Staying Current In a Small Office Environment?

MyLongNickName writes "Less than a month ago I took a position at a smaller firm (around 50 employees) as an IT Manager. As you might expect from the size of the company, I oversee quite a variety of tasks. I come from a background of computer programming, and am definitely not a master of every function. We rely on third-party solutions providers for areas like our networking, web hosting, phone systems, etc. I am used to working in a larger environment with a large IT staff (and not just because of super sizing at McDonald's). Just the daily rubbing elbows allowed me to stay current in areas that I did not directly touch. And when I had a question, I personally knew someone who could answer my question. I am not in that environment now. How do I stay current? I don't want to be a master of every technology, but I want to be aware of trends in the industry. I want to not depend on one contractor advising me."

Comments

read slashdot

[BroadbandBradley]

that's how I stay current.

Re:read slashdot

[cide1]

I respectfully disagree. Slashdot is less informative than it used to be.

I think the trouble comes from several sources:
1.) Slashdot has a lot more editors now, which gives less of a strategic plan.
2.) Political articles, or call to action articles. YRO stores where always present, but there are so many now that reading all of them is just depressing.
3.) I remember when things like IBM research White papers were articles. This was very informative. Now we hear 8 bajillion stores about a document format. Real men use LaTeX anyway, so who cares about ODF and OOXML?
4.) Patents. Every time someone tries to patent something stupid, an article is not warranted.

What we need more articles about:
1.) Innovative software
2.) Major hardware releases (not Nokia has a new cell phone) but its good to keep up on major things.
3.) Significant Kernel releases, GNOME, Firefox, etc.
4.) Actions of NASA and other space agencies
5.) Interesting scientific research, whether organic, medical, semiconductor, etc.
6.) Some politics as it relates to science + technology.
7.) More developer stories. And not just Ruby on Rails, most of us could care less about that.
8.) Something funny every now and then. A link to a good XKCD isnt a bad thing.
9.) More interviews. They were always interesting, and the number has decreased.

Professional Associations and networking

[Chyeld]

At least, thats how I would do it. Look into joining one or two professional IT associations that deal with your 'area' of concern and network a lot.

With fewer people at work to 'leech' off of, you will need to spend more time out of work keeping those skills up. That means more effort on your part, and an actual drive to keep up the pace.

One word:

[Aussenseiter]

RSS. Seriously, get feeds from everything you deem relevant, apply some filters, and go to town. There's really no better way to get convenient access to information you want without having specialists at your side.

Read Slashdot

[ELProphet]

You'll also stay current in supercomputing, RIAA tactics, IP infringement, Video Games, Astronomy, Physics, Puzzles, and *nix flamewars. You might not, however, stay current on your workload.

Network, Don't be Proud, Reading

[WuphonsReach]

1) Networking with others is key. Try to maintain contact as much as possible with people at your old firm, especially anyone who is more technically inclined and is willing to answer questions. It's also a good way to find out what the new trends are and whether they are just flash-in-the-pan. That's one of the areas that I failed in when I moved from a really large company to the small company that I work for now. Which means that I've had to do a lot of the research myself.

2) Don't be afraid to cry "Uncle!" and hire someone on a short-term basis. Make sure that they show you their work so you can understand what they did. Black box systems are a no-no, as are consultants or support people who prefer to make their changes behind a curtain. As much as you may not want to be master of everything, in a smaller company you really need to become a jack-of-all-trades. Or at least be proficient enough to know when the staff or contact workers are blowing smoke up your ass.

3) Unless you absolutely hate reading (if so - you may be in the wrong job), try to read at least one technical book per month. And/Or take at least one 4 hour class per quarter. It keeps you in the game mentally and keeps you from ending up in a dead-end because you let all your skills get rusty. However you choose to do it - continuing education is key if you want to be self-reliant to a large degree.

I started working at my current firm about 8 years ago (and telecommuted for the first 7 years). There are still a few parts of the operation that aren't under my control (the PBX), but otherwise I have my finger on the pulse of everything else. I do a lot of experimenting on the side (it took 2 years for us to put Linux into production use). I work crazy hours some weeks. But, on the flip side, because it's a small company - I can set my own schedule to a very large degree. I'll gladly take flexibility, very little politics (I speak directly to the CEO and have the power to make purchases/decisions), and goal-oriented environment (make it work - keep the clients happy) and lower salary over being paid big bucks at a big firm.

The biggest tools that help me keep my sanity:

1) Nagios - or any other monitoring system. Knowing that something is broken before anyone else notices is a big advantage. You get a reputation for keeping the ship running smoothly without people having to scream to get something fixed. A lot of the people will think that you're psychic at times.

2) Wiki or Version Control System for internal documentation of systems. Network maps, rack layouts, what cable goes where on the back of a rack, pictures of equipment, etc. are very important. There are a lot of times where I've pulled up pictures of equipment in order to walk a regular employee at the office through restarting something (instead of having to drive in - or wait for a technical employee to be there). Get a good, small camera, and take lots of photos. Scratch notes on the back of a napkin and scan those in. Just have some sort of central location where your staff can look for information. I call it "just in case I (or you) get hit by a bus" documentation.

3) Automatic configuration change tracking. You can do this by hand, trying to track changes on an internal blog or a spreadsheet, or a text file, but automated tools are better. If you run Linux servers, use something like FSVS to shove all of your configuration files into a Subversion repository. That way, you can go back and look at what changes were made to the server along with why they were made. You can also do things like using rsync or looking through old backups, but I prefer to use an actual version control system designed for the purpose. Get your staff in the habit of using the tool when they make changes.

Re:Read books

[wellingj]

Also, talk to your HR guy about charging the books as training. Most companies will buy people about 2 books a year to learn new stuff if you take the initiative and tell them what you want to learn.