an average of 21.0 years from the date their first degree was awarded to the date they attained their first CIO position. Figure 10 shows that the time it took to reach the CIO position is correlated with the decade when the first degree was conferred—1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. Note the steep decline in the amount of time required. A possible explanation for this decline is provided in the following section.

 

Stability at the Top

While IT professionals go through
many different positions before they
reach their first CIO position, their
propensity to change from a CIO posi-
tion to a non-CIO position appears to
be quite low. In our sample, compar-
ing the job experiences of IT profes-
sionals before and after they became
CIOs showed a 78% decrease in the
average number of role changes per
year, a 58% decrease in the average
number of organizational changes
per year, and a 61% decrease in the
average number of industry changes
per year. For the 50 CIOs in the sam-
ple, Figure 11 shows the distribution
of the number of years as a CIO. On
average, the IT professionals in the
sample stayed in a CIO type role for
8. 5 years, which is an underestimate
of the true time spent as a CIO since
the sample included active CIOs. It ap-
pears that once IT professionals take
on a CIO position, they generally stay
on as CIO (in the same company or in
a different company) or retire.

Promoted from Within vs.

Brought In from Outside

Hiring a CIO from within signals the existence of career paths to the top, while bringing in top talent from outside signals a need for varied experience. The reasons to go outside a firm can include a desire for new methods, new ideas, or even a change in leadership, with the new CEO bringing in a new team. IT Professionals must decide whether the best path to reach a leadership position is to stay within a firm or look elsewhere for the next step in their career progression.

The data in our sample points to IT professionals looking outside their current firms, since 56% changed organizations to obtain their first CIO role and only 44% where promoted from within. Of those promoted from within, all but one were promoted from an internal IT position. The lone exception was a director of finance to being promoted to CIO. However, she had a strong IT background prior to the finance position and had been in finance for only one year.

Of those recruited from outside for their first CIO position, we observed two interesting patterns. The first involved role changes. Surprisingly, 30% of the IT professionals who changed organizations for their first CIO opportunity also changed from having an IT partner position to having a traditional IT role. Organizations are apparently comfortable hiring IT professionals from firms with which they partner.

The second involved industry
changes. When a CIO is hired, the
space, and electrical and electronic
manufacturing and into pharmaceu-
ticals, insurance, financial services,
and hospital and healthcare. In Figure
9, the horizontal axis measures the
net change in the number of persons
in the sample who began their careers
in the industry and the number who
were in the industry at the time (De-
cember 2014) we collected the data
for our sample. Although this move-
ment most likely reflects changes in
demand for IT services by the various
industries rather than preference for
a particular industry by IT profession-
als, it clearly shows that movement
between industries is common for IT
professionals moving up the career
ladder toward a CIO position.

Time to the Top

For the 50 CIOs in the sample, it took

Figure 10. The declining amount of time needed to attain a CIO position.

26. 5 19. 1 13. 9 8. 3 9. 8 7.0

1970s 1980s
Decade In Which First Degree Was Earned

1990s
Years to First CIO Role Years of CIO Tenure
Linear (Years to First CIO Role)

Figure 11. Distribution of years spent as a CIO.

20

15

10

Count

Co u nt of C IO s

5

 

0 0 – 5

Years of CIO Experience CIO Tenure Frequency Distribution

16 16 9 6 3

5–10 10–15 15–20 20–25