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.
“When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself” – Paolo Coelho
Why, despite a mountain of work and deadlines, despite knowing you have to leave at 6pm to watch the Avengers movie with your pals and despite dropping very large hints like “I’m under quite a bit of pressure at the moment, kind line manager”… is it still sometimes difficult to say no?
Instead of the word ‘sorry’, Elton John should instead have sung “No seems to be the hardest word”, because that’s the truth for many, particularly at work and particularly when trying to get on.
But if you want to transition from team player to tech leader then you have to build a thick skin as the pressure on your time only intensifies as you rise into those senior roles.
So how can we deliver a positive “no”?
Because sometimes it’s a lot easier to say yes, there might be an imbalance of power within the request being made and fundamentally, people are quite nice to each other and the instinctive reaction is often to say “yes”.
Saying “no” instinctively feels like a negative, a barrier being put up and with the risk of a particular relationship being tarnished.
We also struggle to say “no” for fear of being misunderstood, of hurting others.
Big thing for start-ups and entrepreneurs is that the fear of saying “no” is linked to the fear of missing out on an opportunity or hedging your bets on more than horse.
And for some people, whilst being sure that “no”is the right word to use, become anxious about to deliver it and in what tone.
No matter what the reason you’re worried about saying “no,” it’s fundamentally rooted in worrying about what’s going to happen when you make the denial.
Will people still like you?
Will you miss an important opportunity?
Will you appear lazy, carefree, or incompetent?
Will you tarnish an important working relationship?
Being assertive about what “you” need is not a negative, indeed a confidence about your boundaries and a focus on what you have to deliver, will be recognised and should be applauded.
To say “No” is not a form of expression of superiority; it should form part of a professional and honest working relationship, one cemented by mutual respect and understanding.
Like everything else in life, the way we talk can be far more important than what we talk about. Basic social skills tell you that an abrupt and hostile “No” is unlikely to win you many friends.
So here’s your quickfire guide for saying “no”;
Learn the art of diplomacy. Offer sympathy for the request and perhaps offer to help another time but now, you have to focus, you have to finish, you have to leave. Leave “no” at home.
The more you say yes, the more likely you’ll end up in a situation of complete overload.
The art of saying “no” is often down to the respect you build up within your team. If you’re recognised as a valuable member of the team who is able to deliver on a realistic workload, then honesty and a gentle response is a winner.
Either in terms of time or expertise. It’s a risk to keep piling up tasks. Even more daunting if it’s not really in your key skill set.
Oh no, you’ve been there. “I’m really sorry but ….”
Truth is you’re rarely going to be sorry turning away that request for some late night data input.
Firm but fair. That’s our motto for delivering the “no”.
Surely my boss is going to receive preferential treatment when it comes to the “yes” or “no” question?
Well, yes and no (see what we did there?).
Clearly your line manager needs to be handled delicately but ultimately they should be your key supporters and if they’re a half decent manager (we know some of them are not) then he or she will recognise and expect you to be honest about it.
If you find a pattern starts to emerge about people or situations where extra demands are made of you, pre-empt and head them off as best you can. Post clear signals about your capacity – within a positive feedback environment.
Much of this comes down to your ability to communicate, with care and respect for others. Those seeking your help might be under severe pressure themselves and rather than being overt, are shouting out for assistance. Very rare you can’t find some common ground to help. Team dynamics and success is built around how you work with each other and very much, how you communicate positive and negative news.
If everyone is aligned and communicating clearly then this article is fairly moot. Managing high performance teams is not without its challenges but as a core principle you should expect “No” to become as much a part of that winning dynamic as “Yes” as the team storms, forms and norms its behaviours and expectations. You need to be working and/or leading a team who don’t have to overtly worry about issues like this. When moving into tech leadership roles, from scrum master to team lead to CTO, it’s your responsibility to build a culture of honesty and respect.
We started with a Paolo Coelho quote that was about you being true to yourself and your instincts. For the individual, the art of saying “no” is often bound together with the art of understanding yourself, who you are and where you should be.
The wonderful Brene Brown … “true belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are, it requires you to be able to be who you are”.
Be who you are, work with the right team, around great people and you will have created a natural mechanism to deal with the “yes” and “no” question.
Further Reading : The Art Of Saying NO: How To Stand Your Ground, Reclaim Your Time And Energy, And Refuse To Be Taken For Granted (Without Feeling Guilty)
Find out more here about joining CTO Academy
“They are very compact courses, with a lot of useful information and end of course tests that makes you pay attention to every word. I really enjoyed them and plan to continue working with CTO Academy to build my own knowledge in these areas”
Ratko Petrovic, Software Program Manager
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.
