Computer Systems Manager Qualifications

Video Transcript

"Usually you start out as a computer tech. You know, I mean, most people start out at the technician level doing, you know, local LAN support, or help desk support, and then you just kind of, you know, move up the ladder, just depending on which way you want to go with your career. I mean, some people don't want to manage. You know, you want to be, you want to do database stuff, and that's all you want to do. You don't want to mess with, deal with, managing people. You know, I mean, that's truly the difference in being an engineer, or you know, a technician, and a manager is you still do the engineer and technician stuff, but you just jump into managing people, and managing projects, and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, after becoming a technician, an engineer, you either want to get, kind of move away from the daily detail technical stuff, and you want to get more into the generalization, and being able to have people to know that stuff for you. I mean, that wasn't a driving force for me, you know, but that's kind of the path, I guess. You know, anywhere from an Associates Degree to a Masters. A lot of times an engineer will have some sort of certification on their journey to management. You pick up, you know, Microsoft Certification. You know, some kind of server, HP or Dell, you know, whatever they were specializing in before they got to management. But a lot of certifications, a lot of self-study, and a lot of, you know, just hands-on experience. The ability to manage people. That's the big one. I mean, manage because you run into so many different personalities, and, you know, different egos. A lot of egos in IT, in technology. You know, everybody wants to know it all, but that's a big one. And just all of the, you know, a lot of the broad technology skills. I don't think you necessarily have to have all the detailed how-to stuff but just, you know, what's going on in the industry. Keep abreast of that. You know, be able to suggest, you know, to do or in deal with certain types of technology. You could go, I guess, several different ways. Maybe some time of officer, chief technology officer, chief information officer. You know, the term "manager" is loosely used in the IT field. I mean, you know, you could, in some companies IT director is a little bit higher than IT manager, or systems manager. You could move, you know, gradually move up the scale there. A lot of managers, if they're doing it for a long time, break off and do their own business. You know, because they know how to, they kind of have a little more experience, you know, when dealing with people, and being able to manage projects. So, yeah, it just depends on your aspirations in life. Where you want to go. If you want to stay in the corporate world. There's quite a few levels you can move up."