Anyone eventually aiming for CTO/CIO?

Sepiraph

Is anyone here in IT who are eventually aiming for CTO/CIO? (Maybe we have CTO/CIO here? ) Obviously it is not something that can be accomplished in a few years and maybe take a decade or two, but regardless are you nevertheless aiming for that?

That's what I think I ultimately wanted to aim for (beside running my own business), will probably go back and do a MBA in a few years and see where that'd take me.

stlsmoore

Yea eventually, I honestly think that's the only way to survive in the IT field once you get into the upper ages. I'm going to go back and get my MBA also probably once I turn 26-28 or something. I just finish obtaining my associates not to long ago and I want to pay off my debt and do certs before I focus back on school.

NinjaBoy

Yeah, I'm aiming for CTO/CIO/Upper management. Already an IT Manager, got my BSc (BS), my Chartered IT Professional Status (CITP, not to be confused with the Certified IT Professional in the US) and looking at doing some sort of post-grad qualification in the next few years. Working towards it, it may take years, decades, or it might not happen at all - just taking baby steps, one at a time

-Ken

blargoe

I'm not ruling that out, but I don't think that's for me. I'm not under the illusion that I'll be able to do sysadmin team lead or project manager type work for the next 30 years, but once I get to the point where I'm not welcome to do day to day technical design and/or implementaiton, I'll go the route or short term contracting and/or work toward starting some kind of specialty consulting firm.

Then again, I'll probably change over the next 10-20 years and I'm sure the industry will change.

IT Man

I am like blargoe...I am already helping out small businesses as part time IT support. I would like at some point, be able to do this type of work on a full bases. Maybe another 10 years or so in the game.

AmpdChaos

im working on it.. give me about ten years!!

NPA24

I'm actually pursuing my MBA at a pretty reputable College at the moment. My long term goal is to be a CIO/CTO or maybe one day a CEO of a big company. Also through my development plan for this year, I decided to mentor my iCTO in my company. I work for a Fortune 500 company with over 170,000 employees so it's nice to get a perspective from the top-down in how things are decided and ran.

Good luck everyone on their pursuit to the top!!!

astorrs

I'm the owner, president, CEO, CFO, CIO, secretary, receptionist and janitor.... okay well not the janitor, but you get the drift.

As for becoming a "real" CIO in a large enterprise. Not likely. I enjoy being my own boss and owning the company, I'll probably just add staff down the road - but still keep it small (the ones who grow too big too fast, either can't survive a slump in the economy or they become acquisition targets to easily - sometimes where they just acquire the staff and not the company ).

Kasor

Why do you want to be a CIO or CTO.. uknow

CIO = Career Is Over

CTO = Career Totally Over

eMeS

astorrs wrote:

I'm the owner, president, CEO, CFO, CIO, secretary, receptionist and janitor.... okay well not the janitor, but you get the drift.

As for becoming a "real" CIO in a large enterprise. Not likely. I enjoy being my own boss and owning the company, I'll probably just add staff down the road - but still keep it small (the ones who grow too big too fast, either can't survive a slump in the economy or they become acquisition targets to easily - sometimes where they just acquire the staff and not the company ).

This is the great thing about owning your own company...you can be whatever you want!

I prefer to avoid "job title inflation" personally...I tend to refer to myself as "consultant".

Regarding becoming a CIO, CTO, etc.. for another company....If reaching this level is your goal, I would say that your time spent in the trenches of IT would be better spent doing other things. Such as:

1 - Building high-quality contacts that have a high likelihood of achieving C-level positions themselves
2 - Attending a top name school
3 - Learning to enjoy and excel at organizational politics
4 - Any type of sales experience

I know many C-level types at large companies. Most spent very little to no time in the IT trenches. Of course there are exceptions to this...

The things that I would have to say that they all have in common is a strong network of contacts, as well as the ability to take credit for other people's accomplishments and still being able to sleep.

MS

astorrs

eMeS wrote:

I prefer to avoid "job title inflation" personally...I tend to refer to myself as "consultant".

Yep, my business card just says "Principal Consultant", none of the other stuff.

blargoe

The CEO at my company was at one time, an IT manager. I'm sure that is the 1 out of a 1000 exception to the rule, I had never heard of that before.

stlsmoore

blargoe wrote:

The CEO at my company was at one time, an IT manager. I'm sure that is the 1 out of a 1000 exception to the rule, I had never heard of that before.

The CEO at our company I heard used to be an IT Manager also

eMeS

stlsmoore wrote:

blargoe wrote:

The CEO at my company was at one time, an IT manager. I'm sure that is the 1 out of a 1000 exception to the rule, I had never heard of that before.

The CEO at our company I heard used to be an IT Manager also

Depending on what exactly they managed, they might still be far from having been in the IT trenches (entering commands, installing servers, writing code, etc..).

It is good to hear that at least some out there have some kind of IT experience...

MS