Despite some progress, lack of diversity in tech recruitment remains an issue.
Here in the UK, the number of women working in technology is significantly lower than most other work sectors, with just 17% of those working in technology being female.
Story in the US appears to be better but the overall tech industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. The bro culture still writ large across most tech companies, large and small.
(more…)
As companies strive to stay ahead of the curve and embrace innovation, the CTO plays a pivotal role in shaping the technological direction of the organization.
But what is that role? What does a CTO do on a day-to-day basis?
To explain, we will delve into a typical day in the life of a CTO, shedding light on their responsibilities, challenges, and contributions. We will be moving from overseeing the development of cutting-edge technologies to formulating long-term technology strategies.
But before I get into that…
That’s a chief technology officer in a nutshell. Join me now as I explore the dynamic and diverse world of a CTO role to gain insights into a daily routine and the impact that job title has on technology and operational management.
As you will see, besides purely technical skills, technology leaders must also arm themselves with soft skills. This non-technical side radically improves team management whether we are talking about startup CTOs or enterprise leaders. In other words, it comes down to management skills and communication as much as strategic thinking.
Let’s start with the obvious.
There is no typical day for a chief technology officer, just as there are no typical CTO roles.
So I’ve focused this article on some of the daily issues that commonly emerge in this key leadership role, particularly for a CTO dealing with the business goals and technological needs of an early-stage tech startup and fast-growth company.
If you’re in a similar role, some of this may chime with you.
If not, I hope it’s an interesting and informative peek at life at the CTO coalface.
First thing on my daily to-do list: check no disasters have happened overnight. In order of priority:
Then it’s off to the proverbial water cooler (online these days) for some of the valuable small talk that oils the wheels within a team. It enables me to get more of an understanding of colleagues, even though it doesn’t always feel like a natural part of my job description.
Here at CTO Academy HQ, our recent small talk generally circulates around reports from our distributed team, knee problems (we’re of a certain age) and the latest crazy marketing idea emerging from the chief executive. Working in a startup is very, very different to large companies, where everyone is close to the action.
Then it’s back into the mix.
Attend a stand-up meeting where the approach will depend on the size of the team (there’s lots of discussion about what is the optimum size of a technology team).
If the team is small then I’m the scrum master and leading the meeting.
PRO TIP: Remember to engage all members of the team, allowing them to get their views across. Confirm goals for the day; leave longer conversations until later.
If the team is larger, then let the scrum master run the meeting. You may choose not to attend all meetings, but I find it useful to attend at least one a week. As an observer, I try to keep my mouth shut unless I need to correct any major issues or talk about wider strategy.
Doh, that rarely happens.
Both of us are busy and it’s more likely to be a couple of words whilst making the coffee. Generally, this provides an opportunity to update with salient facts and anything that is crucial to the CEO and their current priorities. Really important to keep them abreast of any major technical and/or strategic changes emerging on the horizon.
Getting this relationship right is crucial, but the time available is always limited.
Remember, also, that your happiness and success as CTO will often be heavily dependent on how functional your relationship is with the CEO. To be blunt, you’re likely to be very different personalities so it often needs work.
Right, we’ve done a disaster check, water cooler catch-up, stand-up meeting and CEO update. Next, I like to check in with customer support.
Customer-facing tasks have dramatically changed for the CTO over recent years.
In them olden days, it was rare for the tech leader and/or the team to get their hands dirty with those pesky customers. Now it’s increasingly common that the team gets direct market feedback on the problems they are tackling and the kit they are building.
I was once at a company where we analysed the support calls and it turned out that 40 per cent were password resets. The user password reset was not working but the admin side was. No ticket had been reported. We fixed it quickly and suddenly support had nothing to do!
Next, and with something of a heavy heart, it’s across to sales to find out what mythical version of the software they have promised to customers today.
It always amazes me that their one-dimensional brains come up with such imaginative ideas for products, particularly when you realise they are still trying to remember their passwords. (For any sales director stumbling across this article, the password is normally your eldest child’s name and their year of birth.)
After messing with the sales team’s heads, it’s on to a board meeting. If the investor director is attending, then we can look forward to decent coffee and Chocolate Hobnobs. Red carpet stuff.
All members have read my report, digested and understood it, come up with some thoughtful questions and congratulated me for my hard work.
Either that, or more likely I’m confronted by a gaggle of non-technologists, gurning their way through my notes and struggling to understand how our products actually work.
