February 3, 2011 at 6:44 am
Brandie Tarvin (2/2/2011)
Next question:How did you half-management / half-DBA types deal with the overload of DBA tasks?
I.E., say there's too much workload for the DBA team to handle in a 40 hr week unless you pitch in. But most of your time gets taken up by meetings, employee reviews / problems, budget projects, and other managerial tasks. What are the techniques you use for handling this problem when you can't hire more staff?
That's a whole science of time managment, team management, resource management, human management, etc., etc., etc. It's not something you learn in a day.
A couple of key tips:
Don't handle things twice. If you pick something up, open an e-mail, etc., handle it then. The single largest source of double-work and lost time you will ever encounter is "I'll deal with that later".
Getting it done is more important than meetings. Skip holding a formal meeting, and just go talk to the exact person who needs to be involved. More gets done in "hallway meetings" and "cubical flash mobs" than in formal meetings anyway.
Invest in the tools of both trades. It takes continual training to stay on top of technical skills, and it takes the same for management skills. Skills are a toolkit, and if you don't have the right tools, you have to get the job done by brute force or not at all.
Finish what you start, and let others do the same. The best managers are the ones who give their teams something that can be done, and then do what's needed to let them get it done. This is part of "don't handle things twice". It also embraces "do it right the first time".
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 3, 2011 at 9:27 am
Don't handle things twice. If you pick something up, open an e-mail, etc., handle it then. The single largest source of double-work and lost time you will ever encounter is "I'll deal with that later".
Getting it done is more important than meetings. Skip holding a formal meeting, and just go talk to the exact person who needs to be involved. More gets done in "hallway meetings" and "cubical flash mobs" than in formal meetings anyway.
A couple of nuggets of gold that I think anyone who is trying to get something done would benefit from.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sacramento SQL Server users group - http://sac.sqlpass.org
Follow me on Twitter - @SQLDCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 3, 2011 at 11:11 am
Brandie Tarvin (2/2/2011)
Next question:How did you half-management / half-DBA types deal with the overload of DBA tasks?
I.E., say there's too much workload for the DBA team to handle in a 40 hr week unless you pitch in. But most of your time gets taken up by meetings, employee reviews / problems, budget projects, and other managerial tasks. What are the techniques you use for handling this problem when you can't hire more staff?
Mostly I've worked on the principle that time-wasting meetings (whether with ignorant blithering idiots, or with back-stabbing lice, or indeed with anyone) are not real management and are therefor optional and I will not attend. Only once have I failed to make this stick, and that company went bust before I suffered too much. When time-wasting meetings are avoided, there's always time for real work (as well as real management, you can do some development, mentoring, support, and research).
I've flipped between management and non-management many times during my career (which includes 24 years with a company where it was policy for technical people to do that). Whether doing management or not, communication is probably the most important skill - so if you are a communicator it's not a big shift. A bit of training in some aspects of interpersonal actions is very useful for non-management jobs as well as for management jobs, even though it will usually be called "management training" or something similar.
Tom
February 3, 2011 at 11:20 am
Tom.Thomson (2/3/2011)
I've flipped between management and non-management many times during my career
This leads to another question. How easy is it to get a future tech job when you have that word "Manager" on your resume?
I've heard of people who have downsized themselves, either because they didn't like management work or found they couldn't handle it. Also, in the current wishy-washy economy, I would think there are less management positions around, which might require managers to take tech jobs if they want to work.
So, Easy? Hard? Do you just omit the managerial stuff from the resume since it's "not relevant" to the current job description?
February 3, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Brandie Tarvin (2/3/2011)
Tom.Thomson (2/3/2011)
I've flipped between management and non-management many times during my careerThis leads to another question. How easy is it to get a future tech job when you have that word "Manager" on your resume?
I've heard of people who have downsized themselves, either because they didn't like management work or found they couldn't handle it. Also, in the current wishy-washy economy, I would think there are less management positions around, which might require managers to take tech jobs if they want to work.
So, Easy? Hard? Do you just omit the managerial stuff from the resume since it's "not relevant" to the current job description?
I include that I have management and team leader experience on my resume, right under my list of relevant skills. It's always been considered a plus by HR and managers every time it's ever come up.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 3, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Brandie Tarvin (2/3/2011)
Tom.Thomson (2/3/2011)
I've flipped between management and non-management many times during my careerThis leads to another question. How easy is it to get a future tech job when you have that word "Manager" on your resume?
I've heard of people who have downsized themselves, either because they didn't like management work or found they couldn't handle it. Also, in the current wishy-washy economy, I would think there are less management positions around, which might require managers to take tech jobs if they want to work.
So, Easy? Hard? Do you just omit the managerial stuff from the resume since it's "not relevant" to the current job description?
I have the impression that it's extremely hard to do it through agencies and through responding to adverts. I haven't acquired a job (other than job changes within a company) that way since 1971 (when I started my 4th real job) - my jobs since then were all acquired because people who already knew me wanted me in their organisation (which was of course because they knew I could walk on water, or whatever :-D).
Tailoring a CV could be quite farcical: how the hell could I explain that the job title, "Director and Vice President of Research and Development", actually means the guy who does lunatic things in C++ and controls all the databases? Or that "Technical Director" meant I hacked a lot of JavaScript, managed Databases, and did customer support? Or that "Manager, Architecture and Programme Management" meant I played with queuing theory and built complex models in various languages, as well as designing lots of data communications stuff? It's no good concealing the job titles - people do check with recent employers, and will discover the job titles when they do so, and if you haven't disclosed them that will be a big black mark against you. So I would suggest that trying to conceal the management stuff is counterproductive (and stupid).
Tom
February 4, 2011 at 8:01 am
For my current company I "evolved" from the catch-all tech guy (sys admin, .NET, and SQL development/dba) to IT director.
Personally, I enjoy it. I've gotten a lot of satisfaction from watching the team and our systems grow.
On the other hand, I don't get to do nearly as much coding, and I miss that. I get to do a lot of the high-end modeling of our systems, but I've had to learn to let the developers do most of the construction. For me that was the hardest part: to fight the impulse, especially when working with a rookie, to do the work for them, show them what I did, and expect them to learn as much as if they did it themselves.
I would recommend this jump to any techie who is given the opportunity (assuming you are comfortable with the tradeoffs) for one reason: I think IT needs more managers who know how to code/administrate/design systems. I've always had managers who come from the business side, not tech. This means, among other things, that in crunch time I'd be on my own: my manager couldn't help me code, learn new approaches, troubleshoot a crisis. So their focus was always on time management, action plans, etc.; good habits, but not much help in putting out a fire. It was also hard to make clear to them why, say, a deadline was improbable or a certain feature request was scope creep.
I think (I hope) that my team likes that when they're stuck I may be able to help them get unstuck, and that, when we discuss their progress, I can speak the right language. Many of the issues they face, I've faced myself. And when I represent the team to the executives I can accurately portray the challenges inherent in our projects and can mediate effectively (again, I hope) between the two groups.
Unfortunately, I'm still pretty lousy at time management, so maybe I didn't absorb enough from the MBA folks when I had the chance.
Viewing 7 posts - 16 through 21 (of 21 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply