Getting out of IT? Project Management?

[johnnymiller]

started as field engineer in 96, ended up as head of IT infrastructure in 2005, got made redundant in 08 and now infrastructure manager for another business.

not feeling the love for the gradual demise of IT infrastructure as a well paid career choice and into a poorly paid and overworked resource and think its time i did something about it. Without sacrificing everything and starting at the bottom rung of something else completely (which with mortgages and what not isnt really a good option) I am considering developing project management skills to gradually transfer out of the sharp end of technical delivery and into other area's? anyone else done this? good/bad plan? other options.

[prand]

why do you say that Infrastructure is dead, I would have thought it's booming (or is it all happenning elswehere now you can globalise support, hosting etc?)

Business Alnalysis, Project Management, Operational Support - on paper relatively transferable but people will tar you with the "IT" brush.

Online seems to be a possible boom area. Social Media, Web & media/advertising related stuff which very big IT business is getting into. I'd look at agile/scrum delivery, and have a sniff around Shoreditch and Old Street to see who is jumping on the bandwagon.

Similarly - data mining seems to have huge growth potential. A beackgroudn in infrastructure would be beneficial I would have thought.

Apologies, for this, typed in a rush, I hope some thoughts might help.

[shtu]

Look to get away from the pointy-end of IT, as these days the larger companies outsource such stuff, it gets outsourced again, then offshored, maybe outsourced another couple of times...

However, while the hands-on labour goes that way, the management of the delivery still generally stays onshore. Look at service management (ITIL) or project management (prince 2).

[Arenki]

Speaking as someone who recruits exclusively in the IT Architecture space, I'd say infrastructure is far from dead. Infact i've had 4 or so roles pass through my hands in the last month focusing around the infrastructure space.

The answer to your question - yes it's very possible. A lot of people who head up major IT programmes as project/programme managers usually come from a technical architecture background. However, that would still land you in the IT World. From the brief outline of your background as an Infrastructure Manager, I imagine it would be very possible to move quite easily into a Project manager role. The advantage of having a technical background in Project Management means that the techies don't blag you quite as effectively (these is the words of someone heading up a billion-dollar programme) so there are many advantages.

As per norm, Prince2 qualifications are always a nice touch but beware the project manager contract market at the moment. It's mighty inconsistent!

['Yadi]

Sort of with Arenki here on perception. I see my career continuing on an infrastructure based road albeit more design than admin. I attended a recent summit in London a week or so ago and got a 45 minute appraisal of the 10-15 year vision of the market place from a CTO. Very interesing ideas re PaaS although mindful of how difficult it is to tell te future. I'd wager that the jobs in infrastructure will be there but there will be fewer as more automation kicks in and they will be with the service providers. Non IT service providers will just be consumers. I have difficulty believing in a world of corporate BYOD but it'll be the finance people that'll decide.

A lot of folks that perform the IT PM role seem wholly unsuited for it. I'd like to think that years of experience in infrastructure support would make you an excellent candidate with suitable reward. Certainly my experience that those who made the same jump better understand pitfalls, know when they're hearing BS etc. Good luck with whatever escape route you take.

[johnnymiller]

cheers for responses.... I never said infrastructure was dead. It can never be dead as IT will always physically exist somewhere, all im saying is that being in the operational side of infrastructure is become a less financially rewarding place to sit.

In my previous job before redundancy i was in charge of the whole IT/telecoms piece for a serviced office business which involved sales as well, as it was a small team i ended up doing the sales/pre-sales support as well as designing the solutions and being part of the implementation. it was things like 300 user voip call centres and lan's and server/desktop rollouts etc in serviced office buildings we had fitted out.

I'm wondering whether pre-sales/architect might be an interesting area to go towards as well as the option of PM stuff. I'm not sure really what the next step is, i'm still very much looking for that next discipline that grabs my attention!

[Autopilot]

I've recently done this and it's the best thing I could have wished for. I used to be a software developer before moving in to PM roles (In the same field) and been doing the same thing for years. I found that my CV and experience kind of pigeon holed me to do similar roles and I guess I probably didn't feel confident to move away from doing the things I knew best. I changed my CV to focus more on my PM skills and less on the fact I once used to do Java and have some specific software application skills and experience. I'm now running some pretty big projects (affecting 15,000 users, budgets well in the millions), mainly IT focused but all well away from what I used to do. It's still project management and therefore like what I was doing before, it's just the subject matter that's all new. I do feel confident I could leave this job and walk straight in to pretty much anything that had Project Manager in the title and know I could do it.

[johnnymiller]

Autopilot said:

I've recently done this and it's the best thing I could have wished for. I used to be a software developer before moving in to PM roles (In the same field) and been doing the same thing for years. I found that my CV and experience kind of pigeon holed me to do similar roles and I guess I probably didn't feel confident to move away from doing the things I knew best. I changed my CV to focus more on my PM skills and less on the fact I once used to do Java and have some specific software application skills and experience. I'm now running some pretty big projects (affecting 15,000 users, budgets well in the millions), mainly IT focused but all well away from what I used to do. It's still project management and therefore like what I was doing before, it's just the subject matter that's all new. I do feel confident I could leave this job and walk straight in to pretty much anything that had Project Manager in the title and know I could do it.

resurrecting this thread after a holiday. i thought maybe I needed a break, but have come back with the same view.

i've got an interview on Thursday for another network services manager position, bigger company, more sites, more money. I'm just not sure i want more of the same. I think I will do similar to you and try and write my CV to focus on all the project rollouts i've managed over the years, rather than write it from a technical knowledge angle. I guess i will know then if its a viable option. I can always enroll on a PRINCE2 course as well but it seems everybody is doing it at the moment, although it may help get through the door to an interview i suppose and formalise skills into a recognised framework.

I may also talk to my existing employer to see if i can carefully forge any opportunities to change focus where i am....

[Carl_Docklands]

johnnymiller said:

cheers for responses.... I never said infrastructure was dead. It can never be dead as IT will always physically exist somewhere, all im saying is that being in the operational side of infrastructure is become a less financially rewarding place to sit.

In my previous job before redundancy i was in charge of the whole IT/telecoms piece for a serviced office business which involved sales as well, as it was a small team i ended up doing the sales/pre-sales support as well as designing the solutions and being part of the implementation. it was things like 300 user voip call centres and lan's and server/desktop rollouts etc in serviced office buildings we had fitted out.

I'm wondering whether pre-sales/architect might be an interesting area to go towards as well as the option of PM stuff. I'm not sure really what the next step is, i'm still very much looking for that next discipline that grabs my attention!

A Network project manager with a specialism in Wireless networks will be bigger for 2013-16 due to the incoming new standard for gigabit wireless. All the N series kit will need ripping out and replacing.

CCNA Wireless, Prince2 and an MSP would be good starts followed-up with a CISSP.

I am not a believer in certifications however, when starting down a new path it is worth investing some money in getting the badges.

Edited by Carl_Docklands on Friday 19th October 21:47

[lestag]

Carl_Docklands said:

I am not a believer in certifications however, when starting down a new path it is worth investing some money in getting the badges.

I would agree, but unfortunately, the badges get you a foot in the door.
It doesn't show actual competency though. I just saved a company 10s of thousands with a vmware farm (after all the badged vmware specialists had been in). Took an 30min to diagnose the issue, 30min to find the answer, 4 hours to test the solution. Basic diagnostic ability was all that was required. They had put up with the performance issues for a year or more.