1

Currently hold the title of Sys Admin. We are hiring someone new as a Support Specialist to handle helpdesk related stuff who would report to me, effectively making me their manager. There is discussion about changing my title to “IT Support Manager” but I feel as if that’s sort of a step down, or different direction than my current title. Am I wrong in feeling that way? Would this change still look like an advancement on my resume or should I suggest a different title such as Senior Sys Admin? Just looking for recommendations/opinions.

36 Spice ups
2

It is a different direction, but I don’t think someone should worry so much about the Job title as much as the Job functions as far as a resume is concerned. You can change the job title on the resume to match the reality.

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3

Is someone else the IT Manager?

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4

No. Currently we all report to the IT director. I have been doing help desk for so long, that it would be better for the new hire to report to me.

5

I would suggest IT Manager as well. Maybe Assistant IT Director?

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6

If you can get it, Assistant IT Director, but IT Manager would exactly be your role.
I’ve had a title of IT Manager now for more than 20 years. I manage help desk, and I managed the software development group, budgets, reviews, hiring, planning deployment, tier 2 and 3, you name it.

The only benefit of that title is that it is a fairly universal title for an IT guy become a Manager of IT guys (non gender of course).

The step to director, or VP is nearly an act of God though. Apparently if you are really good at engineering/trouble shooting you never get the consideration for that jump, which is why I say assistant might be a good title to nab if you can get it.

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7

I believe you meant “Assistant to the IT Director” :stuck_out_tongue:

On a more serious note: How do you see roles being defined in the coming years at your company? At the last place I worked we had gotten things into a few distinct “tiers”, from Technician to Administrator to Engineer. In each of those tiers you’d have Seniors (basically folks who had been around for a bit and had good tribal knowledge/were the go-to folks for things, especially anything esoteric) and Leads. Technicians were all-around between Systems/Network/Client, but then you’d start to hone-in on one of those three “tracks” as you progressed up. (Even the Technicians still had their areas of strength/focus though.)

After the Engineer level it became management, with a Director then the CIO. (There were two Directors at my time there: The technical/service/systems/network side, and the in-house developers/platform side, although they were starting to fiddle with this when I left.) Leads reported to the Director, so you only had an organizational structure 3 layers deep at the most. (CIO → Director → Lead → Team Member)

Given that, you may be a Senior Systems Administrator, and the new person would be a Support Technician. (Or something. Just giving ideas.) Or you may even shoot for the Systems Engineer slot if that’s more your jam. The roles I mentioned above didn’t really start to settle in until we had a couple dozen folks on the team.

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8

Big difference between Assistant IT Director and Assistant to the IT Director titles, one fills in when the Director is gone and the other is the Director’s Secretary…
I would suggest you try for both titles if you can as they are different functions, one managing people and one managing systems. Technically an Admin where I work manages people, buildings, or systems, being a step up from a manager, so going from Admin to Manager is a step down…

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9

Over the years, I’ve been called Sys Admin, IT Manager, Network Support Engineer. My current title is Infrastructure Engineer, I report directly into the CIO and am for all intensive purposes the IT Manager. I have 2 people who report into me. Don’t get hung up on the job title. If you manage people then you should get a pay increase for the added responsibility.

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10

Go on LinkedIN and see what the creatives there spew forth… I know a PR director who uses something like Engagement Director for Global Relations and Resourses… or something very close.

I’d just go with IT Manager or Manager of IT Operations.

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11

Senior Technologist

12

As a serious suggestion, maybe something like “IT Systems Manager”.

At a previous position I was allowed to create my own title as I was an IT department of one. As a joke I came up with the title “Grand High Poohbah of IT, and Master of All Things Electronic”, ended up going with “IT Manager”

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13

Admins typically don’t have subordinates reporting to them. Managers do. For this reason alone, any type of Manager title would be more appropriate than System Administrator. This doesn’t mean that managers don’t or can’t do administrative work. My IT Director gets into the trenches just as much as I do as a support specialist when it comes to our servers.

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14

If you have input on the title, I suggest you start by asking yourself how you want your career to proceed. If you’d like to stay in a technical role, maybe you become a Sr. System Administrator or similar. Mentoring is part of the job of a senior technician. If you want to migrate toward management, then by all means, get the word Manager in your title. If you want one foot in each world, Team Lead would be an appropriate title. Regardless, if you’re looking to grow your leadership muscles and experience, it’s the work that matters, not the title.

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15

I wouldn’t get very hung up about titles, but I would suggest IT Manager would be suitable here. I think that would cover your managing of IT Support and IT Systems.

16

Systems Administrator & IT Manager or IT Manager & Systems Administrator
Add the Senior Systems Administrator if you can as well.
Senior Systems Administrator/IT Manager
IT Manager/Senior Systems Administrator

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17

Start calling yourself Dread Pirate Roberts. /sarcasm

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18

Personally, titles have become so meaningless, the responsibilities and accomplishments speak more. I would hire a bottle washer who was overseeing 7 other employees over a “manager” who was the sole employee in an organization.

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19

Well, you’re getting a “Manager” title and that’s pretty good. Sometimes titles don’t do your job justice. You can still show through your resume your strengths and skills.

20

If you want to go into a more manager role, go with Manager.

If you want to stay technical, I’d suggest Senior System Admin or Enterprise Admin or Senior Systems Engineer.

Senior whatevertitle always looks better on a resume, just depends on what you want for the future.