than to enter into something likely to end badly. Making a mistake in accepting an offer to manage an IT installation is not a pleasant experience. Devoting time and effort to attempting to avoid a bad outcome represents a sound approach to the issue.

Introduction

Although the world of information technologies is an extremely specialized and quickly developed area of knowledge the common business laws also highly affects it. When you graduate and begin the search of a job you always think about some standard things for this job to have. It should:

ü  be highly paid;

ü  have the opportunities to the career growth;

ü  have the convenient schedule of work;

ü  there should be a comfortable atmosphere.

Of course you first position can’t satisfy all your requirements, as so as some other during next several years. And when you finally receive an offer to manage an IT department you can only think about the benefits it should bring. It really seems attractive and is the gratification of all your needs and desires. So you forget all doubts and precautions and accept it gladly.

So, now you are an IT Manager and you have a whole department under your management. And only know, when you have a lot of new problems, you begin thinking about the things, early examination of which could had helped you to avoid them. Maybe the advantages of this position are not that considerable in compare with all difficulties you should deal with.

Of course all employers try to draw a good expert in their company and they are going to use all available ways to reach their aim. Of course they are going to increase their benefits of your work, so they will never let you about all that difficulties that they are going to put you to deal with.

There is the only way to make sure that the offered position will have more good sides, and the compensation, status and power won’t cost too much for you is to be ready to find out what your perspective employer is trying to hide. Of course not all of them are such treacherous, some of them can just have not enough information about what is happening in this part of their huge corporation, but it also will make your work and life in common much harder.

So what are you need to be prepared to talk about with the potential employer?

Considering an offer to manage an IT department

So you’ve received an offer to manage an IT department. Of course the hard work you’ve made to get that offer naturally prompts you to accept it.  Certainly compensation, status, power, and control and the size of the department's budge attract you attention most of all. Surely those items are important, but there’re some more. You should not obscure some less obvious but equally important issues. Making the offer the employer expects his new employee to bring in someone to solve their immediate IT management problems. And he easily may present an unrealistic picture of the existing situation.

Phrases like: "We just feel it is time to bring in someone new," or "A need exists to become more fully engaged with the technology," as an attempt to explain why this position is opened may themselves be symptoms of problems. Many IT managers have found, after accepting a position, that their organization's problems are more serious than originally presented. Uncovering serious problems after coming on board increases the management challenge and adds to the risk of failure. Therefore, probing more deeply into the organization's reasons for bringing in a new manager represents a pre-employment strategy of the company.

  However, digging for answers prior to accepting an offer to manage an IT department presents a dilemma. You can embarrass your potential employee with to mach questions and cause the offer to be withdrawn. But if you will decline asking pertinent questions, you may find yourself in an even worse position. Honesty and candor on the part of all the parties involved will lead to the best outcome.

Also, as long as internal climate is one of the most motivation aspects the more you understand about the company culture prior to agreeing to join the organization, the better. A prospective manager who understands the culture can determine whether he feels comfortable and can operate effectively in such conditions.

Mister John Murray offers some examples of issues that can affect a new IT manager's success or failure. He doesn’t affirm that it is a comprehensive list, but says that it can represent some areas to explore.

He offers to think about such problems as: Why did the former manager leave? Was the reason a lack of overall competence? Maybe it’s not a subjective problem, but the affection of all components:  people, the IT staff, the IT customers, or senior management. Maybe the organization of the deed feedback system may bring some benefits in this situation? Of course you’ll have a lot of problems if the organization's senior management haven’t developed a mandate for the IT department. If it doesn’t it have a mission statement that informs people throughout the organization about the IT function and its goals and management is not in favor of having such documents developed and published maybe there is no use to try to deal with it?