Since launching CTO Academy, we’ve received the occasional enquiry from a CIO saying, “hey, what about us …. we want equal rights”or, words to that effect.
So we thought it a useful moment, particularly as we have a growing number of CIO subscribers, to look into some of the differences between the CTO and CIO roles.
Whilst DevOps is a relatively new role it’s one that allows visibility across the whole operation, making it an excellent route towards achieving senior tech positions.
DevOps is a development strategy that bridges the gap between software development and IT operations. It aims to develop an agile relationship between the two, so that organisations can create and release regular updates to their products much quicker than using the more traditional ‘waterfall’ development model.
So, DevOps engineers (and DevOps teams) sit in between development and deployment, making sure that everything is geared towards releasing updates as efficiently as possible. Ultimately, it’s about collaboration and removing barriers to it.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Development (CI/CD) are two concepts fundamental to DevOps – they’re what marks DevOps implementation out from more traditional strategies. Whereas waterfall methodologies worked on a linear timeline with one stage following the other, companies using DevOps run these stages concurrently in a sort of infinite feedback loop.
The benefits this offers are considerable – if done well, you can deploy several times per day using a DevOps approach, without your users having to download anything or take any further action at all. They might not even notice that anything has changed.
In today’s fast-paced environment, this type of development is quickly becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. If you’ve yet to make the switch, it’s seriously worth considering.
Often, you’ll find the term ‘DevOps engineer’ is used to refer to any DevOps practitioner, regardless of whether they’re an engineer in the traditional sense or not.
To give you a useful general definition, a DevOps engineer is an IT professional who works with software developers, system operators and admins, IT operations staff and others to oversee and/or facilitate code releases or deployments on a CI/CD basis.
To achieve this, DevOps engineers take on a range of day-to-day responsibilities. These include:
DevOps is the glue that links your various IT functions together. Bearing this in mind, it’s just as important to focus on the ‘soft’ skills a DevOps engineer brings to the table on top of their technical knowledge.
Your DevOps engineer will be running meetings, setting the schedule for releases and leading the review process, as well as getting hands-on with automation, complex software tools and infrastructure design – so look for someone who’s an impeccable organizer with strong interpersonal skills. Unsympathetic, unapproachable DevOps engineers struggle with the ‘getting everyone talking to each other more’ aspect of the role, no matter how great they are technically.
Background-wise, you can find good DevOps engineers from all walks of IT life. You could, of course, look for someone who has only ever been a DevOps engineer – though as the discipline is relatively young (12-ish years old), this might limit your options somewhat.
Both former software engineers and IT operations staff (for example sysadmins) can make fantastic DevOps engineers, with their experience elsewhere in the IT function providing real-world knowledge that can inform their cooperation between the two better.
We work with lots of ambitious DevOps aiming to progress their career and we understand the skills required for you to achieve the career you deserve. For more information about how CTO Academy help please visit our website.
We’re often asked to explain the difference between the roles defined as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO).
A distinction between the two can be confusing and there is often crossover but the easiest way to define the difference is that the CIO is looking inwards and is responsible for the technologies that help run the business itself, whilst the CTO is outward looking with a focus on creating technology for the customer and the market.
Chief Information Officer
Chief Technology Officer
We might be called CTO Academy but we often work with CIO’s especially as their role is changing rapidly and becoming ever more strategic. It’s why the modern and effective CIO needs to build a broad range of management and softer skills that go way beyond traditional expectations of the role.
To find out more about how CTO Academy can help, please visit our website.
We talk with tech leaders, managers and developers from around the world and at different stages of their career.
Our focus is on helping an individual understand where they want to go, and building out the skill set required to get them there.
Generally this is shaped around a career development strategy and putting in place a learning programme and multiple actionable steps towards achieving the role and life they want.
There are so many variables within the requirements, aspirations and purpose for each individual that no conversation is the same, no advice is duplicated and no career plan a photocopy of another.
But one discussion that does generally result in the same advice each time, is how to deal with a toxic job and working environment.
In short … Stay calm, Plan deep, Leave quick.
