Job Title: Network Manager or Administrator

[GrumbleDook]

Director? Who do you give direction to? Do you write strategies, manage their implementation and so on? Then you are not a director.

CTO? Are you really the chief? You are managed by the Head of ICT but you don't say at what level you make decisions? Unless you are *the* person who decides the technology and how it fits in with the needs of the institute? If not then perhaps the title is a tad too lofty.

Ok, I know some of the above stuff was tongue in cheek by those posters, as is my reply.

If you manager the IT then you an IT Manager, including design and deployment, being *part* of the group working on what the school needs, etc ...

If you do not manage then you are a technician.

There is nothing wrong with either title ... both are highly respectable and I know some schools do not use them properly, might use one to forceably keep your salary low, or use the other to artificially inflate it (in comparison to similarly employed technicians) as they want to pay you a decent wage.

But I honestly don't see the need to com up with fancy titles.

Network Manager and IT Manager are fairly interchangeable in our eyes but we know that some people don't fully understand that the 'network' could mean the infrastructure and switches ... it could mean the systems sat on that infrastructure ... it might or might not include the telephones, cctv, VLE, etc ... but by calling it 'IT' or even 'IS' then it can help. I think my favourite so far is Information & Technology Services ... and the team there (3 of them) could clearly show what it meant (an ITS Manager, a data manager and technician / developer), and the whole school new.

Just my thoughts ...

[t4ll1f3r]

Systems Manager as I manage systems. However if you don't manage people itcan inhibit your rise up the pay scale.

[SYNACK]

I would be looking at "ICT Systems Administrator" as a good term that encompases all of your tasks without tripping over their contention. As it is a job description then you probably want a nice official term to help give the position weight in managment and accountant type areas.

Personally I use all sorts of titles depending on what I want to achive and who I am talking to. A stroppy supplier education (teacher) focused may get ICT Facilitator to prevent their usual malace towards IT pros and an internal email may be signed ICT Administrator. For a job title though it is best to stick to a good solid and wide ranging title that properly encompases and represents your role.

[maniac]

I was 'ICT Development Engineer' at my previous school, which was basically deputy to the Network Manager, who had the Job Title 'ICT Co-Ordinator' but essentially did the same job as a network manager.

They did like their fancy job titles at that school.

Mike.

[theeldergeek]

For a job title though it is best to stick to a good solid and wide ranging title that properly encompases and represents your role.

Technical Dogsbody it is then...

[witch]

ITBH I refer to myself as the IT Technician most of the time as it doesn't sound too important and helps sales weasels to lose interest in me. However when dealing with a stroppy parent recently, who was definitely in the wrong, I promoted myself to Network Manager.

My HT thinks it's funny that I vary my job title to suit the audience and the occasion!

Snap! Except I usually use 'Network Manager' to sales people because it makes it clear to them who makes the decisions and how important I *really* am!!

After all, I manage the entire network on my own in both schools - I know they are only small, and I wouldn't put myself up there with the NMs in big senior schools, but IMHO there should be quite a big scale for NM to encompass those of us at the bottom, who, whilst not having a large network physically, still have all and complete responsibility for specifying equipment, software, day to day operations, updates, future plans and everything else. An IT technician, AFAIC, doesn't carry that sort of responsiblity

So generally, I am a small system Network Manager!!

[sippo]

Officially I'm Network manager, but I prefer network administrator. Manager seems to formal for me.

[sidewinder]

My boss is the network manager, my job title is network administrator. Work that one out

[Hightower]

My job title could be 'General Dogs Body' - I couldn't care less as long as the pay is right each month.

What is a title? Network Manager means nothing if you are still paid the lowly wage of a junior tech.

[CAM]

I have to admit I get peeved when I see people whoes job title is 'Systems Manager'. I was always told a systems manager managed several seperate and distinct networks and, well, systems. Not a single school LAN.

What if you have an admin network and a curriculum network?