I remember a point in my job search when something happened that made me feel I had been living under a rock for years.
I was poking around on job boards, looking for ANYTHING that would work for me, and I saw a job title I hadn’t heard of before: Product Manager.
Crazy, isn’t it? I had a business degree, an MBA, and plenty of corporate experience (including sales and account management), and I hadn’t heard of that title. It was a perfect title for me, but it was new to me.
Armed with knowledge about that title, I could now start applying to an entirely new set of jobs (new to me). That new phrase made me more powerful!
In light of that, perhaps I should share some other phrases…. today’s is “managed services.”
According to Wikipedia, managed services is:
the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities. The person or organization who owns or has direct oversight of the organization or system being managed is referred to as the offer-er, client, or customer. The person or organization that accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as the service provider.
As a job seeker, you need to know what this means. It is outsourcing (transferring) management responsibilities to outside companies. If you are interested in working at a company that does this, you should check out the suite of managed services from Syntax (which offers a variety of managed services).
You might also consider how you can provide managed services to companies you want to service (in other words, if you want to have your own business)… just define who your ideal client is, and what services you could provide. No single person will offer the suite of services a company like Syntax would offer, but you might partner with other service providers and then be able to offer a more comprehensive solution than what just you can provide.
How does “managed services” affect your job search?
- If this is a trending “industry” (if you will), start to target companies that provide managed services;
- If you work at a company that hires a managed services company, your job might be more about contract management and vendor negotiation or management than you thought;
- If you are interested in having a side-gig, or starting a business, perhaps this is a great business you can create.
There you go – what other words/phrases should I write about?
As an idea, the phrase “project manager”…. I have worked with many people who do this type of work but did not know the term and are surprised when I educate them on it. After a discussion, they realize they are in fact Project Managers and this opens up possibilities in their job search and possible training, such as Project Management Professional (PMP), certification. In fact I myself was guilty of this some years ago but Nancy Fink of POAC straightened me out 🙂