Toxic Work Environments
Toxic work environments build from a number of factors.
As with most cultural issues, it generally comes down from the top.
Your immediate problem might be an individual line manager or hot shot colleague or unfriendly clique but that’s not where the problem stems. That culture has been allowed to build because of a failure and/or encouragement from the very top.
And unless you’re at the top then your ability to change that environment is extremely limited and you’re probably stuck with it, at least in the medium term.
So, the question has to be asked.
Is it worth enduring?
Surely life is too short?
Is most of your Sunday consumed with dread about having to go back to work on Monday, your mind full of drafting that long overdue resignation letter?
Do you feel that no matter what you do, how many hours you throw at them, or how you adopt and adapt to all the latest top down dictats, nothing changes?
If you’re suffering, then so is everyone in your immediate circle. Colleagues, subordinates and most importantly, loved ones. They’re the ones vicariously getting your unhappiness and stress in the neck and no-one is seeing the best of you.
What Is Stopping You?
Don’t be limited by “it’s the best I can get” or “I can endure it” etc.
It’s almost certainly not and why should you when the boss, company or board that you’re slavishly hoping will change, almost certainly won’t.
They might deliver short term ‘empty gestures’ to buy more of your time, but time is something you can least afford to lose and you don’t want to suffer from burnout.
Some people get so frustrated that they walk and deal with the consequences later. That can be a wonderfully liberating sensation but, it clearly comes with a significant health warning that dealing with the consequences of a hasty decision has its own risks.
Choosing to stay or leave must be based on what you expect for yourself, not what anyone else demands or expects. What are your boundaries? Which environment do you flourish in best? What is stopping you from moving and even more dramatically, a complete re-invention.
Much of this process is about transforming your mindset and perception of what you deserve. The long term damage being inflicted on your self esteem and mental health of staying within a toxic job is far greater than the short term hit of salary, status or that you want to ‘fix it’.
Don’t Get Angry, Get A Plan
And if you are enduring those restless sunday nights, you’re clearly far from alone.
A recent survey, conducted by the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Harris Poll, included 2,000 workers who left their tech jobs over the previous three years, and of them, 37% reported leaving due to unfairness or mistreatment.
In fact, mistreatment was the single largest reason for leaving a company. In contrast, only 22% said they quit their jobs because they were recruited away by a better opportunity.
So it’s clearly time to ditch those Sunday night blues and go find something you love.
Energy goes where your focus goes and from now on, your focus should not be about fighting it but instead, replacing it with something you love.
You don’t want to rush into another poor employment fit, nor do you want to endure this for much longer so instead, you need to start scoping what you really want from work, from life, from yourself. Pour your energy into planning your way out and towards a culture, company and environment where you can thrive and reclaim your sunday nights.
And your self esteem might need some TLC so take some time out, a few steps back. Your current environment does not define you, it might be affecting you, but it does not define you.
What is required is a clear head and focus on what can replace this. Channel the frustration you feel now into visualising where you want to be tomorrow.
Understand what you really need and start focusing on how you can make it happen.
WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS?
Join CTO Academy where courses include modules on Leadership and Personal Development.
Find out more here.
“I came across the CTO Academy when searching for CTO Training material. Whilst browsing the website, I realised they offer a mentoring service and I decided to make use of the same. I had a few mentoring sessions and they helped me to develop my personal brand. They also helped me to express myself in an engaging manner and made me clear with respect to the direction that I would like to follow. Thank you CTO Academy”
– Anjali Subburaj, Software Architect, London
The very best tech leaders are certainly in demand lately, but what is the median CTO salary in UK and what does it involve? In this post, we are examining the median salaries of chief technology officers in the United Kingdom with and without compensation packages, and comparing the national average with a few selected cities that pay the highest.
Historically, a chief technology officer was the least defined C-suite executive role. However, with such rapid technological change, it has now become one of the most important. To make things more challenging, a software engineer can become an executive officer overnight and, thus, must be ready to cope with a brand-new job description.
