Slashdot Mirror
First Thing IT Managers Do In the Morning?
An anonymous reader writes "When I was a wee-little IT Manager, I interviewed for a position at an online CRM provider in San Francisco, a job I certainly was qualified for, at least on paper. One of the interviewer's questions was 'What is the first thing you do when you get to work in the morning?' I thought saying 'Read Slashdot' wouldn't be what he was looking for — so I made up something, I'm sure, equally lame. I didn't get the job. But the question has stuck with me over the years. What do real IT and MIS managers do when they walk in to the office in the morning? What Web sites or tools do they look at or use the first thing? Remember, this is for posterity, so please be honest."
Coffee machine, foo!
Ah, computer dating -- it's like pimping, but you rarely have to use the phrase "upside your head" -- Bender
Otherwise I get a headache real fast!
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I'm sure that would've been the right answer.
The first thing you do every morning is check the sev 1 problems that have occurred when you are out. Next off you look at the 24 hour report to see what is out of whack. Anything odd you follow up on. If everything is fine then you have a cup of strong coffee and wait for the first dumb question of the day.
Deal with the disasters first, after that everything in the day is a lightweight bonus.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
If it's early in the iteration (we have two week cycles for our agile development plan) then I'll log on to XPlanner which is a Free Open Source project management tool that allows me to control the user stories and tasks for our project. Early on I look for people that have more hours than others and I try to mitigate that by visiting them and just talking over what they have to do on a high level with them. Since I'm still young and know all the technologies we use, I give them drawings and any sort of information they need to get the job done.
If it's near the end of an iteration or someone is empty, I shuffle tasks and then make a note to talk to both the people one on one when they get in. I also take the time in the morning to talk to people about what they need to work on so they don't spend all day on the wrong task. In the event of something pending that isn't going to get done, I schedule a meeting with my manager and maybe the customer. Haven't had to do that yet though.
Now, keep in mind this is only for a 10 person development team so it might not work on your level. But the first thing I do is assess the day by going over what people checked in and completed the day before in my project management tool, XPlanner. If you haven't used it, I heavily suggest and endorse it--you just need a server to host it on and you're ready. Oh and I'm 25 with little or no management experience prior to this so that could also make this advice completely worthless and naive.
In my opinion, the best thing a team lead can do is listen and, well before it happens, stop people from putting themselves in bad positions where they're in until 3 AM one night before a customer meeting. You take precautions at the beginning of every day and your team should be alright.
My work here is dung.
1) Shmooze around the office cooler for gossip. 2) Make sure my job is still there, and not outsourced. 3) Read Slashdot. 4) Call vendors and complain about service... so I can get free service. 5) Cut my budget even more. 6) Come unglued on a random user. 7) Read Slashdot. 8) Go home.
Most probably first get coffee and then read email. A more "interview friendly" answer may be to "visit team members to greet them and see how they are doing both personally and prefessionally".
Table-ized A.I.
Masturbate. It's important you let them know you do this before you get to work. Sticky keys are nobody's friend.
You answer it like so:
"Every evening before going home, I write down my objectives for the following day. This helps me to stay focused the following day on what needs done. Sure, sometimes there are fires to put out, and not everything gets done. But by having a written down list, I find I am more productive. What I do first in the morning depends on what needs to get done that day"/
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
After I put the kettle on is scan the news sites. It takes me all of two minutes to identify any news item that might somehow impact me and my little slice of the IT world.
I do this not so much for security or first-alert type response but for a more simple reason... I start conversations using the info I gleaned from the news. The people I work with each have different areas of technical interest, specialties, etc... managing a team means more than riding people about deadlines. I always start the day with a little chatter, and feel good when one of my team members gets to share some of their 'personal interest' knowledge because of a conversation I started.
Starting conversations in this manner provides all sorts of little 'contact points' that provide info about your employee's mood, attitude, satisfaction, etc... and way too many managers I have known fail horribly at replicating these contact points through more formal methods.
Anyhow, after that it is review e-mail, prioritize the day, and only begin coordinating with others once they have had time to do the same.
Regards.
Ah, you gotta love those obscure The Princess Bride quotes. =)
Why do you need to boot your computer? Are you running Windows ME?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
In other words, your boss could save the company about fifty bucks a day in lost productivity if he made sure you didn't turn off your computer when you went home at night.
Breakfast served all day!