For a bit of fun, I might highlight that the sales numbers fail to add up and the marketing metrics provide no actionable insight whatsoever, but that’s only if I’m feeling bored. In truth, effective teams will often be competitive with each other, but in a collaborative spirit that drives a sum that is greater than the parts.
After the board, I rush to the conference room downstairs to meet a prospect who has concerns about our technology, security and processes. There are the usual questions which are relatively easy to answer but I must remember to raise ISO 27001 at the next board meeting now that we are at a reasonable size to make this sort of meeting or the long forms(!) redundant.
A sign on the door used to say “creative away day”, when we all worked together!
Tongue in cheek here — there’s always a bit of friendly tension with the marketing business unit.
They’re probably off on some team bonding yoga session or being massaged by goldfish. All of which will soon result in the release of version 2.61 (from 2.60) being promoted as a fundamental paradigm shift as we become the Uber of X. You see, I work with but sometimes struggle to understand the marketing team. Technology development is so much more tangible.
Lunch is generally a sandwich, whilst catching up with Slack and email messages.
And then, finally…
Analysis of our competitors by the product manager and a list of new functionality that we could do with. Priorities are based on user needs and our ability to implement them on time.
Lots of robust conversations about whether we absolutely need to have the functionality or not. I’m always cautious to avoid us turning our beautiful product into a user mess. Very common over time. MoSCoW strategy is a good starting place.
DevOps contact us in the meeting to state that a data supplier API has fallen over so we automatically switch to a cached version whilst it is down. Time to call the supplier and get an explanation, emphasising that it cannot happen again.
Two interviews with senior Java Developers, both of high calibre who have passed the relevant technical tests and team interviews (crucial to stress-test fit). All part of a strict employment process which means we have a higher retention rate. Everyone has gone through the process, so the team knows that a new starter is up to scratch.
Interviews with me are generally to rubber stamp as well as look at their potential in the business, beyond the posts they have applied for.
Before I leave for the day, I check that all went well with today’s schedule release.
Hopefully no issues and there shouldn’t be, as we put in a lot of effort on deployment and DevOps at the start of the product’s life.
Production releases happen on Wednesday, so we have time to roll back during the release if anything crops up. Never release on Friday. For the same reason, never have a major hospital operation on a Friday afternoon.
A day goes smoothly when the processes are working and the CEO is happy.
Home time is catching up on various articles I sent to my Kindle.
Now, I can only hope that I’ve managed to boost your understanding of (almost) everything you need to know about being a CTO and what a CTO does in a company. It also illustrates the strange contradiction of senior tech management — that your day can often be full of people and meetings and yet key decisions are often yours alone. It can be lonely at the top. Important therefore to recruit a strong team, expand your support network and create sufficient me-time for learning and reflection.
BTW: I love sales & marketing really. They play a crucial role in getting our salaries paid!
(TIP: to find out what is the average salary of CTOs worldwide, check our salary aggregator data for different cities.)
The business is going gangbusters.
The team is starting to creak under increasing pressure.
The CEO is demanding quick hires to plug the gaps.
What to do?
Recruit internally and know what you’re getting or, hire externally to find the right expertise but potentially disrupt team cohesion?
If you’re growing quickly, you will almost certainly be recruiting externally so then the question is, how do you decide which roles and which individuals can be handled internally and which require external hires?
The immediate challenge is whether you have sufficient quality within the team to promote internally for a particular role?
Being able to identity and promote the right team members is a business critical skill for any senior manager but in particular, for technology managers where people are often promoted as much for their incumbency, as their skills.
The challenge to confront with internal recruitment is to establish if their skills as team player, can translate to that of team leader, even with a small team.
This is a regular issue for fast growth companies to grapple with and isn’t just about employees, founders often find themselves grappling with growth and finding themselves often out of their depth,though not always acknowledging the fact. The CEO or CTO who was highly effective as founder, might not have the skills required to scale that company. It might be a reason that growth stalls and/or investment dries up.
These issues are why you need to invest time and training in helping any emerging stars to build out their skill set, even and alongside the business expanding at pace. It’s also why, difficult conversations often need to take place when tough recruitment decisions are required.
If you want to read an entertaining description about how one high profile tech company dealt (or didn’t deal) with this issue, grab a copy of ‘Disrupted : Misadventures of a start up’ as author Dan Lyons describes his often chaotic employment with Hubspot.
