IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (7 page)

You also want to learn some basic information about the environment, some of which may have come out when you were interviewed.

•
How many locations does the company have?

•
How many users are there at each location?

•
How large is the technical environment (e.g., number of servers, amount of storage, number of applications, size of the network)?

•
What are the company’s policies towards personal e-mail, cell phones, tablets, etc.?

•
What are the key applications?

•
Is it staffed 24/7? If not, how is after-hours support handled?

•
Is IT distributed or centralized?

•
What are the compliance requirements?

•
Historically, where have the major problem spots been?

•
Who are the key vendors and partners?

•
Is there any documentation about policies and procedures and current projects?

•
What are the high-level technology standards (messaging,
development tools
, database, storage, hardware, operating systems, etc.)?

Find the Key Meetings

Invariably, IT is involved in numerous regularly scheduled meetings—weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc. Some may strictly be for ITers, some may be with the users or other department heads, and some may be situations where IT is simply an invited guest.

Start asking around about these meetings and joining in. It sounds strange to ask around for meetings to attend (many people prefer to go to as few meetings as they can), but many meetings are critical. You’ll find that some you’ll want to attend regularly, some occasionally, and some not at all. Some you’ll be invited to and some you’ll have to wangle your way in. Meetings are also an excellent way to increase your visibility. A well thought-out and insightful question or comment, as opposed to just asking if there can be sandwiches at the next meeting, can speak volumes about you.

If meeting minutes and agendas are available (a worthwhile idea that is often overlooked), it can help you determine which meetings you need to be involved in.

Be Realistic about Timetables for Fixing Problems

Chances are that you’ll notice problems more than you’ll notice things that are going well. That’s okay, it’s just human nature. The important thing is to not feel overwhelmed by the problems. No one is expecting you to fix the world in your first week, or even your first month.

When starting a new job, it’s very tempting to refer to the way things were done at your last job, especially if you’re proposing it as some sort of example for your new company. Coworkers will quickly get tired of hearing it, and they’ll invariably think “if your last job was so great, why did you leave?” You can propose the same ideas, but be careful about referring to your old job too often.

Some First-Day-at-Work War Stories

The following are true stories from various employees’ first days on the job:

The Employee Got Surprised

• “A senior level technical director joined our company and had four direct reports and 10 more indirects. He assumed his job was to manage his team. However, the culture of our company was such that every engineer was expected to write code, including the CTO on occasion. It was a huge source of tension in the company and eventually the CTO asked the new director to leave. It never occurred to him to ask in the interview if he needed to code, since he had not done that in years.”

• “A senior-level, reports-to-the-CEO type took a job after a series of interviews at the swanky downtown office. When he showed up for the work the first day, he was informed his office was located down the street at one of the manufacturing plants. The job went downhill from there.”

• “Shortly after starting a new job I learned that my predecessor had quit after six weeks. Had I known that, I might not have taken the job to begin with. I kept wondering what he had uncovered in those first few weeks that made him decide to leave so abruptly. But I was there for six years.”

• “I reported for work on Monday morning and the manager who had hired me had been fired between the time I last spoke with him and when I started work! Fortunately, my new boss turned out to be a great guy, and everything worked out, but I was very surprised that first day.”

The Company Got Surprised

• “Back when ITers ruled the day, an engineer left her job and joined our company because the distance between her house and our company was exactly the distance she wanted to ride a bike every day. She had several other offers, but our ‘roundtrip’ distance fit the bill.”

• “We made an offer to an engineer and he accepted. We then sent him the employee agreement to sign and he refused the job. He did a lot of coding on the side and was concerned that the employee agreement was worded in such a way that the company might be able to lay claim to his work in the future. (We tried to convince him otherwise but he didn’t want to take the chance.)”

Everyone Came Out Ahead

• “A very good friend of mine took a job with a company because they said they would help finance his green card. And they did: they paid thousands of dollars and many man hours getting it done. In return, he stayed with them for 15 years and was a very loyal employee.”

—Michele Robinson (and others)

Account Manager, 14 years

As you can see, sometimes things go as planned, or go better or worse than planned—it’s to be expected.

1.7 The First 100 Days

No Organization Is Perfect

In the first few weeks (and perhaps months) on the job, you’ll start to learn about things that might seem a little unusual. There could be strange reporting relationships (inside and outside of IT), odd standards, inconsistencies in centralized/decentralized policies, unusual job descriptions, people with titles that don’t match their jobs (like the programmer with 20 + years of service with a manager’s title, yet who doesn’t manage anyone), overlaps of some areas, gaps in others, some things are overly complicated while others are overly simplified, and some divisions are wholly owned while some are only partially owned.