The first thing I do is come up with an action plan to provide a best of breed solution that will benefit both our customers and our stockholders. After I take a wag at my daily task list, I begin working on new strategies to augment and improve the current paradigm. Once I have liaised with my support staff to determine the readiness of our infrastructure, I take off my jacket and put my briefcase away. Sir.
1. Park my bike, shower etc.
2. Turn on computer.
3. While it starts, get a coffee.
4. Log in, drink coffee, check e-mail/calendar.
5. Get to work.
I've got to say, that sounds like the sort of interview question that would get some pretty boring responses. Like mine, above. So I usually jazz it up a bit in interview:
1. Park my unicycle, change out of my superhero unitard.
2. Get a new guitar from the IT guys because I smashed mine at the end of my last performance.
3. Check in with each of the 10,000 people who work under my command, all of whom I know by name.
4. Have my executive assistant relay my e-mails to me, one character at a time, by throwing lettered frisbees back and forth between my company's two tower blocks.
5. Take my second breath of the day.
So far I haven't had any job offers, but I figure the market is pretty competitive at the moment - it's only a matter of time!
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
while reading the e-mail and memos from my 7 bosses
When i come in, i immediately remove the backup tapes from last night and replace them with the ones for the night to follow. After that i sit down at my workstation and check the server logs to make sure that the backup completed successfully. Next comes email. There are a few automated emails that get sent to me when cron jobs are completed detailing what was done and how efficiently. If there aren't any problems that need to be dealt with, I start scheduling out my day in my notebook. After that i usually make my rounds around the office checking back in with users who had problems that required attention yesterday, to make sure that the solution worked for them and that everything is running smoothly. Once that is done, i log into the servers to check their state, make sure there aren't any runaway tasks, and basically ensure that everything is running smoothly. If there still haven't been any users with problems that need attention at this point, i will usually start looking through the firewall logs from last night to make sure nothing fishy was going on while i was away.
At this point, printers usually start exploding.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh - after that I sorta space out for an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
He got promoted to manager off this.
God spoke to me.
But the first thing I need is to get my first hit of the day
Some Coffee, a cigarette followed by a few tabs of dexedrine and Effexor.
Honest to god, i couldn't give a fuck less about anything untill I have satisfied my cravings.
So what If i'm addicted.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
So the first thing I do in the morning is play Unreal Tournament deathmatch online with the Maytag Repairmen. They suck. Naturally, I pwn their asses. After that, it's time for my mid-morning nap. Then it's off to lunch! Two hours later, I'm back, and it's siesta time, followed by a bathroom break where I peruse the the NY Times. Then, back at my desk, I jiggle the hula doll on top of my Mac Pro and check my email. Yawn. Nothing happening there. Then around 3:00 pm, my supervisor usually calls and asks me to show him for the 300th time how to import his Van Morrison CDs into iTunes. By then it's happy hour in the employee lounge. A couple of brewskies, followed by a fevered round of pinball, and it quittin' time! Yay! I've earned my pay for the day.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Well, the first thing I do when I get to the office is fart. That way only the people with real concerns will dare approach me.
Badass Resumes
as an IT manager, one should have put in place automated monitoring and backup processes ... Then, the first thing one does on arrival is to check the results of the automated monitoring.
Newsflash: If you're checking the results of monitoring software, you're not a manager, you're an SA or an operator. I'm not even a manager and yet I've not even seen my company's monitoring tools. If something is wrong, someone who's watching that stuff will tell me.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
What is the first thing you do when you get to work in the morning?' I thought saying 'Read Slashdot' wouldn't be what he was looking for -- so I made up something, I'm sure, equally lame
Perhaps he just wanted to see if you'd lie to tell him what he wanted to hear.
That question has only one "right" answer - You get coffee, check Slashdot and read your email (possibly not in that exact order), then you glaze over until you hit the bottom of at least your first cup of coffee. Any interruptions before then, you respond to with "Mmmmmpph? Grrrrrrumph. Mrphythuber kurbendurby! Mrffff". Anyone failing to understand that response clearly doesn't work in IT, or worse, likes mornings (grounds for immediate dismissal, IMO).
And anyone that mods this "funny" either lies or doesn't work in IT.
There may be more than one answer, but this one would definitely go a long way in an interview.
The first thing I would do after arriving at the office is greet any members of the team who were already in the office. It goes a long way when a boss spends the time to interact with the team and employees always appreciate little things like that. It's not a flashy answer, but it demonstrates that you want to emphasize communication and teamwork.
