Career direction for Network Managers

[dsquared2]

I’m a Network Manager in small secondary school with one technician and I’ve been doing it for 3 years. Between me and the techie we have got every running smoothly after taking over from an awful Network Manager. Judging by what I was finding he was winging it and didn’t have a clue. Anyway after 3 years we have put all his bad work right.

 

My question is what do other Network Managers do when they get to this point? I know a lot of people will be thinking stop moaning you’ve got it good and I agree but I’m 25 years old and I want to do more but not sure what to do. I have been toying with the idea of taking on another techie and offering IT support to Primary schools.

 

Do I keep quiet and keep doing a good job or are there other options? I am reluctant to leave my current job and give some all the hard work I have put in!

 

Thank you for any advice.

[smithson83]

I wouldn't say stop moaning... you need to get something out of the job you're doing, otherwise you waste away.

I'm in the same position, albeit just me in a medium sized Primary. Everything is (mostly) working fine, and I have little trouble from day to day, nearly all of my job is user requests or in-class support.

 

I am starting to think about looking further afield if only for a new challenge.

[Steve21]

Honestly unless you got a place with large budgets think you'll always get to a stage like that once all the mess is fixed. It's whether you plod along with what you got, find another broken place and repeat, or look further outside (or try to bring more into your current roles)

 

Steve

[ellsandell]

Look at supporting more schools? (primaries etc)

 

Might be time to start looking for new opportunities.

[Sagima]

I was thinking trying to get into university IT for something a bit more challenging while in a staying similar vein to school life or back to the private sector for more money and, probably, stress.

 

I've done learning from scratch, setting up office from nothing and doing schools that were terrible but once they are done seem to tick along by themselves. One part of me says - enjoy the easy life/money but the bored part of my mind keeps wishing for something exciting to happen.

[elsiegee40]

I’m a Network Manager in small secondary school with one technician and I’ve been doing it for 3 years. Between me and the techie we have got every running smoothly after taking over from an awful Network Manager. Judging by what I was finding he was winging it and didn’t have a clue. Anyway after 3 years we have put all his bad work right.

 

My question is what do other Network Managers do when they get to this point? I know a lot of people will be thinking stop moaning you’ve got it good and I agree but I’m 25 years old and I want to do more but not sure what to do. I have been toying with the idea of taking on another techie and offering IT support to Primary schools.

 

Do I keep quiet and keep doing a good job or are there other options? I am reluctant to leave my current job and give some all the hard work I have put in!

 

Thank you for any advice.

 

No network ever stands still. Once you've got it stable, the next step is to look forward... Is it all Windows 10? Are servers virtualised? What plans do you have for disaster recovery? Is your backup solution future proof? What about BYOD? ....

 

Realistically though if everything's done and you're starting to get bored, you should be looking for a new role. Maybe with another school to grow their network or broaden your experience with a multi academy trust, university or LA. You're too young to stay in the same place for much longer

[Ephelyon]

I was exactly where you are (including age-wise) 4 years ago. My advice would be to look for an equivalent position in a larger school with more money and a bigger team under you for the moment. In the longer term (i.e. not yet by any means, but perhaps as a goal) would be to reach for a Director of IT role within a MAT.

 

That being said, we all know jobs aren't necessarily up for grabs at the precise time you want to move on. If there aren't any immediate opportunities in your area and you're worried about "going stale" in the meantime, you do have one big advantage: you work at a school. There are almost always things going on at a school that could be interesting to get involved with if you have some time free - clubs, trips etc.

 

For example, I now regularly go into classrooms (mostly CS lessons) and provide additional input to the teacher's instructions from the practical standpoint of working in IT professionally, such as real-world use cases for what's being taught, some help with coding, etc. I've also set up a VMware Free host with a mix of Windows and Linux VMs, with full admin access and stuffed full of development tools, that are reset to snapshot every midnight so students have the freedom to experiment and learn without risking the rest of the system. In doing so, I've got to know a number of them and that's made both my experience in my role and theirs as learners more rewarding.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Ephelyon

[Meldrew]

Maybe a new project, for example is your phone system on its last legs (or costing loads) and can you replace it with a VOIP system?

 

Meldrew.

[FragglePete]

I work to a five year plan, so gives me a good idea of what we should be doing and aiming for. I'm just in the process of drawing up the next 5 years now. I sat down with my BM manager and went through the last plan I put together and happily ticked off almost all the items on it. I think the next five years could be interesting and exciting. Cloud Stuff, MAT, newer technologies etc.

 

On a personal level, I'm always asking... what next for me? Been in my role for over 8 years now, top of the salary scale and really thinking I should be looking elsewhere for a new challenge. But, I'm happy with the job, they like what I do, pay is ok the only really thing would be a move closer to home to cut the commute. Maybe I should be looking to HE establishments, just not sure.

