ALT-1 Setting your Sights on the CIO Role in your Future
So, you've decided that a life in Information Technology is for you. You'd like to demonstrate your leadership skills by supervising and managing large groups of people, and delegating the future technological endeavors of a corporation. If you're computer savvy and have a flair for business, then maybe the role of CIO is for you.
The Chief Information Officer performs a variety of tasks on a daily basis and typically reports to the top management of any organization; however, paving a given organization's future road map is not the only responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the CIO.
In addition to supervising the human resources available to a given IT division, one of the main responsibilities of the CIO is to establish long term strategic IT objectives that will ensure that the overall corporate goals are achieved. This includes maintaining hardware and software, ensuring data security, and developing innovative information management systems or other technology-based communications systems.
Additionally, the CIO is also required to evaluate newly developed or procured management systems and actively incorporate these systems into existing corporate documentation by developing change controls that will allow users to migrate from a previous to newly acquired methods. Also, CIOs must design and implement successful disaster recovery policies and procedures in the event of an emergency, natural or mechanical alike.
Most importantly, however, CIOs must combine their profound technical knowledge and business skills to accurately budget a corporation's financial resources. CIOs must develop and implement highly advanced budgets that allow for the establishment and maintenance of existing and new information management and communication systems.
As technology's influence continues to grow within our society, more businesses are appropriately focusing their attention on internal Information Technology departments. For this reason, the role of CIO is becoming increasingly crucial in the development and maintenance of an efficient IT department which will facilitate an organization in achieving its ultimate corporate goals.
The nature of a CIO's work is so diverse that creativity and innovation are also crucial qualities that are exhibited within the most successful CIOs. The most important thing to remember, however, when setting your sights on the CIO position, is not to be discouraged. The path to CIO is often a long and tumultuous one that typically requires at least ten years of extensive experience.