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
We still tell our employees to shut down. But we also have the machines set to automatically start up at 7:30 AM (an option in most newer BIOSes). Updates are applied at 7:40 AM, rebooting in time for any 8:00 AM early birds (office opens at 8:30).
Why shut down vs. other power saving options? I don't like dealing with the power save options in XP. Most of them suck and aren't worth the trouble. And people still shut down even if we ask them not to.
When we finally upgrade to a suitable operating system that can handle true hibernation, I'll change the policy.
Try to take over the world!
I'm an IT Manager.
1) First on the list is to go over any emails or voicemails that came in that need my attention. Hopefully there are no emergencies for me to take care of.
2) Go make myself some coffee. Just say "no" to bad office coffee people. We have our own coffee maker in our IT area. I drink most of it.
3) Swing by and say "Hello" to all my people, say good morning, see how everyone is doing, see if anything major is going on that I haven't been emailed about.
4) Get my coffee and relax for a few minutes reading slashdot or wired.com before delving into the day's projects.
5) Meetings!
OK, now with all the qualifiers out of the way, here's what I do first thing:
- Check voice mail. I will only normally have 1 or 2 at the most unless I've had days off, and I also get voice mails via email so it's likely I already heard it.
- Skim emails. Again I keep tabs on email even when not working so there's not normally a ton of new stuff, but I like to look over all of the emails, delete spam, and read important things first or things I've been waiting to hear back on. This is not when I deal with less important emails or write lengthy emails to people.
- Check monitors / logs. For me this means disk space monitors, MRTG bandwidth reports, backup statuses, etc.
- Check my short-term to-do list, normally created the day or two before that gets updated a couple times per week. Start on a project or delegate a project to a co-worker.
- If I'm in a waiting stage on all of my short term projects (waiting for parts to ship or waiting on a vendor or waiting to hear back from upper management) then I will make an effort to follow up on those items to help move it along (check tracking numbers, send "reminder" emails, etc.).
- If all of the above is taken care of, move on to the long-term project list.
My last comment is that some people have very specific ideas of what an "IT Manager" does or should do. Keep in mind that's a very broad term that will vary from organization to organization, mostly depending on the size. Somebody above made a distinction between an IT Manager and a System Administrator, but when your whole team is two people (like mine) those things don't make much difference. Maybe in some organizations IT managers don't get paged, or don't deal with backups, or whatever, but in smaller organizations the manager is also a staff member.to look for a better job.
The number one thing I do: Say good morning to the receptionist.
A good relationship with her (it could be a him, it's simply a her where I work) is essential:
Just about everyone bitches to her. Whether an issue's with email, with network reliability, a printer not working, phones playing up, the cold tap running hot, she's aware of all of it.
She's also the one point everyone has to pass at least once and, being close to both restrooms and breakroom, she tends to see most people much more too. Better than anyone, she can serve as a barometer of people's moods. If someone is obviously in a foul mood that morning, if someone's running around stressed about something, she knows faster than just about anyone.
She's also the person everyone has to let know if a client's coming in as she'll be the person to meet them. She also tends to handle much of the mess that is meeting room booking so she gets even more insight in to who's coming.
Build a good relationship with her and she looks out for me. If everything's cool, I get a "Hi" back and get on with greeting my team, checking email, checking in with project leads and PMs, reading slashdot, etc. If there's something up, she'll give me a summary that, with her understanding my needs from our previous talks, pretty much prioritizes as I need to know. I can then get on any problems far faster than checking each of the traditional reporting methods or I can go about my normal routine prepped so I don't say send an email that might trigger the guy who's in a bad mood that day.
And that's just the first fifteen seconds of my day.
She's also the first person to interview any candidates for me: If someone's an asshole to the people they think "don't matter," they're going to disrupt my team in a million other ways.
As already mentioned, she handles the mess of meeting rooms - an often precious resource. Do you want that person favoring you or someone else?
Being the first person everyone bitches to, she can come back with, "Wow, Nick [or Nick's team] is really being a jerk. Let's see what we can do." or she can respond, "Wow, that doesn't sound like Nick [or Nick's team]. He'd never knowingly let that happen. Let's let him know and I'm sure he'll get it addressed right away." Her response, being many people's first reaction when something goes wrong, can totally color the rest of their reaction and how easily I can deal with the issue.
She also knows where everything is, how everything functions, or who would do. "Hey, I can't find the contractor NDA forms." can get you a sympathetic acknowledgment from a rushed person and hold up your rush filling of a position by a day or two while you track them down or it can get "Hmm, I'll track them down and IM you in about five once I've got them." from someone who likes you.
The same holds true for all interpersonnel relationships, it's just especially important with a front desk person given everything that crosses their world - plus the question was what do you do "first" and they are pretty much always the first person you'll see.
Most nerds give great answers about slashdot, about email, about remote logging and paging systems. They're great nerd answers that show why you'd be great for a nerd position. What they demonstrate a lack of is an appreciation of what good interpersonnel relationships give you and adding that on top of the nerd qualifications is what demonstrates you'll be a good manager. Management is no longer a role about who can do the coolest nerd thing, it's about how do you handle all of the relationships around a diverse bunch of people. If your answer is about the systems, not the people, you're most comfortable interacting with - you're probably giving a major red flag for your abilities to work with people who should work with systems for you.
There were quite a few joke comments about "schmoozing." While I know they were intended as fun, that it's seen as something silly that managers that n
Although the first two steps are optional based on the age of the sysadmin...
That is all.
That's nothing. My company made me work from Jun6 to Dec10, and then a year later from Jan26 to Jun20... Those are some wicked hours.
I'm a programmer, not IT, but this might be interesting, so here goes. . .
1) sit down at computer and login (i never shut it off, so i don't have to wait for it to boot the next morning)
2) start programming (usually at this point i either successfully get a few hours of coding in, or i get bugged by a manager and all productivity is lost)
3) prepare a cup of tea, go back to programming
4) get sucked into a useless two or three hour meeting where everyone discusses implementing feature V what i've already finished writing, though they don't know it yet
5) point out i already have solution V done, and i've implemented solution W even though they aren't aware they need it yet
6) listen to the boss tell me not to waste company time on W and that he wants a timetable for V
7) point out again that V is already done, and try to explain why W wasn't a waste of time, notice i'm being ignored, leave meeting frustrated claiming i have to get take an asprin/go to the bathroom/get a drink as an excuse to get out and never come back
8) few hours later, boss comes up and asks me how long it would take me to implement feature X, which is actually just a rephrasing of feature W (already done)
9) explain that i already have feature X completed, and look at the astonished boss as he says, "are you sure? no seriously, how much time do you need really?"
10) show him a demonstration of feature X (see W) and then hear the boss say, "okay then, start working on feature Y"
11) *sigh* feature Y isn't necessary because of feature X, futilely try to explain this, boss insists i waste time on feature Y even though i'm in the middle of feature Z which is usually some revolutionary feature addition that is going to a) make the company a lot of money, b) get the boss a raise or c) save lives
12) end up wasting time on feature Y, boss independently discovers that feature X makes feature Y redundant... get the great honor of listening him explain that i shouldn't be wasting time on feature Y, and why didn't i let him know that feature X resolved feature Y
13) point out that i did let him know
14) rinse and repeat every day until i want to slit my wrists
(I am a manager)
The network Admins deal with the Sev1's, unless it costs serious dinero, like a cluster going BOOM, and then I get paged. We've had that happen only in practice drills.
I check for escalations to management, which I haven't seen in months, but still, they can come at the most inconvenient times. At my level, it means it's a systemic problem about to land us in trouble with the state DOI, federal SEC, etc., so I'd better get involved. (I feel sorry for you publicly traded entities in that regard - the Government really SOX it to ya, lol!) Management knows up front that while I'm not micro managing them, I'm keeping an eye on things to make sure issues don't get out of control. Again, haven't seen that happen since tax time. Stuff always goes to hell when we get nailed by a cost basis rush. That's usually solved by hiring more outsourced Okies (midwest reps, usually from Oklahoma).
Then, before I hit Slashdot, I walk the floor to make sure people aren't dicking around. Especially team leads and floor managers. Once in a while I'll sit down for 2 hours and take calls. I do it for the PR points - when they see the man on top putting up with the crap assed customers we deal with, it's a morale boost. I know what they're dealing with. And they have no excuse for slacking off. And I VNC right to my office to make sure that I can respond the instant something big requires my attention. I could sit on the phones all day if nothing is going on, because it's so easy for me to be where I need to be at the drop of a hat. Actually, given how much it inspires my workers, I like hitting the phones.
