Master's Degree?

That would be politics

Don't forget about working managers who get the managerial job just by having a lot of work experience in the field, but never get any managerial training.

Many of the managers I know are demonstrably useless at this stuff but still command large salaries. What's the secret?

So...you are saying it's a good idea then Haha.

This is a topic where i have been noticing recently which for the life of me i cannot understand. Im pretty much new to this industry so at the moment still a bit wet behind the ears. However at my place of work since i have been there (around 8 months) i have seen two IT managers come and go now not directors or board members being paid between 40-50k and their technical knowledge has been in my opinion ridiculous. I mean these guy's fell at real basic stuff. Then i have seen good Cisco, MCSE trained engineers being paid half that. Now i understand that mangement skills and so on come into play here but does that really justify the difference in pay scale?

So for the more experianced members here is this the situation right across the board does management skills mean more than technical ability in the IT working environment ?

Thanks in advance..

Management is a different job to a role involving technical delivery of some kind. It's to do with finance, resourcing, budgets, planning etc and the softer skills of leadership, motivation, persuasion and focussing people towards the goal you/the company want achieved. The thing that gets me though is that I've seen many managers who presumably have all these in abundance but totally lack some of the things we techies are good at. Such as sound common sense, an appreciation of cause and effect, being able to weigh the consequences of an action before you take it, being able to identify and fix the real problem rather than one of the symptoms. As a result they make the most stupid decisions then drive them through relentlessly when everyone but the manager can see at once that the whole thing is doomed. How come forty or fifty people being paid between £15k and £30k per year can all see the obvious that a management supremo on £twice that + nice car + bonus completely misses? And how come he or she then gets praised for eventually fixing the mess they created for themselves in the first place? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a management hater - I've worked for some truly excellent ones in my time as well as some who would be better suited to sweeping the street where they can do less damage. It's just that the latter seem to be outnumbering the former in industry and buisness these days and I can't help wondering why