Job Titles
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I'm currently a one man band here, supporting around 100 users. I have too much to do, especially as we're about to replace our ERP system, so am looking for an assistant.
The job description is "Reporting to the Systems Manager, you will be involved in all functions of the IT department within a medium sized manufacturing company. This includes day to day administration and troubleshooting, user support and training, software and hardware installation, and systems development.
What job title would you say is appropriate? We advertised this role as "IT Systems Administrator" and had a lukewarm response. We're about to re-advertise and I was thinking of changing the title. "Technical Support" maybe? "IT Technician"?. We have a very flat management structure here, so lots of people are involved in lots of different things and work is more project based than departmentally based, which is cool, but I'm struggling to define the role that well.
Everything is pretty reliable, so there isn't much fixing things - it's mainly development and process improvements. That could be a day spent writing Powershell script to automate some AD tasks, a day spent reorganising SQL Server indexes, a day spent developing a Sharepoint site, a day installing a new server, a day training a user on the ERP system. The massive variety is the best thing about the job, but I accept that wouldn't suit everyone.
In time, I would expect this person to be able to do my job. That should be their aim, either by replacing me in 3 years time, or getting my job at another company. At the same time, I have 20 years experience and paid accordingly, so it would be ridiculous to expect them to come in and do this stuff from day one, so I'm not going to be asking for experience of all our systems.
The only thing they need is a natural ability to write scripts. I employed someone in the past who couldn't program to save his life. They just didn't get it. This despite having a computing related degree. It turns out they avoided all the degree modules that involved programming. I was surprised by how much of my job involves scripting - whether that be a VBA script for Excel, a Powershell script, some Javascript for the intranet. or a SQL Server script for backing up a database. Basic stuff to me, but some people just can't do it for whatever reason. I like to script everything.
Basically, I'm after a generalist. It would be good if IT Generalist was an accepted job title, but failing that what should I use?
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I'm just typing titles as I think of them.
Random mix of 'lolwut!?' and usableComputer Systems Officer
Information Systems Administrator
IT Chuck Norris
IT-3PO - fluent in over 6 million forms of troubleshooting and scripting
Underling
Jack of most trades, master of learning
PFY -
+1 for IT Chuck Norris
Technical Service Specialist
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@Minion-Queen said:
+1 for IT Chuck Norris
Technical Service Specialist
I also like the IT Chuck Norris title! I wonder if they'll let me use that here...
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Uugh! I hate job titles. I wish they didn't exist. I'm just looking for something that may make it easier for people to find and click on our add on Monster.com.
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JR. Systems Admin seems appropriate
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In Canada? I know someone who is looking
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"Systems Admin" is not a good title as that is a very specific job title that does not match the description. Adding "IT" to the front of it doesn't mean anything as that the systems are related to IT is assumed anyway. Systems Admins are dedicated server managers. Having a title and description mismatch either causes the wrong people to look at the posting, the right people not to look at it or even if you get good candidates they might not bother responding because of the mismatch.
IT Technician, LAN Admin, SMB IT Generalist... these would all be better titles. Support Technician, perhaps.
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@IRJ said:
JR. Systems Admin seems appropriate
Being junior would only change the level of experience necessary and would not address the fact that the role is not a system admin role.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
We have a very flat management structure here, so lots of people are involved in lots of different things and work is more project based than departmentally based, which is cool, but I'm struggling to define the role that well.
Basically this means that this is a generalist role, as are nearly all SMB IT roles. Nothing odd there. The issue is that the generalist roles don't have good titles. But it is very important to avoid using specialist titles, like "system admin", "network engineer", etc. because they have very specific meanings that don't apply to a generalist role.
Really "IT Technician" is probably the best.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
The only thing they need is a natural ability to write scripts.
That will be tougher to find. Obviously tons of people have that skill but the vast majority of generalists, especially in the SMB world, never scripts and often are not entirely sure what the term even means. It's actually pretty rare. In the specialist fields, like real system engineers, it is quite common due to the job focus.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't look for it, just be aware that it's a less than core skill in the category in which you are looking and many (maybe most) educational programs for that won't cover it. In the US, it is almost unheard of.
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I dunno about that. A number of applicants claim to be proficient in Javacript having learnt it for fun. Some claim to be 'experts' but I suspect their definition of expert is not the same as mine (we'll soon find out during an interview test). I'm certainly no expert but SMB requirements are generally pretty simple.
What I've learnt is that a lot of Universities in the UK offer 'business' related computer degrees which don't prepare you at all for a hands-on IT role in an SMB. I think they are more geared towards enterprise careers where 200 page quality manuals and loads of meetings are the norm. I don't remember these courses existing when I was young when computing at University seemed to be exclusively science geeks messing around with Unix.
I'd be interested in candidates with a physics, maths or engineering degree rather than just computing. I have colleagues who are electrical engineers and are pretty good at programming circuit boards and such like. They're not IT as such but have the right kind of minds.
I was never taught to program but have just always done it, since writing games when I was 10 on my ZX Spectrum. But I was always very good at maths and I reckon the two are connected. If you can do calculus you can program.
To be honest, a 16 year old Minecraft genius would probably be perfect for me!
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I never look for computing degrees. I don't look for degrees at all (they are completely worthless in the US) but if someone does have a degree I prefer it in something other than IT or computers because those programs are so weak and the skills lacking are normally better addressed by other degree programs like English, communications or psychology.
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I'm thinking of advertising for "Technical Support Analyst". This seems to be a popular title on Monster, with job specs that include both technical support and a bit of development work.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I'm thinking of advertising for "Technical Support Analyst". This seems to be a popular title on Monster, with job specs that include both technical support and a bit of development work.
Not a horrible name, although I hate the overuse of analyst. Analyst implies that you analyze things, which is not a primary function of an SMB IT Generalist (none that I've ever met, at least.) The systems analyst and business analysts roles (which are nearly the same as each other) are software engineering functions and pretty well defined. Analyst is often used pretty wildly on the IT side of the house. But it might work well in this case.
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IBM was weird and used "analyst" to mean any role, including manager, that didn't have a degree.
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Sounds like a new word is needed.
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Technical Support Technician? Or is that too redundant?
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@coliver said:
Technical Support Technician? Or is that too redundant?
Technical Support Coordinator? Technical Support Lead?
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@Dashrender said:
Sounds like a new word is needed.
A few, I think. There are still different foci within the generalist ranks. There needs to be some amount of differentiation without getting crazy.