Then there's the proprietary stuff I can't talk about - the meetings with human resources and marketing staff, occasional briefings from our legal department, and coordination of community activities. Plus the odd call from the company's owner from his friggin yacht.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I work for a small manufacturing company. I am 50% of the IT department. My job title in the HR database says "IT Manager". In practice, that means I'm CTO, system administrator, network administrator, server operator, software architect, DBA, phone guy, cable guy, automated test equipment tech, webmaster, desktop support, and that's just the short list. I also keep tabs on our application software specialist, but ultimately, I manage technology more than I manage people. If it uses electricity and isn't greasy or wet, it's my problem. (If it's greasy or wet, it's Maintenance's problem.) I like it this way; it keeps me from getting bored. To each their own, but don't assume yours is the only way. :)
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
No lecturer actually collected their assignments at the 5pm cut off. Very few would even see it as a priority before noon the next day. They simply relied upon the department receptionist to tell them who handed it in on time and who gets the instant 20% knocked off for being late.
Befriend the receptionist and you got an extra night on every assignment. For the really big stuff, if she liked you enough, you'd tell her your woes and find she'd offer to tell the lecturer, "I'm SO sorry, Nick handed this to me before the deadline last week but I guess I put it down on the wrong pile." You then got to listen to the lecturer talk about what he had been looking for, after he assumed no one else could submit work, and leave everyone else wondering how you so effortlessly got straight As.
Sure, technically, each lecturer held more power. But every one of them always had students sucking up to them, trying to gradegrub, and was pretty much immune. And you had ten or twenty different lecturers you had to try it with.
Alternatively, one receptionist extended every deadline for you and knew the lecturers well enough to tell you great tidbits like, "Lecturer X admits in the staff breakroom that he likes a glass or two of whisky while he grades. He starts off grading pretty strict but jokes about how his criteria's much more 'relaxed' by the end of the night. I'll slip your assignment in where it'll get the most generous grader. Lecturer Y hates grading and gets more angry as the night goes on, so I'll put your assignment at the top of her stack."
Amazing how much power the people who allegedly don't have any power really wield.
Mind you, social engineering is also the reason why some hackers will spend days trying to crack security vulnerabilities in software while another guy will achieve just as much in a single phonecall.
Dude, I actually like SOX. It means that, as a database developer, I am not allowed to touch the production databases.
This in turn means that I am not allowed to do production support.
This again means that I'm not liklely to receive phone calls at 3am, which I like just fine.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
We ask questions just like this regularly and actually "coffee" would very likely be the single best way to start your answer.
If you are in an interviewing situation, it is already known that you are competent from a technical viewpoint so we don't need to hear about any cool monitoring software you'd like to install. Personality type and efficiency in work are the traits the interviewers are after, more so for manager level positions. An honest and (to some point) witty beginning for a question like this is a good way to start. Don't say you will read ./ or any other news, because that would imply you will waste time at work doing something you really should be doing at home. That would be too honest. A cup of coffee is a simple pleasure and doesn't interfere with your job.
Personally I would give full points to an answer like:
Coffee - Check for any pressing emergencies - Socialize a little with coworkers for any work related things you need to know
An honest, thought-out and self-confident answers are the way to go. Questions are designed to throw you out of balance and see if you have these traits even in a surprising situation. A bit of humour one or two times in an interview is also good, it shows you are in control of the social situation. It is not so much *what* you say but *how* you say it.
If the interviewer is a random executive and it is clear he/she doesn't do interviews very often, it is good to be a little less honest and to show your technical expertise every now and then.
1. I arrive at my desk ...One of them gives me an update.
2. I open the lid on my coffee
3. I start to drink my coffee
4. I glare at my minions until...
5.
Delegation. Get others to put out your fires for you. THEN claim the credit.
-Jar.
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
Coffee, then informal chat with each person who reports to me directly about what's up. In that order (important).
Job of a manager is to lead; you can't lead unless you (a) know what's on the mind of the people you are leading and (b) remind them the direction everybody's supposed to be heading in. I always say that a manager has two functions: setting direction and removing obstacles. You should spend less than 5% of your time setting direction and more than 95% of your time removing obstacles. Simple reason will show that that's how you ensure your department is spending the most time being productive.
So, you spend most of your time as a manager doing various kinds of communication. Informal communication is the best, because the most information is offered and retained; formal communications are for when you absolutely must have something on the agenda. You need both, but formal communication (meetings, memos/emails) should be infrequent and informal communication (shooting the shit) should be frequent.
I'm a solitary consultant these days, but I really miss working on a team.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Moderated "troll" and "redundant" because I drink tea? Unbelievable.
In this world nothing is certain but death, taxes and flawed car analogies.