What type of People Make the Best Data Managers

[chrisateen]

Hi All

 

After only a year since uni of being a Data Person in a school it made me start to think of what sort of people make the best data mangers so I have a question for you all;

 

1) Are Statisticians/Mathematicians or IT/Programming the best sort of people to be school Data Managers

2) Can someone with little IT/Excel skills still become good data managers

3) Do you need good IT/Programming Skills to be able to manage and develop an MIS System (assuming an IT person is the one who does installations, upgrades e.t.C)

4) Is it hard to recruit and find good data managers or its a job in which with a few years experience its easy to get jobs in other schools as there is very few data managers out there

5) After a couple of years of experience can School Data Mangers become almost indispensable

 

Partially why I am asking is because I've only being doing this sort of job for less than a year now. What surprised me though was how quickly it took me to get another job when we are in an economy in which it takes most people at least 6 months - 1 year to find a job even with years of experience. Also I'm thinking about my future and whether or not I want to continue being a Data Manager for the rest of my career or do a masters conversion course or go into software engineering but whether I stay as a data manger depends on whether or not in 5 - 6 years time I can move on to an even higher paying job

[dhicks]

1) Are Statisticians/Mathematicians or IT/Programming the best sort of people to be school Data Managers

2) Can someone with little IT/Excel skills still become good data managers

 

Ideally, yes, probably, you'd hope someone whos job it was to handle data all day would be at least be a good statistician, and of course being able to devlope your own software to implement your ideas is always handy. That's probably not the situation in most schools, though.

 

After a couple of years of experience can School Data Mangers become almost indispensable

 

Yes, but getting the average school to realise that, other than waiting for a disaster to strike, can be tricky.

 

Also I'm thinking about my future and whether or not I want to continue being a Data Manager for the rest of my career or do a masters conversion course or go into software engineering but whether I stay as a data manger depends on whether or not in 5 - 6 years time I can move on to an even higher paying job

 

Trying to predict future job markets is difficult, which is why education should be general-purpose. The job titles you're probably aiming for in the future might be "database administrator" or "management information systems expert" or similar. Experience of "big data" might be helpful, as might experience with as many database systems as possible, including the trendy no-SQL ones as favoured by big data types (Hadoop, etc). What was your first degree in? It probably wouldn't be worth the time/money spent on a masters conversion from something like computer science to database manager, better to simply spend the time gaining experience yourself.

[chrisateen]

Trying to predict future job markets is difficult, which is why education should be general-purpose. The job titles you're probably aiming for in the future might be "database administrator" or "management information systems expert" or similar. Experience of "big data" might be helpful, as might experience with as many database systems as possible, including the trendy no-SQL ones as favoured by big data types (Hadoop, etc). What was your first degree in? It probably wouldn't be worth the time/money spent on a masters conversion from something like computer science to database manager, better to simply spend the time gaining experience yourself.

 

My degree is in Social Policy (long story behind how I end up studying this course) and policy is not something that I want to go into. As I have no IT qualifications (except for an A Level in Computing) I'm thinking I may need to do a masters to give me relevant qualifications that would help me get a job in software engineering in the future

[Trapper]

I think being very, very anal helps. It's a lot to keep track off and anyone with bad organisational skills would be an absolute bloody nightmare in the role!

[dhicks]

My degree is in Social Policy (long story behind how I end up studying this course) and policy is not something that I want to go into. As I have no IT qualifications (except for an A Level in Computing) I'm thinking I may need to do a masters to give me relevant qualifications that would help me get a job in software engineering in the future

 

Fair enough, that makes good sense. I don't know exactly what a degree in Social Policy covers, but it does sound like the kind of thing where you could wind up analysing a bunch of statistics to determine how best to shape services for the future, in which case someone with a combination of social policy expert / software developer / database manager sounds just right.

[chrisateen]

Fair enough, that makes good sense. I don't know exactly what a degree in Social Policy covers, but it does sound like the kind of thing where you could wind up analysing a bunch of statistics to determine how best to shape services for the future, in which case someone with a combination of social policy expert / software developer / database manager sounds just right.

 

Analysing data to determine how to shape public policy is exactly the sort of things that people who did my course go into (e.g many people who did my course got a place on the civil service graduate scheme).

[rich_tech]

My degree is in Social Policy (long story behind how I end up studying this course) and policy is not something that I want to go into. As I have no IT qualifications (except for an A Level in Computing) I'm thinking I may need to do a masters to give me relevant qualifications that would help me get a job in software engineering in the future

 

Ability and experience counts for so much more than the dreaded "pieces of paper" I personally think when it comes to job, their essentially benchmarks of a certain applicable standard, most people on here will know people who have degrees and all the professional qualifications coming out of their ears, but cannot do simple things like basic fault finding then, be it in a hardware scenario or a scripting/coding scenario, (I worked with a guy who was a full on MCSA and even he managed to turn off all external mail forwarding on the exchange server of a massive client, which took it down for about 4 hours one day).

 

I am similar to what you quote here in the sense that my degree is in Human Resource Management (I had little interest in doing a CIPD after uni or an MBA, just did not fancy getting into even more debt and wanted to get back into full time work as I was getting married on leaving uni) IT paperwise I have an Advanced GNVQ in IT, I don't fear trying stuff new either or asking questions if im unsure, googles your friend, but I do also have a lot of work experience having worked as a Computer Hardware Engineer and looked after several small businesses as well which I retain to this day.

 

Most people wanting to employ you would try and suss out your technical abilities more than anything else if your CV attracts them, doing things like developing a checkable portfolio of work or ensuring that you have people happy to give you good written references for your work, can be very beneficial in the long run if you do not have the specific "paper" to back up the field you want to be working in I have found.

[teejay]

I would say it sounds like you are fairly driven by money from your opening post. If that's the case then your long term strategy should be to get into consultancy with one of the big companies as that is where the big money is made. They will want the right qualifications for the area you are going into, but it's also about making the right contacts within the big consultancy companies.

[chrisateen]

I would say it sounds like you are fairly driven by money from your opening post. If that's the case then your long term strategy should be to get into consultancy with one of the big companies as that is where the big money is made. They will want the right qualifications for the area you are going into, but it's also about making the right contacts within the big consultancy companies.

 

TBH in terms of salary I just want a salary/job in which I can live a comfortable lifestyle but also enjoy what i do at the same time. Problem with me working in Big Corporate companies is that I got a 2.2 degree and most big companies ask for a 2.1 degree.

[CAM]

I am a data manager and came into it with not much Excel experience and zero SIMS experience. I ended up in the role after being shunted out of harm's way as a tech and SLT discovered I excelled at the position after picking up SIMS and Excel very quickly.

 

So pretty much someone who is logical, can adapt to new software quickly and stays on top of things. You need to be organised and you need to weather the storm of disorganisation that comes your way from management and teacher indecision forcing you make decisions on their behalf.