What CIOs Want: In Their Own Words
What do you want most from your career?
Money?
Interesting work?
Job security?
Like most IT professionals who hear this question, you probably have great difficulty answering it. Instead of reflecting on what you really want, you think, “What should I want?” or, “What should I be doing in order to be successful in my career?”
Fact is that it’s hard for IT pros like you to put down your (noble) focus on “serving stakeholders” and “delivering solutions” and to answer the question from a purely personal perspective.
So, to help you to get in touch with what you really want and to see what you share with your peers and mentors, we have assembled for you a study of what the top CIOs want from their careers.
Here’s the straight talk from the people who should be inspiring your career—the folks who have made it to the top of your field and who, just a few years ago, were exactly where you are now.
Listen to what they say they want from their careers—you’ll be surprised how their thoughts will both reassure and inspire you.
- Some CIOs—like David Bray from the FCC—focused on wanting to solve the impossible.
- Others, like Victor Fetter from LPL Financial, talked about empowerment—for individuals, the business, and technology.
- And Gerri Martin-Flickinger from Adobe emphasized the user’s experience.
But even though their specific emphases may have differed, many of the CIOs we spoke with agreed on a few critical goals:
- To play an active role in their company’s transformation,
- To grow their people, and
- To make a difference in the world.
It’s a funny thing: We IT people are seen as so technically oriented, with our heads buried in the systems, but when you take a close look at what the most successful IT professionals want from their career, it’s really not about tech at all.
From leading public sector CIOs like Miguel Gamiño, Jr., the CIO of San Francisco, to private sector leaders like Ralph Loura of Hewlett-Packard, top IT leaders want, more than anything, to make a positive impact in the lives of real people.
To find out what IT professionals in the broader community said they want most from their career, click here to download your free copy of our new report “What IT Pros Most Want”, produced using data and analysis from hundreds of survey responses from IT professionals and leaders at every stage of their career.
To hear, in their own words, what top CIOs said they want, read on:
