Advice for a first time Network Manager

[superaz300]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am 2 weeks away from starting my new job, as a first time Network Manager at a secondary school. As excited and overwhelmed as I am when I was offered the job, I think the nerves and reality has definitely hit, and I really don't want to mess this opportunity up. I am 21 years old, and I have worked as an ICT Technician since I was 16 which I started out as an apprentice. Network Manager has always been something to aim for, I just can't believe I have got the role much earlier than I thought.

 

I am looking for any pointers, advice, do's and don't and general experience of doing this role. I have been to look at the school, and I have a good understanding of the technology that is currently there, and its certainly an exciting project to take on board as there is a lot of work that needs doing from an IT perspective. The current IT team have been running the show for the past 5 years, just 2 technicians, as the school didn't have the budget to replace the Network Manager. This is great as they understand the building, the staff and the way the school ticks more than I do.

 

So far, my list of things to look at when I first start are:

 

Making sure backups are functional

Updating / checking Network Documentation

Reviewing contracts / services the school has

Understanding the Staff with any IT issues they have

 

This seems like such a small list to me, but I feel they are important. I understand as part of this role, I now become the person people come to when IT doesn't go to plan, and its my job to take responsibility for both my team and the issues we face, but it also should be such a good opportunity, and I am hoping to learning a lot of experience. I do apologise for the long thread, I will look forward to any replies.

 

Best regards

James

[mavhc]

If you're expected to manage other people, get some management training, managing people is a completely different career to managing computers

[Ditto]

Yes, managing your staff is important. You need to be clear with communication and keep calm and professional. Accept their mistakes and your own as lessons learnt. Manage the teams work load - don't let it manage you. Develop a strong communication channel with the head and/or SLT that you mostly work with. Remember you got the post on merit - in the schools eyes you were the best candidate and it's great to see there is no hint of age discrimination - it can happen at either end of the range! Most of all, try to enjoy the journey, keep smiling. Oh, and as for the list being short - don't worry that'll grow, without a doubt! Do let us have an update after 1 month. Edited September 30, 2020 by Ditto

[superaz300]

Thank you both for the replies. I have been told a member of SLT currently line manages the IT Team, so to start off with, this isn't going to be part of my responsibility. I will be provided training if the school want me to line manage the IT team, which from my experience so far of working in Education, it is nice to hear the T word!

 

Strong relationships with key Staff is important to me, I understand that IT has also become a grey area in the school within the last 5 years, and I really want to turn that around and so that Staff can start believing in the IT again. I am definitely looking forward to taking this on and building my on my experience, and as part of that, I am sure I will make mistakes, but I guess its how I learn from them that counts.

[simpsonj]

Reminds me of a blog post I made, god, 5 years ago

 

The summary being, look out for the following:

 

What is expected of you as a technican/network manager in a school (day to day, and larger project work)

What your responsibilities are

What isn't your responsibility, but what you should probably keep an eye on and report to your line manager

What software could help in your job (Helpdesk, Server elements such as WSUS etc) - I'll add Lansweeper or similar here, something to get an inventory of your network.

The importance of documentation

The importance of budgeting

 

Unfortunately I rather let that blog series die (and I still don't feel qualified to write it) but if you can get the answers to the above in your first few weeks, you'll probably be on the right track.

[Sonic007]

The first thing I remember doing is sending out an email to all staff. Introduce yourself.

 

Then ask them what works and what doesn't work and what they would like to see happen in the school. This can help give you an idea on what the staff use and need in their teaching and also makes you look like a hero that you are listening to their views and wanting to help them.

 

Don't try to change everything at once. Spend a few weeks getting to know your systems, network config, etc. I ended up finding random access points and switches in various places. Get to know your network.

 

Once youve got things in hand, then look at best practice and how you can make things better.

[Davit2005]

Get to know your team and have a meeting with all of them and then have a meeting with each of them in person to gather some further insight.

 

Understand how the network/infrastructure is (or is not) working at the moment, and get to know key members of staff who use IT i.e. tech teachers, etc.

 

Don't forget to put licensing and endpoint/system cyber attack protection provisions on your list of things to check out.

[jmak]

Congratulations. It's entirely reasonably to feel slightly apprehensive, but don't start questioning whether you're good enough.

 

Checking that they've got a working backup probably is a job for the first day. After that I'd prioritise the people and relationships side of things. It's unlikely that there'll be a long term impact of delaying technical things by a couple of weeks, but if you don't get off to a good start with the staff, you might never recover.

 

You might have bridges to build with the technicians - it's not unlikely that at least one of them applied for the job you got. Even if they didn't, it'd be surprising if they weren't at least slightly defensive about the fact that someone has been brought in after two years - there's a potential perceived criticism of what they've been doing.

