Here’s a quick question for you: how’s that IT manager job going? Is this the right job for you at the right time? Are you fully using all of your IT manager skills? Or have you found yourself stuck in a job that isn’t leading you to where you want to get to in your career? This is a good question, but just exactly how do you go about figuring out what the right answer for you is?
Follow The Money
From a wallet or purse point-of-view, how rewarding is your current IT manager job? I’m hoping that you like your job; however, we all have a need to pay bills and we like to acquire the nicer things in life. In order to be able to do this, we need to be paid for our time. Are you currently earning enough money to pay for all of your expenses or is your paycheck holding you back from things that you want to do?
No, there are no IT managers that are pulling down a salary of US$1M / year. However, there probably are other IT manager jobs that you could get that would pay you more. How important is how much you earn to you? Money won’t buy you happiness, but it can increase your satisfaction. How satisfied are you right now?
Who’s In Charge?
As we move through our careers, the firms that we work for recognize the value that we bring to the workplace. With a little luck we’ll be sent off to IT manager training to develop the skills that will help to move our career along. Generally speaking, over time we are rewarded with jobs that provide us with increasing levels of responsibility. This means that our power and influence within the workplace will grow.
How much power and influence do you feel that you currently have in your current IT manager job? Are you successful when you set out to do some IT team building? When you tell people to do things, do they do it or do they ignore your requests? If you want to get someone who does not work for you to do something, can you make this happen? If the answer to these three questions is “no”, then you are going to have to ask yourself if the added hassle of being an IT manager is really worth it at the company were you are working right now.
Living The Lifestyle
Finally, your job as an IT manager is really just one part of your total life. There are many other things that you probably like to do. These may include time spent with family, friends, or simply doing hobbies and recreational things.
If all you find yourself having time for is work, then very quickly things are going to get out-of-balance. Your levels of frustration and resentment will start to grow and at work you’ll turn into someone that nobody really wants to be around. You need to decide for yourself if the IT manager job that you currently have is providing you with the proper balance in your life.
What All Of This Means For You
A lot of us have worked very hard to get to where we are currently at in our careers. Just having the position that we have should be enough to make us happy, shouldn’t it?
It turns out that it takes more than just a job title to make an IT manager happy. In order to get in touch with how you really feel about your current job, you need to find the answers to several different questions. These questions include determining if you are making enough money, if you feel that your position gives you enough power and influence, and if your job allows you to live the lifestyle that you want to live.
The good news is that all of these things are possible to achieve in an IT manager job. You just need to make sure that your current job is providing you with what you need. Give it some thought and you’ll know what your next step needs to be.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Skills™
Question For You: When you are determining if you are earning enough in your IT manager job, what things do you have to take into account?
Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental IT Leader Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
We’ve all seen the movie or read the book where the hero gets three wishes and then spends the rest of their time trying to make the right decisions. This brings up an interesting point for IT managers: if you had 3 wishes that you could use to make your current job better, what would they be?