But one thing I would say is, when do MBA programs start having an IT track? Because on the one hand, we say that we must have college degrees for our engineers. But on the other hand, you can have an MBA and know nothing about IT.
Kirk Ball, the recently retired CIO of Giant Eagle, is a great example of someone who’s made a successful transition to the next phase of his professional life, but he’s observed that many struggle with this ‘season’ of life. What’s your advice to CIOs who are considering opportunities to stay professionally active after leaving their daily operational roles?
Heller: I advise these CIOs to consider, first of all, what are the big buckets? Do you want a full-time job? Do you want to be an operator? Do you want to lead a team? Do you want multiple jobs? Do you want to be on this board and an advisor of that? Do you want to travel? The first question is, What are the big buckets of what you want to do? That helps determine the path that you take.
One role that I love for CIOs who have been there and done that is an emerging one that’s been around for a while but is really picking up steam now, and that is the private equity operating executive. If you’ve been a CIO and you have the experience of being in multiple industries, you love the coaching and mentoring, but you don’t want to be a consultant because you don’t want to sell, be a private equity operating partner or executive where you do due diligence for new acquisitions and mentor all of the portfolio company CIOs to achieve their value creation plan. Now, it’s not for the faint of heart. You’re going to travel around; you’re going to be busy. But whether you work for the private equity firm itself or whether you do this as a consultant to private equity firms, that can be a very exciting and rich post-CIO existence, among many others.
Banerji: The best advice I can give is this: Don’t retire. Hold on to your operating job for as long as you can, even if it means compromising on what that ideal role might be. Operating partner, advisory, and board roles are achievable, but the truth is that, unless one is locked down while the executive is still in an operating role, attaining these positions can prove elusive. I have known too many CIOs who having been in roles of penultimate operating influence find that their professional stock does not hold up as they would have hoped or expected once they move out of their operating day jobs. Friends at former vendors don’t return calls as promptly or at all, operating exec peers aren’t as interested in their opinions, requests for content and invites to conclaves aren’t so readily forthcoming.
It’s not that the career ends when one moves out of an operating role, but the practical reality is that the number of opportunities for CIOs to commercially contribute does diminish. Despite the litany of examples to the contrary, this is sadly compounded by ageism and amplified by the misguided belief that tech is a youthful domain. If the CIO maintains the will and corresponding constitution, retiring from a career as a functional business operator is a decision that needs to be made with the utmost clarity and a clinical understanding of the consequences of that decision, not just financially but also in terms of one’s personal/professional worth and purpose.
Shawn has this Hericlitus quote on his LinkedIn profile: ‘Out of every one hundred, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior and will bring the others back.’ What does that quote mean to you from your perspectives as tech recruiters?
Banerji: We deal with so many people, and our clients are are so discerning. They have to have whoever the very best person is, and the truth is, there’s only a limited number of those people, and everyone either wants them or wants to keep them.
Heller: And then there’s the culture and the context of the company itself, which is also going to narrow it down.
Banerji: That’s been a big change, right? It used to be that a person who worked 20 years at IBM, Coca-Cola, you name it, could write their ticket to do anything they wanted. Now, there are a lot of organizations that say, How much of their success was their ability to navigate the protocols and social avenues of that organization versus being able to come here and really adapt into our world? As a recruiter, there are all these different pieces of the puzzle you’ve got to put together.
Heller: In the end, we could talk about AI and the robots, but it’s people. There are people at play here, with their human flaws and their personalities, and that’s still what we’re dealing with — which I enjoy.
For more insights about the state of tech talent from executive recruiters Shawn Banerji and Martha Heller, tune in to the Tech Whisperers podcast.