 

Get on good terms with the site team. The bursar is important, if you think you might ever want to buy something. You'll find out what's going on around school much quicker if you make friends with the receptionist and head's PA.

 

Find out from your technicians which classroom staff are always the most vocal critics of IT - if you can fix one of their gripes (even if it's just helping them to do something that the technicians have told them a hundred times) you might cultivate a vocal supporter. Also find it who the "sensible" users are, so that you know if they come to you with an issue, it's something that needs your attention.

 

After that, if there's an issue log or help desk, go through it and identify some quick wins and major issues. If there isn't a help desk in place, get one set up quickly.

 

Good luck!

[Ex-MGSTech]

Congratulations, Whilst you may find your age against you with older staff stick with it, demonstrate your ability and you should win them over

 

A few pointers (after 16 years in the role & 25 in IT)

 

• Get your school a helpdesk/ticketing system, not only does allow you to get organised, but it records you and your team’s workload (don't forget IT sit there doing nothing!)

 

• Set expectations early, don't promise the earth if you doubt your capacity to deliver it.

 

• Understand your userbase’s level of Computer literacy, some staff (old and young) struggle You will find out that turning on a monitor has nothing to do with their ability to do so and everything to do with how that are coping in a lesson.

 

• Understand that a classroom is the teacher’s domain and you are merely equipping them to teach. Keeping in functioning is the challenge.

 

• Work to make your colleagues as Cyber Security aware as possible...it could save you from a big headache in the future.

 

• Don’t skimp on AV software and security measures (Especially in an Office 365 environment)

 

• Put in place an approval/notification system for when someone buys IT kit, this should avoid the “I’ve just bought this can you install it, configure it and teach me how to use it by the next period scenarios”

 

• Don’t skimp on warranties, its cheaper in the long run that taking up valuable time and budget to repair stuff...

 

• Make friends, beware of SLT and keep an eye out for people who copy the head teacher into every email....

 

• USE BCC!

 

Oh and if you are old enough....wear sunscreen

 

Abigail Oath

Most of us have probably heard of this, but

 

Quoth Mike Sphar on 1999/10/05 in the Scary Devil Monastery,

 

(Is it really 12 years old? The more things change, the more they stay the same)

 

I think that we should officially make this the sysadmins credo. We'll

 

call it "The Abigail Oath" and require all new sysadmins to swear it.

 

Well, without the layoff part, maybe something like this:

 

I am hired because I know what I am doing, not because I will do whatever I

 

am told is a good idea. This might cost me bonuses, raises, promotions,

 

and may even label me as "undesirable" by places I don't want to work at

 

anyway, but I don't care. I will not compromise my own principles and

 

judgement without putting up a fight. Of course, I won't always win, and I

 

will sometimes be forced to do things I don't agree with, but if I am my

 

objections will be known, and if I am shown to be right and problems later

 

develop, I will shout "I told you so!" repeatedly, laugh hysterically, and

 

do a small dance or jig as appropriate to my heritage.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Ex-MGSTech

[maddocks1993]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

 

The last part is 110% accurate as . Good old SLT

Edited May 17, 2021 by elsiegee40
:mod: Edited for language by moderators

[Ditto]

@superaz300, we are almost half way through you first academic year as a Network Manager. How are things going and which bits if advice seemed most useful with the value of hindsight?

[Dave_O]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am 2 weeks away from starting my new job, as a first time Network Manager at a secondary school. As excited and overwhelmed as I am when I was offered the job, I think the nerves and reality has definitely hit, and I really don't want to mess this opportunity up. I am 21 years old, and I have worked as an ICT Technician since I was 16 which I started out as an apprentice. Network Manager has always been something to aim for, I just can't believe I have got the role much earlier than I thought.

 

I am looking for any pointers, advice, do's and don't and general experience of doing this role. I have been to look at the school, and I have a good understanding of the technology that is currently there, and its certainly an exciting project to take on board as there is a lot of work that needs doing from an IT perspective. The current IT team have been running the show for the past 5 years, just 2 technicians, as the school didn't have the budget to replace the Network Manager. This is great as they understand the building, the staff and the way the school ticks more than I do.

 

Best regards

James

 

Show empathy, listen and act appropriately.

[kennysarmy]

You joined this forum when you were 11????

[Dave_O]

You joined this forum when you were 11????

 

Interesting point. Either that or the account has been taken over by aliens, hacked, he/she is a time traveller, taken over a retired/disgraced user's account. Which is it? I'm going for aliens

[kennysarmy]

Interesting point. Either that or the account has been taken over by aliens, hacked, he/she is a time traveller, taken over a retired/disgraced user's account. Which is it? I'm going for aliens

 

There is always the poacher turned gamekeeper option!

[Dave_O]

There is always the poacher turned gamekeeper option!

