Starting a new job as a "Network Manager"

I was also thrown in to it in a primary school - it took a long time even to find out how the school did the most basic things - just give yourself a break and realise that you CANNOT work it all out in two seconds flat. I spent a lot of time in my server cupboard trying not to get upset as I didn't know what the heck I was doing. REMEMBER - no one else has any idea what you do so as long as you look confident, you will do OK!
As for licences - I quickly made a list of those I didn't have, submitted it to SMT and got a WRITTEN answer stating that I was not responsible for those that they couldn't find. I quietly stated that, as licences are my responsibility, I would remove unlicensed software from the network - I gave them a grace period of 2 months to sort it out. They did.
Initially you just need to know how to create users, clear printer problems and the like - this will keep you going as you slowly get to grips with what goes where and why. (although it has to be said that 4 years on, some things are still not as I would like them, but we are getting there!!)
Good luck, and please pm me if I can help in any way (back at work next week)

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Originally Posted by WITCH

Remember - no one else has any idea what you do so as long as you look confident, you will do OK!

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+1 to that! 90% of the work we tech's/managing tech's do is unknown to anyone non-tech, so don't worry too much!


On a more serious note, initial things to consider;

Inventory of hardware
Inventory of software
Inventory of licences (got and needed)
Spend time sorting out what hub cabinets / cabling goes where and why

Also, it might be worth sitting in some ICT lessons (and regular lessons too)
to see how staff and pupils currently use the ICT for teaching and learning, which
in turn can give you good ideas on what works and what could be improved.

I can tell you, from (poor) personal experience, that changing things early on
is NOT going to make you popular. Me and the tech made some quite major changes,
all for the better I hasten to add, but it did not go down well with most of the staff,
who were mostly set in their ways, and its taken a lot of hard work over the better part
of the last 12 months to get everyone almost back on "our side"! :doh:

Another itme not mentioned yet, would be budget:

Is there one?
Who owns it?
Has any already been spent/allocated?
How do I get more?

Admittedly the last one is the killer!:o

I was given the task of bringing a middle size secondary school up to date with the IT world in six months, the criteria was written on a sheet of A4 it said "ratio of pupils to computers needs to be at 7:1 for the September start.

Given that the school only had 24 workstations on a dilapidated network and also that i had never been involved with networking before it seemed a daunting task, challenging but do-able.
First thing i did was to get to know the staff and the importance of their jobs and how relevant IT was to them.
Secondly i did a full systems analysis to find out what the school had and what or where it wanted to be in terms of IT infrastructure.
Liased with the head of IT to get a clear picture of how they saw the strategic route which the school needed to take and all of the criteria which needed to be met.

A very steep learning curve, in fact perpendicular but have managed over the last 6 years to reach all targets set by SLT due the hard work by myself and team members I have taken onboard who greatly enhance the IT support team here at Bishop Barrington school.

Good luck and follow your instincts you'll do fine :)