It’s also the role that most of our customers hold or aspire to achieve and when they ask us for assistance, it generally revolves around the following key outcomes:
What does a UK-based chief technology officer compensation package entail?
As a rule of thumb, companies’ reward for senior roles is wrapped up in compensation packages where the low market-rate salary of today can be offset by attractive stock and equity options for tomorrow. In other words, the base salary may seem puny but add the rest from the package and you end up with decent money each month.
The UK-based technology officer salary range varies depending on factors such as education, experience, sector, and location.
According to Payscale, the average UK salary for a CTO is now (on Oct. 21, 2024) £99,993, while Indeed sets it at £90,437 (based on 404 salary reports).
Entry-level CTOs, however, can expect to make £73,697 per year on average.
However, Payscale also indicates that total packages, including base, bonus and profit share can range from £51,000 up to £175,000. So, knowing the average is interesting, but barely scratches the surface.
It is no great surprise that the average salary increases precipitously with experience. People with over 10 years of experience can earn up to 50 per cent more than someone with less than four years in the job.
Additionally, location makes a massive difference in the UK, with chief technology officer positions based in London unsurprisingly attracting the highest averages.
Sites like Morgan McKinley, Payscale, Indeed and Salary Expert arrive at slightly different outcomes in their analysis of an average London CTO salary.
The average figures range from £98,192 (Glassdoor) to £103,645 (Salary Expert) and £106,963 (Payscale). The packages vary according to the additions included.
The differences between entry-level CTO positions and the most senior levels range between:
According to Indeed, if you’re based outside London you want to be living in Leeds or Southampton because average salaries there don’t appear to be far short of the capital (though I’d like to see the dataset used because the figures don’t chime with what we see on the ground)
We view the Cambridge average salary in particular with a little scepticism.
It’s recorded very differently by Payscale at £92,500 and anecdotal evidence from that vibrant region (packed with hi-tech, fast-growth companies) suggests that any company offering less than £70k for a chief technology officer will either be moribund or stacking the offer with very attractive benefits and stock options.
Determining the reward structure at start-ups is even trickier because the chief technology officer and senior team are often paid below (sometimes well below) market rate based on work today, jam tomorrow.
You also need to consider what stage the company is at with fundraising.
If the company is looking for seed funding, then the tech founder/leader is likely to be getting paid half or worse than their market rate.
Additional factors determining the earnings are the overall health of cash flow and the direct impact the chief technology officer brings to business growth. Everything is negotiable but never more so at the early stages of a company set-up, particularly if much of early success relies on the technical direction and execution provided by the CTO.
Generally speaking, for an early-stage company with a Series A round, you’d expect the CTO salary to be about £80,000-£90,000 per year with stock options and other perks helping to soften that reduction in the standard market rate.
Reed is a great source for data on median salaries across all roles and levels.
In their 2022 technology salary guide they detail a wide range of roles including data on the following non-CTO leadership positions in the United Kingdom:
CIO salary
IT Director
Head of IT
The tech field remains frustratingly male-dominated.
According to 205 survey responses on a PayScale survey, there are 96 men for every four women.
This needs to change because diversity is great for any business and sorely needed in tech.
This is why we’re delighted to support organisations like the School of Code which promotes greater diversity in tech. Judging by its last cohort with a 50/50 split, it’s practising what it preaches.
The problem with anything average, is, who wants to be average?
We work with UK-based CTOs attracting significantly more than the salaries indicated above, though, as mentioned, many of the truly breath-taking packages are wrapped up in the wider success of the particular company.
So, reward comes down to two key factors.
1. Enhancing your market value so you dictate terms, rather than accept the average;
2. Finding a company with sufficient ambition to realize your full potential.
And you enhance your market value by the impact you’re able to make in a senior role, which will be driven by leadership rather than technical skills.
Business analysts are responsible for bridging the gap between IT and the business using data analytics to assess processes, determine requirements and deliver data-driven recommendations and reports to executives and stakeholders.