Another issue that can emerge within larger companies who over promote, is something called ‘The Peter Principle’, a concept that observes the situation in a hierarchy where people often rise to their “level of incompetence” – not good for company performance or subordinate morale.
| Good | Bad |
| Lower costs to recruit | Don’t have skills |
| Faster ramp up | Training required |
| Reduced risk of bad fit | Managers proprietorial about talent |
| Reduced time to fill role | Lack of diversity |
| Inspires others in the team to strive | The Peter Principle |
| Data significantly favours internal vs external |
The alternative then is, go hire. Unavoidable as you grow.
Recruiting is rarely a fun but is often critical and so, founder CEOs and CTOs often stay very close to the recruitment process. They have built the ethos of their company, been directly involved in the early hires and are acutely aware that good hires can transform but, bad hires will disrupt.
It needs to be a decent sized business before founders and/or senior managers relinquish close control of the recruitment process and authorise HR teams and/or external recruiters to do the sifting.
That said, the benefits of external hires are significant.
It enables you to recruit ‘oven ready’ talent and if you’re a business that is flying, potentially those recruits can bring with them some heavy weight insight and expertise.
Bringing in new faces will also freshen up the team, the conversations and introduce greater diversity. Founders and early employees are often cut from similar cloth, but the need to recruit creates opportunities to diversify and there is significant empirical evidence to suggest that diversity drives better performance.
Another reason to hire instead of promote is if complacency has settled into the team and new blood will shake things up and drive improvements.
What is important is to streamline the process and treat all applicants with respect and courtesy (a feature that is lacking with many companies and will create a positive impact about your business for candidates and employees alike).
– Be very specific with your job specification
– Set clear timelines and communicate to all candidates
– Agree an internal process for reviewing the CVs and matching vs. criteria
– Create an initial shortlist and arrange introductory calls
– Ensure all candidates are providing with the courtesy of a reply – even if rejected.
[An automated reply should not be beyond your technical capabilities and it’s outrageous that many companies fail to abide by these simple courtesies]
– Understand where an individual candidate can bring value, make your offer, give yourself some slack to increase if necessary
– Don’t recruit because you think you have too. If no candidates fit the role, do not hire. Painful as it might seem at the time, have this simple rule … “If in any doubt, there is no doubt”
– Build a repository of onboarding videos and content, to help the transition phase
– Understand that it might take some time [3 months is often a good barometer] for that new employee to truly find their feet
What is the most effective route to finding talent?
Can you do it independently or do you have to use a recruiter?
The latter is clearly a significant cost but might be able to unearth and/or headhunt an individual who might not have been in the job market. If you decide to go via the recruiter process then try to ensure that any fees are based on success. Make your fees contingent on the placement being a success and ensure you build in sufficient post employment time for a clear eyed review to take place.
The far cheaper but more time consuming alternative is to post your role independently across DIY job sites – Monster, Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Wellfound being amongst the largest.
Using these sites will require you to adopt a rigorous internal hiring process but could save you a significant amount of cash and will also enable you to see all the candidates, rather than the ones chosen by third parties.
If you can’t promote from within nor find an appropriate external hire, consider short term freelancers. The world is awash with brilliant freelancers able to drop in at very short notice and help plug a gap.
Airtasker is a services marketplace/freelancing platform that freelancers can use to find work that can earn them a quick buck. They can help people find skilled individuals who can complete whatever task they need to get done at the moment.
Sites like Upwork, Freelancer, People Per Hour allow you to find everything from an accountant to a front end developer but all these selection from these sites require a rigorous process for the right match.
| Good | Bad |
| Broader talent pool | Increased hiring cost |
| More diversity | Longer lead time [risk of extended timeframe] |
| Industry / company experience | Longer learning curve |
| Necessary to cope with growth |
Truth (backed up by empirical evidence) is that it’s a much safer bet to recruit from within but there is a skill in timing.
I’ve managed from an early stage in my career on the basis that it’s good to promote (or encourage promotion) before the person realises or asks. It keeps them motivated and encouraged to strive for personal and collective success.
If they come to you, then they have probably thought about it for a while before building up the courage. It becomes more of an ultimatum as if you say no or try to delay then they will almost certainly move on.
This happened to me when I was working in a consultancy where my boss resigned and despite being young, I asked to take his place. That was rejected and despite being offered the role two months later, their failure to understand and manage my ambition led to some disillusionment about the company as a whole. You can tell it still rankles!!
Maybe there is someone in the team that can fill a particular role, but they lack the skills, confidence or ambition?