 

Pete

[Geoff]

I went commercial

[john]

Larger school maybe an option but you will hit that ceiling again in that so out into the world of commercial is it

[TechMonkey]

As others have said, we can't really comment without knowing the complete ins and outs of your school, system and you. What about some certification? Is there really nothing else the school needs? Policies all up to scratch? Documentation? Covered all your "What-ifs"? Resilience, security and auditing up to scratch? Any chance of being audited to certify the system is sorted? Do you get involved in the budget? Is there anything else you can take under your wing? VLANS? External Access? Do the IT Systems and networks support the SDP for the future? How about getting the office/admin staff to work more efficiently? What about old records, would a data archiving system be something to look at?

 

Sorting out the school is one thing but sometimes it is harder to keep it going. A lot of the jobs aren't sexy but they are the bread and butter of an admin. Taking a run down network is fun and very rewarding and you will get a lot of kudos from staff but it isn't the be all and end all.

 

Problem with commercial is that you will probably start getting pushed towards a niche, so if you really liked that taking a problem school and sorting it you may not get that out there.

 

Obviously if the school isn't willing to spend any more money on IT then you have an issue, but that is a Management issue, not having pushed the network to it's limit. Then you could look at making your budget more efficient, or making a presentation to SLT/Governors on why project X would be useful and how it would help T&L or administration.

Edited April 4, 2016 by TechMonkey

[rich_tech]

I read this thread with some interest over the holidays, but I was so busy then studying for my 1st CCNA exam that it got in the way of a reply at the time, but as I am currently a little ahead of the OP situation wise in what I read in this thread topic, I thought I would give you my 2p worth.

 

I am in a similar situation now in that I had progressed to network manager in the school I worked in, the situation here is that there was nowhere for me to go further within the school, were LEA involved, but each school is markedly different in their setups though, so yours may not be the same as mine in premise and going a little further Wales is markedly different to England at the moment schools wise, in that we don't have academisation ongoing or much in the way of structures outside of our singular school environments, were not part of the bigger scene with other schools and MATs, aside from limited second line help from our LEA with a couple of things here.

 

Here the job itself is interesting enough and busy with no two days ever the same, you get a very wide role in a school with an access to a much wider area of IT than you would in other avenues where you would usually need to specialise.

 

I decided about a year ago now to start looking for another job outside of education, I have looked at wages within the area around here and anything in the private sectors offers more it seems to me for the similar skill level.

 

So I got my CV together with some excellent help from @witch, registered my CV and profile on IT jobs | Permanent & contract IT careers | The UK IT Jobs Board at CWJobs.co.uk and also decided to take charge on my own professional development with some self study, (I consider myself to be solid on the Windows/Virtualisation platforms, so I set about getting a better understanding of networking and I am currently going for my CCNA). I also used the BCS as they have a good development planning tool thats free to use.

 

I have developed for myself a 5 year plan regarding my training and study which ends at completing my CCNP Routing and Switching by the age of 40 (little over 4 years to go there) (my longer term goal is to become a Network Engineer - wages tend to be usually higher for these cisco certification related jobs because of the added difficulty of their examinations and the higher skill level needed to configure their equipment properly).

 

I've just passed the plans first stage and got my Cisco CCENT certification passed and I am working my notice period until I take up my new post outside of education as a IT Support Analyst with a large medical products company. My next stage is to get my full CCNA by the end of August this year, CCNA Security next year and CCNA Wireless the year after.

 

The main thing that I would say I have learnt in the last year is - Don't be afraid to take the bull by the horns regarding your own training and development and your working situation and also have a good look at the self study options with certifications, with an hour and half a night a lot of them can be achieved with quite minimal costs.

 

I have passed the CCENT exam here with about £200 total investment - 2x £25 Cisco Books, 2x £15 Video based courses from Udemy.com and the rest was on a small lab kit for authentic cisco switches and a router to practice upon (though I could have just made do with Cisco's own Packet Tracer looking back). Course providers charge a significant premium for the structuring and delivery of the course materials which you can avoid.

[mthomas08]

I’m a Network Manager in small secondary school with one technician and I’ve been doing it for 3 years. Between me and the techie we have got every running smoothly after taking over from an awful Network Manager. Judging by what I was finding he was winging it and didn’t have a clue. Anyway after 3 years we have put all his bad work right.

 

My question is what do other Network Managers do when they get to this point? I know a lot of people will be thinking stop moaning you’ve got it good and I agree but I’m 25 years old and I want to do more but not sure what to do. I have been toying with the idea of taking on another techie and offering IT support to Primary schools.

 

Do I keep quiet and keep doing a good job or are there other options? I am reluctant to leave my current job and give some all the hard work I have put in!

 

Thank you for any advice.

 

Bit late but I like offering an extra penny thoughts worth.

 

Currently in a similar situation on inheriting a mess but we are making huge progress. Personally I have been spending more time doing sort of School Business Manager work so there is always a shot of progression down that route. With IT always being around in some form or another that certainly wouldn't be going to waste.

 

Even considering the idea of doing the same course that my LM did.