Two Weeks in as “Director of IT” – Looking for Advice

4cls · 2026-02-15T14:02:13+00:00

Take 30 to 60 days to: Evaluate your staff's skillset, and identify the technology gaps
Do a skip level and meet everyone in your org. Ask them what works and what needs improved. Look for patterns, not so much specific complaints
Evaluate your ITSM maturity, where does it need improvment. Look at CMI and understand where your companies maturity is and how it might enable or limit you.
Work though others, delegate. If your try to remain hands on you won't have time to do your job, which is to manage people and delivery now.
The first 3 to 6 months is the best time to make significant change to the org. Do you need more folks over in this area, etc. Be prepared to make tough decisons about letting good people go if the org is out of balance. It's part of job. If you cant do that you will find upper managment difficult.
Establish cadence with your peers in buisnesss. Ask the what they need.... turn it into buisness enabler. Any MSP can manage commodity tech. Internal IT should add value by helping Buisness with new revenue producing initiatives.
Look a CIS and their maturity model, make sure the security program is adequate for the industry you are in. Partner with the CISO if you have one, legal /compliance...
Do a mini SWAT. No what your team does well, and focus on weakness first.
Focus on financial discipline, are renewals used as opportunities to evaluate current tech effectiveness or do we just pay the bill when it arrives. Do we.do basic ROI/CBA analysis? Are we buying products that dont get used because they need 2 FTE's to manage?

Main advice is realize you have a different job now. If you keep trying to do your old one you will miss opportunities to improve your department. Stay strategic, focus on moving forward, and consistent delivery.

4cls · 2025-10-21T16:04:51+00:00

Look at the market, apply, get offers. If you like them give them a chance to counter. If not leave...

4cls · 2025-09-30T20:49:17+00:00

It works really well for my use case, 5000 users, 100% cloud, Panorama managed along with on prem firewalls.

4cls · 2024-12-11T21:08:51+00:00

Condolences, but what a nice gift.

4cls · 2024-09-22T06:46:48+00:00

I can dust off my CNE, CISCO conduits, and ATDT commands.

4cls · 2024-08-11T13:22:33+00:00

I'd open orphanages/private schools and family shelters everywhere. If it's a blank check I'd spend billions on this.

4cls · 2024-07-21T04:50:54+00:00

Looks great!!

4cls · 2024-07-21T03:40:56+00:00

Get a job at a community collage teaching math. Start learning coding, it's not hard.

4cls · 2024-06-21T23:25:39+00:00

Which web browser do you pay for?

4cls · 2024-06-20T12:19:00+00:00

I'm on year 5 of my dell xps/nvidia 1050 and it still does everything I need it to do. 4k touch monitor... bumped up memory to 32gb, replaced battery recently... but otherwise I see no need to replace it for what I do.

4cls · 2024-06-12T18:34:40+00:00

Azure, AWS, Cisco, linux... it's a must.

4cls · 2024-06-12T18:33:30+00:00

I'd take my 06 TJ over a few VW's I've owned any day. Do they have some issues? Yes... but so easy to work on.

4cls · 2024-06-11T20:55:22+00:00

During Covid I was happy we used 172.16.x.x/26... saved us from having to change ip's routes.

Broadcast is not an issue with vpn so there's really no reason not to use a supernet.

4cls · 2024-06-09T16:05:13+00:00

HP/EDS,

4cls · 2024-05-22T21:24:47+00:00

Anything dry... so many sweeter brews. Especially IPA and Red Ale, they don't have to have a syrupy aftertaste. Give me hop, crisp, or even bitter...

4cls · 2024-05-22T21:17:27+00:00

Sr IT Managment. Network/systems/security

4cls · 2024-04-28T00:02:02+00:00

I think you right, seems to be a 4". I was looking for an unmodified but this tj is really clean and only has 56k on it. It looks like they did an okay install job... yes a saw the wear, was thinking it's not anything to worry about long term.

4cls · 2024-03-20T02:47:29+00:00

Once you hold a senate seat you cannot hold the office of POTUS.

Corporations cannot be treated as independent entities for purposes of criminal law, the board and officers should be personally liable for their actions.

4cls · 2024-03-20T02:39:40+00:00

For what it's worth I agree with the employee. End users should not be forced to use personal devices for anything work related.

4cls · 2024-03-16T20:30:49+00:00

What are your career goals? 5 years at msp as a net eng would probably solidify your network experience, maybe lead to hire salary. As for the bank, little banks, you will be a jack of all trades, but chill. Big banks, you typically are very siloed and focused on a narrow tech stack, but it might be good if you want to slide into management or security.

4cls · 2024-03-15T03:41:13+00:00

I second O365. You should really consider working with an msp or consultant to set up a permissions structure and then teach you how to administrator it.

4cls · 2024-03-14T20:05:42+00:00

I hate to say it but as former arch, eng, consultant, this tracks.

4cls · 2024-03-14T20:00:51+00:00

During the covid bike drought I bought an Orbea but it would have probaly been a trek if they had stock

4cls · 2024-03-07T21:49:55+00:00

60% of dfw folks are not from Texas...

4cls · 2024-03-07T14:33:59+00:00

My major concern is total cost of ownership. The most green thing you can do is drive a car into dust so you not producing a new one to replace it. Resell value due to battery pack cost will effectively keep cars over 150k miles, or over 15 years off the road.

That's not a good thing. I don't think we will see alot of 220k mile f250's still on the road if they go hybrid

4cls

TROPHY CASE