Consider nurturing that talent ahead of them appreciating it themselves. Consider nudging them towards a management course and taking some time away from the coalface, giving them confidence and enabling them to take that step up in responsibility.
Managing and building a team is perhaps the greatest of all challenges for senior managers.
You need to be pro-active in spotting talent, heading off gaps and managing a disciplined recruitment process.
Managing a team is not only about managing people, but understanding that some reactions in work, are all to do with pressures away from work.
This article looks at our experience of some unusual external factors and why it’s important to manage with empathy
Do you know why some chief technology officers can drive very attractive salary and equity packages while others can’t? This post looks at the average CTO salary in the USA in 2023 across cities, states and organizations, examining the determining factors that affect the bottom line for tech leaders working in US companies.
Just to give you a clue, the average base salary of a Washington-based chief technology officer is $220,239 while one working in Alabama will earn 41% below the national average which is (a still decent) $113.837.
The size of the paycheck is, of course, influenced not only by location but also by company size and market share.
A chief technology officer is an integral part of the decision-making team in an organization and generally oversees the technological developments and requirements, leading, managing and sometimes coercing high performance from the technical team.
The CTO not only evaluates short- and long-term technology goals for the business but may also be responsible for finding optimal ways to invest capital and for developing policies that use technology to enhance the customer experience (ie. product-market fit).
It’s a role that demands strategic thinking, problem-solving, management and role-specific leadership skills — whether focused on infrastructure, team building, planning, or customers. There’s also a fair amount of pressure, as with most executive-level roles.
The salary negotiation will include all these variables. What we can do here is provide an approximation of the averages you might expect — though, alas, there are no guarantees.
Also note that these averages do not include equities companies often use to entice top-quality staff, offering them as long-term rewards to offset short-term salaries below the market rate. These packages are particularly common in the start-up environment, which makes accurate analysis of senior management salaries quite tricky.
The average annual salary for a US-based chief technology officer is $194,006. This is the median number derived from 562 reported salaries in April 2023 collected by Indeed.com.
As a rule of thumb, along with a salary comes a CTO compensation package which commonly includes:
The highest-paying US city is Seattle, Washington, where CTOs average $264,532 (based on 15 reported salaries).
At the same time, and, perhaps, contrary to general belief, a tech leader working in Los Angeles will bring home far less, $170,605.
On the national level, however, the highest CTO salary according to Glassdoor is $311,540 while the lowest is around $100,161.
If we cross-check the US states/cities/big companies, Google’s chief technology officers get $216.172 plus up to $400K in equities. It seems that it still pays off to work in Silicon Valley, doesn’t it? But the last reported CTO salary at Google is just above $190,000 including bonuses, so keep that in mind when contemplating the aggregates you find online.
Interestingly enough, an Idaho-based software development company, Corporate Tools, pays a whopping $400,000 to CTOs if we are to believe 8 salary reports submitted to Indeed.com.
From San Francisco to New York, the United States of America still pays the highest rates to chief technology officers compared to the rest of the world.
Wellfound reports that a software start-up CTO will make approximately $95,1K in 2024.
However, determining the expected median salary of a chief executive officer in a start-up is difficult. For instance, the founders of a company often take salary reductions as the equity they hold in the company will be much higher than any other employee. Thus, they take pain today but stand to gain significant reward in the event of a potentially successful exit tomorrow. And they offer the same to a candidate for a CTO role.
Read more about the Salary vs. Equity vs. Time aka ‘The Start-Up Conundrum’
Additionally, if the company is still looking for seed funding, the CTO salary range will be significantly lower than the average as investors will rarely tolerate big salaries at such an early stage. As the company becomes more stable, raises more money and starts to show decent profitability, market-rate salaries become more acceptable and, frankly, the senior team should start demanding them. Remember, You should only underpay yourself in extreme circumstances.
Finally, the average salary of a chief technology officer in a US start-up may depend on answers to any or all of these questions:
We advise that you consider these before moving into a high-reward, high-risk start-up.
Chief technology officers are highly sought after in the global market, with demand outstripping supply of good quality CTOs with broad management skills.
The US market is no exception.
In early 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that job openings for CTOs in the US are likely to continue increasing over the next few years with the exponential growth of businesses based on information systems.
Demand for software engineering positions and tech leaders will increase as the companies and teams grow and branch.
Growth in the internet and mobile usage, increasing emphasis on business solutions, the growing importance of IoT (Internet of Things) and big data in business operations are other significant factors driving the demand for high-quality technology leaders.
Several factors will determine your final CTO salary package. That is to say, the more management and soft skills you add to your technical capabilities, the higher your value is in the market.
