I’m a new user here at TechRepublic, and I’m very excited to be here. I’ve been looking for a professional forum to bounce around questions to other IT profs like myself for a long time.
I work in a very small IT department that does very big things. I help keep things running for a school district here in Oregon. We have a single Admin with three technicians and a Database Manager. I’m one of those technicians. I have no formal training, minus a healthy thirst for Google results. We have about 600 adult users, around 3100 student users, and roughly 1500 machines. We get new technology almost daily and we have an untold number or proprietary peripherals(SMARTBoards, projectors, printers, document cameras, scanners, etc.)
My question is, at what point are we considered too small for the task we are given? I know there are many other IT departments that consist of a few generalists and heavy work weeks, but what are the actual thresholds for requiring more people?
I’d like to see what kind of technician to computer ratios you guys have out there. Maybe someone could quote an industry standard that gives me something to work with.
How do you cope with ridiculous obstacles that you simply aren’t qualified to tackle? I deal with things that are WAY above my pay-grade on a daily basis. I enjoy these challenges, but as I get comfortable with one task my responsibilities with another start slipping.
Thanks for any input on the subject!
