With remote work on the rise and physical training getting scarcer, how do you become an IT project manager?
With digital being the new normal for many a workplace, it has become standard to have a few IT technicians on standby for your firm. The recent change towards Working from Home has seen a few ripples in the industry, but no worse than any other area. In fact, tech companies like Slack. Zoom, and Google are all doing well despite the intermittent closures of 2020.
However, there have been plenty of companies who have decided to downsize permanently. The trend towards coworking spaces and minimizing departments has led to many IT technicians going freelance. If you have bene forced down this path, and even if you are fresh out of school looking to train, you may be wondering how you go about achieving those original career expectations in a changed world.
There Are Still IT Project Manager Jobs Out There
First things are first: the reassurance that there are plenty of companies out there who are advertising for roles just like yours. Have a browse for IT project manager jobs if you don’t believe us.
Formal Training
Next: to land one of these roles, you will need as much experience as you can gather. This starts with your formal education. A degree in either IT, computing, computer science, or engineering, is necessary for you to get the best foundation you can. Even then, the specialist areas which you train in are the ones which will set you apart from the competition.
When IT departments hire new technicians, they look at the skills that they will add to their arsenal. They look for applicants well versed in security and GRC best practices. If you have software training they don’t, this is seen as a point in your favour. This means optimising your training and taking refresher courses when you can.
Experience
We dread this as newly trained IT technicians, but it is something we need to have before we can lead a full team in doing our job. Taking on a role as an IT tech means working under another project manager and learning from this experience. Most roles as a manager like you to have two years plus experience in the job before they will consider promoting you.
It is the combination of the experience and the formal training you have which will allow your new employers to choose you as an IT project manager. Many managers are made through onboarding with a company out of their formal training and working for a few years until they have the experience to move upwards or move on.
Expectations of IT Project Management
While the Median salary of an IT manager in the US tops $140k annually
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, this is not the case outside of London in the UK. You will be expected to help oversee full IT projects for organisations as a manager, so you will have to work hard for the salary.
The future of the IT sector shows signs of continuous growth which will have a significant impact on global GDP. Training in this sector could see you becoming wealthy, sooner than you think.