Career Guidance
Hours and environment
Most jobs will say they’re 9am to 5pm, but you should expect to be more flexible than this. The nature of the industry can mean that extra hours are needed at times to meet deadlines.
You’ll be based out of an office, but if you work with clients there will be travel involved. You’ll go to meeting s and will often need to work from their offices, sometimes overseas depending on the client and project.
Opportunities / areas of work
Becoming an IT manager can open many doors for you in the future. Your prospects will be determined by the size and type of organisation you work for, but you should always find there are opportunities to grow into a more strategic role.
Most larger companies have established career paths, and your goal will be to gain more management responsibility. Another option to pursue if you work for a larger company is the opportunity to work overseas.
The role is so diverse that you might choose to follow a more technical path instead of a management one. You could specialise in a sector or programme e.g. SAP or Oracle implementations or go on to become an IT specialist or technical architect.
There is a lucrative market out there once you've got the experience to work as an IT consultant or contractor. The job pays well and you can build in breaks when it suits you in between projects to go travelling etc.
Annual Income
A typical range of starting salaries foes from £23,000 to £32,000
Senior IT managers can earn much, much more than this and it’s not uncommon to be on a salary of up to £100,000 once you’ve got to 10 to 15 years’ experience. Salaries at this level will be heavily performance based.
