[svandamme]

here's the deal,
just relocated from Holland to Belgium
have been doing IT for close to 12 years, resume shows nice progression
from simple IT tech to projects, to 6 years working for a leading OS/network company where i did tech support (which is more then just tech work since you're dealing with a very varied customer base, not all problems are technical, if you know what i mean)

now that i'm back in Belgium, in my region there's not a lot of big enviroments where i could find the same level of high tech high prestige i had in NL
not unless i want to work in Brussels or Antwerp which is a 2 hours commute, one way

the headhunter and agencies , have now hooked me up with 3-4 companies for IT manager gigs, ranging from small time service company that requires a head of tech dept, to an industrial meat processing facility needing a projectmanagement tech guy, a cookie factory needing an IT mgr, to an upscale design furniture company needing an IT manager who would be on the board...except for that small it service company, which is perhaps 40 heads in size ( 4-10 for the dept they want me), the others are midsize companies, ranging from 2, to 3000 employees, production companies, so i figure about 80% blue collar, 20% whitecollar, not talking multinational companies here

now i've never been a true manager in the sense that i was just doing meetings, and telling my team how and when to do the work.
I was team lead on some big projects, i was team coordinator (manager sidekick) for more operational stuff, nothing that held any responsibility in the sense of laying out the policy of the IT dept
dabbled with quality stuff, ISO certification, documentation work, setting, customer expectation , crit **** conf calls with big players, worked along side Sales reps for VAR's, and also helped setting up the contract specs for the suppliers to bid for...
done all sorts of stuff in IT, seen all the no no's, and had the pleasure of working with some great people,but i never was "the man in charge" or the one with the vision laying down the roadmap for a companies IT work...


any tips, tricks, and suggestions from the Pelican Brain Trust on how to get that Manager gig in the bag, and perhaps also on how to make the transition once i get the the job?