 

Oo! Like that. Disgruntled kid, thwarted for many years embeds deep in the IT support forum ready to strike in years to come?

[superaz300]

Hello Guys,

 

First of all, apologies for my silence on this post. Joining a school as Network Manager through a pandemic has been an eventful time to say the least, but also rewarding to be thrown in the deep end! Before I start to tell my story of how I have found the role so far, I would just like to point out as some of you have noticed my account has existed on Edugeek for a number of years now. I have always had a passion for IT from a very young age, and I engaged in this forum at a very young age as this forum was originally shown to me back when I was at school from the techies I learnt and inspired from. Yes, I was that student that had such a passion for IT, I was building Windows Server networks from the age of 11 at home and then straight onto my apprenticeship at 16 for my first role of Apprentice Technician in a large secondary school.

 

Now to the exciting bit!

 

I have survived! I am very well settled in my role, over 1 year in but I can honestly say it really does not feel like a year. My first task when I started was to get the network stable, as there was not any investment in IT for 8 years before I started, so I had Windows Server 2008 - 2012 Servers, and Windows 7 32-bit hardware at least 9 years old. My first project was to replace all the servers (physical) with a new VMware 2 node cluster setup. I can't take all the credit for this as the trust IT director had already ordered and had the infrastructure in place just before I started, but I needed to finish this project and create the brand-new Windows Server 2019 Virtual Machines for DC's, File Servers, Print and APPS. Previously, the school was doing all software and operating system installation manually! so I took the opportunity to introduce SCCM, which made my life so much easier.

 

The previous IT department used to receive around 30 emails between them a day, which was very difficult to manage. As soon as I started, an IT helpdesk was quickly introduced so we had an organised ticket system so jobs actually got completed. At first, I found staff did not like this change, they was so use to just ringing IT or emailing and expecting the issue to be resolved there and then, but recent feedback staff are now very happy with this change, and it’s a fair process in the way tickets get responded too which we now have much faster response times.

 

In between working on infrastructure and the network, I also had to support remote learning which was a challenge in itself with the aging hardware. Luckily, we received some DfE laptops and donations from local organisations near the school to support this which meant we could quickly offer hardware to students and staff to use at home. With less people in the school during the lockdowns, it was great opportunity to really get stuck in and start working on network diagrams, and tidying up the server rooms and comms cabinets. During the summer, we upgraded all our fibre to OM3 and rolled out 15 brand new Aruba 10GB switches, to replace the old and retired Unifi switches that nobody could ever get onto the management page due to a very messy / wrong VLAN schema. As part of this, I created 4 new subnets for WiFi so we can deliver a proper Guest WiFi network, and a staff WiFi. Previously, Guest, Staff and Students where all on 1 WiFi subnet which was not ideal!!

 

There are so many other projects / changes I have made which I am very happy with, and it certainly has given me a confidence boost to do this role when I look back on this crazy year, and what the school had before and now. I have made mistakes, just like we all do in a new role, but the advice I got, "Don't upset Finance, HR or the Site Team" I can see are very true! But most important of all, "Keep the kitchen staff happy"

 

Thank you for all your help and advice as I began the new adventure into my new role. As scary as it was at the beginning, and every day is still a school day, but I certainly wouldn't change it now and I believe is the best decision I made to change my job! I do hope anyone who reads this thread in the future isn't put off this role by the challenges / projects I had to undertake in a year, I think personally for me this made it more exciting, and quickly taught me what I needed to know to do this job.

 

I feel like I could write an entire blog on this, but I best leave it here! Thank you all once again

 

Superaz300

 

 

 

 

 

@superaz300, we are almost half way through you first academic year as a Network Manager. How are things going and which bits if advice seemed most useful with the value of hindsight?

[Dave_O]

Superaz300

 

Unlike you, I am now at the end of my journey, which has been, let's just say, eventful. There are times when you wonder why you even bother. But take solus (no pun intended) in the fact that the knowledge you gain, even the seemingly trivial, will help you to help others to understand and move forward.

 

OK. enough of that bo***cks, the most important thing is to pay as much money into your pension as possible and retire early!! I know I did it.

 

In the words of Abraham Lincoln "Party on dudes."

[kennysarmy]

Superaz300

 

Unlike you, I am now at the end of my journey, which has been, let's just say, eventful. There are times when you wonder why you even bother. But take solus (no pun intended) in the fact that the knowledge you gain, even the seemingly trivial, will help you to help others to understand and move forward.

 

OK. enough of that bo***cks, the most important thing is to pay as much money into your pension as possible and retire early!! I know I did it.

 

In the words of Abraham Lincoln "Party on dudes."

 

Couldn't agree more, pay as much disposal as you can in to a pension scheme so you get the tax relief and find make sure you switch off each day when you walk out the door!