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CIOs aren't CIOs for long

Written by Patrick Thibodeau Thursday, 24 March 2011 07:57

If you want a job with a guaranteed time frame, consider politics before IT management, surveys and folklore show

A U.S. president, especially after a re-election, will likely stay in the same job longer than most CIOs do, new survey data suggests.

A CIO who keeps his job for four to five years is at least on par with peers in the longevity department, if not outperforming them.

That is what the latest surveys say, but you don't need a survey for a view on the career trajectory of IT leadership.

In the mid-1990s, Frank Petersmark, who eventually would become the CIO of Amerisure Mutual Insurance, was told that the job of CIO works on a five-year cycle.

The first year as CIO is the honeymoon. The second year is about strategy and planning, and the third year is about implementing. In the fourth year they (the higher-ups) figure out that the execution isn't going that well, and in the fifth year, you start looking for your next job, Petersmark recalled.

He doesn't subscribe to the five-year limit, having held his job at Amerisure for 13 years until leaving at the end of last year. But Petersmark's CIO tenure has out distanced the most optimistic of surveys.

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