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>The "parallel" technical career path never seems to deliver equal amounts of power, or even money, as compared to managers on the same level. This is true. T
by jasode 11y ago
>The "parallel" technical career path never seems to deliver equal amounts of power, or even money, as compared to managers on the same level.
This is true. There's a self-deprecating joke about CIO being an acronym for "Career Is Over" because the Chief Information Officers are never promoted to CEO. On the other hand, it's common for the board to promote COOs and CFOs to CEOs.
If tech people want to be CEOs, they have to be an entrepreneur (e.g. Bill Gates, Larry Page, etc). Also, at small startup companies, CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) sometimes get promoted to CEO. (The CTO is often one of the founders or early employees.)
That said, if a tech person has no aspirations for C-level responsibility, the "parallel" career track for technical employees may offer enough progression and pay increases. They're ok with the ceiling being lower for the technical ladder.
- gadders 11y agoIf you're a CIO in a large company, your life is more about managing budgets than doing anything technical.
- sgt101 11y agoIf you're a CIO at a large company your life is about leadership, or you will become a CIO at a small company really fast.
- gadders 11y agoIn my experience, some are leaders. Most are just managers.
- sarwechshar 11y agoI don't remember the last time I saw a company with a "CIO". It seems to be a dying trend. Interesting fact: CIOs are also known as Chief Investment Officers (mainly in finance) and play an integral role to the company, perhaps in importance second only to the CEO.
- o_nate 11y agoAt many finance shops, the CIO can even outrank the CEO, in reality if not on paper. For instance, during his glory days at PIMCO, Bill Gross was CIO while others, such as Mohammed el-Erian filled the CEO role, even when Gross was basically calling the shots.
- eitally 11y agoCIOs are almost always* "keep the lights on" people. It's thankless work, and very frustrating, especially in corporations that don't value technology as a differentiator. In those cases, a lot of CIOs are promoted from within the Finance or Sales organizations, not any technical org, and they spend the vast majority of their time balancing restrictive budgets and managing attrition [of under-appreciated staff]. * There are plenty of highly appreciated, creative CIOs, but they're a minority ... which is why all the media aimed at CIOs & IT leaders (e.g. cio.com, etc) has spent the last couple years spreading doom & gloom about the profession, saying things like "the age of the CIO is over -- it's all about the CDO now" or "CMO budgets now exceed CIO spend", etc. It's also why the majority of CIOs these days don't sit on the board or are even in the CEO's inner circle, and instead report to either the COO or CFO.