They engage with business leaders and users to understand how data-driven changes to process, products, services, software and hardware can improve efficiencies and add value. They must articulate those ideas but also balance them against what’s technologically feasible and financially and functionally reasonable. Depending on the role, you might work with data sets to improve products, hardware, tools, software, services or process.
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a nonprofit professional association, considers the business analyst “an agent of change,” writing that business analysis “is a disciplined approach for introducing and managing change to organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits.”
They are responsible for creating new models that support business decisions by working closely with financial reporting and IT teams to establish initiatives and strategies to improve importing and to optimise costs. You’ll need a strong understanding of regulatory and reporting requirements as well as plenty of experience in forecasting, budgeting and financial analysis combined with understanding of key performance indicators.
Business analysts don’t always have a traditional route to becoming a tech leader, so our courses provide you with an excellent platform to build the management skills required in the senior roles. We can also provide short and long term coaching to help you negotiate a road map to the career you deserve. For more information visit here.
We define an Accidental CTO as someone who is typically working within an early stage, fast growth company and who has fast tracked into a CTO role. One of our CTO Academy members calls it the “Ahead of Schedule” CTO and has written a blog about his own experience.
These individuals might have started as a founder or senior developer but the role and business have grown so rapidly it’s become almost by default, a more complex quasi or full CTO position.
People in this situation face a range of new challenges, many of which are outside their existing skill set so it’s a steep learning curve as they grapple with process, hiring, time management and just trying to lead a rapidly growing and under pressure team.
They can feel out of their depth and the imposter syndrome looms large as they’re suddenly in the spotlight and potentially working one of the most pivotal roles for that company.
They’re often working crazy hours, slightly offset by an equity stake in the company but that’s the promise of jam tomorrow and a lot of work today.
They’re also the tech leader persona we work with most here at CTO Academy so if you fit this category, we have the support you need. For more information visit here.
Generally it’s true that project managers in tech companies should have a technical background because the project manager is communicating with engineers, designers, programmers, stakeholders, executive leaders, and key decision makers across the organisation, which in a high-tech company (and let’s face it, most companies are tech companies these days).
Can you run a project if you do not understand the technology behind it, services, and its purpose of why they are developing that product, software, apps, or whatever that interconnects with that project?
Getting into a project that you do not have a clear understanding of what is it all about is a recipe for project failure.
But to have a real impact it should be a more rounded role that combines the technical with wider financial aspects, imperatives, ROIs, budget constraints, understanding the impact of that project in the order to become a product and change manager.
It is not just about cajoling the stakeholders and entering some numbers. It is about understanding the concept more holistically and why hitting the budget and delivering the project on time is always a top priority.
The why’s of why’s, and also the what’s must be addressed consequentially and consistently so that you always have successful project(s).
Project managers are amongst the most engaged community on our platform because they have already developed a managerial skill set.
But many understand they have gaps of knowledge that need improvement for them to reach senior tech leaderships roles, and achieve the career and income they want.
Want to find out more about CTO Academy and how we’re helping project managers around the world to accelerate their careers?
You do, well that’s the correct answer.
We provide online leadership courses, coaching, and community to global technology leaders.
Our executive leadership course is The Digital MBA for Technology Leaders and is attracting praise and technology leaders from around the world
If interested in finding out more, follow the link above and/or book a discovery call with one of our Senior Team.
Book that call here.
if this were a term included in the Oxford Dictionary of Terms, it might read something like …
We coined this phrase in the early days of CTO Academy as we worked with many individuals who fell into one or both of these categories.
So this article looks at what we define as an ‘Accidental CTO’ and some of the managerial challenges they face when grappling with a fast growth environment
Why do we turn up for work? Why do we burn that midnight hour trying to breath life into an invisible start up?
Altruism, the craic or just those (soon to be restricted) free beers from the We Work fridge?
Maybe for you it’s some or none of the above but, what it should be is a project that is a mixture of challenging, intellectually stimulating and ultimately, rewarding.
Ah, yes, the filthy lucre which let’s face it (despite all those who say “I’m in it to change the world”) is normally the driving force as you seek a handsome reward after, to offset the financial pain during.
(more…)