People who have worked there for a while will probably admit that certain things don’t make complete sense. If you’ve worked there for a while, you may already be aware of some of these and their backgrounds. Certain corporate peculiarities may have a long and embedded history. Other situations may be the result of an errant decision made by an executive who won’t admit the mistake, and as soon as he leaves, it’ll be put back to “normal.” Other conditions may warrant changing, but the hurdles (effort, time, political, cost) aren’t necessarily worth it right now. But take note of these situations so that you don’t lose sight of them and can begin developing a plan.

There probably are reasons for everything that seems odd or strange. They may not be very good reasons, but those are the reasons nonetheless. The important thing is to show flexibility and adaptability. If these are the way things are, then you simply have to work within that framework (at least at the start). You won’t be judged for what you inherited, but you will be judged by how you deal with it.

The oddities you want to focus on are the ones in your department, the ones you have control over. But don’t feel you need to correct everything your first week, or first month. They’ve probably been that way for years, and things will survive a little longer as you investigate why they’re that way, and the risk and impact of changing things.

Quietly Advertising What You Bring to the Table

It’s never a good idea to try and impress people right away—showing up on the job with a know-it-all attitude and boasting about what you’ve done before and what you’ll do next. Let your results and actions speak for you. Still, there are subtle things you can do when you first get started to give people the sense that the company hired the right person. Professional courtesies and maturity can go a long way.

•
Speak the language of your company and its users, and not of IT (i.e., talk in business terms, not technical jargon)

•
Maintain a positive attitude

•
Maintain open and effective communications

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Show up to appointments and meetings on time

•
Treat everyone with professionalism and respect

•
Recognize the difference between moving mountains and molehills

•
Ask insightful questions (and be sure to
listen
to the responses)

•
Try to convey a sense of perspective about time, which issues need to be addressed now and which can wait to be looked into later

•
Return e-mail and voice-mail messages promptly

•
Write professional and succinct e-mails and memos

•
Take notes during meetings

•
Follow through on your promises and commitments

•
Deal with assigned tasks quickly and effectively

Do Some Preliminary Research before You Start

You can also show that you’ve done your homework. During the interview process you’ve probably learned some things about the IT department: which vendors they use, which project they’re working on, which projects are coming up, etc. Doing some research on those things (as well as the new company itself) can be worthwhile. Check out vendor websites and trade journals. You’ll never know when you might have the opportunity to subtly drop a nugget of information into a conversation that will let people know that you have some knowledge to share.

Bring a Fresh Perspective

In addition to your skills and experience, you bring something to the job that no one else at your new company can—the objectivity that comes with a fresh set of eyes. Take advantage of that. Of course, you don’t want to use it to question the wisdom and reason of
everything
at your new job, but you may see things in a way others haven’t before. There may be very good reasons, which a newcomer would have no idea about, for things being the way they are, but learning about them will give you a better understanding of the environment.

Be on the lookout for areas and activities that seem to be ignored or overlooked because no one wants to do them. Those are great opportunities to volunteer and show what you can do, especially if they are in an area you excel at or enjoy. For example, if cost/benefit analysis needs to be done, volunteering to do it is a great way to force yourself to become immersed in the topic. Similarly, if you’re a wiz at Microsoft Project, and everyone else hates doing
project plans
, your expertise will be appreciated, you’ll become fully versed on the project, and it’s a great opportunity for you to begin to take on the project’s management (which is probably what you were hired to do anyway).

The first few months on a new job are often known as the “honeymoon period.” In the corporate world, this could be a period of less political maneuvering and less-demanding/more-forgiving colleagues. Usually, people will give you greater latitude during the start of your new job. The honeymoon period is a result of others (1) wanting to make sure you get off to a good start, (2) not holding you accountable things for you just inherited, and (3) recognizing that new people bring new ideas that often prove worthwhile. You may be able to take advantage of this to introduce your fresh perspective, and to gain some leverage for implementing change.

Ask and Listen

Don’t forget that you can earn a lot of respect by asking good questions, and that asking insightful questions usually comes from effective listening. By asking the right questions, you can show that you’re astute, that you’ve got the right perspective on things, and that you have some sort of understanding of the topic at hand.

The challenge is in knowing which questions are the right ones to ask. Asking how much the company reimburses for meals in a discussion about an important team trip to a remote site shows your priorities aren’t right. Questioning the value of user-acceptance testing on a project shows you’re not really interested in quality and like to take shortcuts whenever you can. However, asking about a back-out plan if a proposed change fails shows that you consider all contingencies. Asking about security, especially in today’s environment, and about performance are always safe bets.

Projects in Progress and Projects on the Horizon

Projects will probably be a big part of your life (which is why we dedicated all of
Chapter 4
to
Project Management
on
page 103
). Every job has projects mixed in with all the day-to-day activities. Some projects are so small it’s barely worth calling them projects, whereas others are so large that they often are several sizeable sub-projects rolled into one.

One of your first priorities in your new role should be to learn about existing projects and those coming up in the very near future. You should be asking everyone you meet (staff, boss, peers, department heads, etc.) about their particular projects. There’s a good chance that in one way or another, you’ll be involved in them soon.