Therefore, first, arm yourself with a wide range of skills and expertise that makes you a desirable leader, and only then negotiate the salary package you deserve. Make no mistake; do it right and your employer will be prepared to pay generously.
For most C-suite roles there is generally a linear relationship between the skills they develop through their career and the skills required at an executive level.
The CMO has been on various marketing courses, the CFO has been mastering a balance sheet for years and the sales director comes from the school of hard cold calls.
As for the HR director? They’ve probably had an HR sensibility since before they left school.
But striving for the CTO role requires a much more dramatic shift of skills from the comfort zone of being behind the keyboard, to the sometimes foreign land of leadership and people management.
There is another factor why the career learning path for a tech leader is often different to others in a corporate environment.
Many companies, particularly the very large ones, suffer from a managerial concept called ‘The Peter Principle’, where individuals in an organization rise to their own level of incompetence. Essentially they rise through the ranks until their incompetence is found out and they can’t rise any higher.
This results in many larger companies being stuffed full of half-competent managers who have risen to the level above their capabilities.
The rise of an incompetent tech leader is less likely because a lack of technical capability is not something you can easily hide.
Where tech leaders fall down is in the softer skills, which is often not a natural competence nor is it something they have traditionally received adequate training to overcome.
So the modern, high-impact CTO needs a hybrid skillset.
They need to bridge Tech-Product-Commerce as the role demands a greater emphasis on commercial and leadership skills than ever before.
Modern tech leaders need to complement their technical prowess with softer skills. The more senior they become, the less technical they can afford to be.
They have to move out from behind the keyboard and become outward focused on strategy, team, customers, and the future.
They need to learn the art of delegation and leave the code behind.
As whole industries have become automated and obsessed with digital transformation, true competitive advantage is being driven by human capital and the impact of their senior tech leadership team.
The demand for the high-impact modern CTO is huge and growing.
With an ever-accelerating pace of technological change, the market value and potential reward for a CTOs are significant and those who can deliver this hybrid skill set will find themselves in an even stronger negotiating position.
Those at the top of the corporate ladder have maintained a focused career path and adapted with obvious success to the changing types of senior responsibility.
This article shows the career paths and timelines taken by some of the very high profile CTOs who have worked at the likes of Facebook, IBM, Microsoft et al.
But what about the rest of the market and those aiming for CTO roles within the SME market and early stage companies?
Where it’s more about learning on the job and taking advantage of the opportunities and good timing that emerge through a typical career?
Promotion in smaller companies is often easier to attain and therefore you’re likely to arrive at the CTO role far quicker than if working within an enterprise.
In the start-up and fast-growth world. you can often fall into the CTO role way ahead of schedule …
These are some examples of where CTO appointments are often unplanned and/or unconventional …
Even for the more established company finding a new CTO is often an unexpected chore and succession planning is a luxury. Change often happens quickly, with little warning and less preparation.
For the CEO and senior team the departure of a CTO is often a change that can have the most significant impact on the organization and because of this can lead to knee-jerk reactions, decision making, and appointments.
It’s too often decided that the best option is to promote the next in line, an expedited solution to an immediate problem.
Anyone familiar with the regular scenario of a 2nd in command taking over a football club will recognize that promotions of this nature are not always smooth and often very unsuccessful.
When you’re part of a team managing your way through an early stage, fast growth company they can be heady and exciting times but fraught with constant firefighting and grappling with new challenges. The excitement and anticipation of what is being built will be enormous but, problems can emerge with if/how the founders and early hires can adapt and more importantly, how their skill set adapts.
As a business experiences a rapid change in demands it can be a particular challenge for the tech founder having to cope with new technology, management, and investor demands that weren’t part of the landscape when it launched.
What is the accidental CTO?
From our experience here at CTO Academy, it’s a more regular scenario than you imagine where a company experiences a sudden departure and/or rapid growth and thrusts an unsuspecting senior software developer into the role of CTO.
The recruitment process often boils down to something as simple as the CEO declaring … “you’re the one that knows the tech” or they’re faced with the departure of their star developer and decide to over promote them.
In this scenario, it’s often a case of when, not if, there will be a blow-up. The Accidental CTO needs careful guidance and strong support.
The most obvious point of difference between joining and progressing through a corporate structure vs. the more unstructured world of smaller companies is security.
Being part of a corporate has its challenges, but enjoying a market rate of pay and a range of perks is generally not part of them.
Meanwhile whilst joining an early stage company is exciting, it likely means you suffer a short-term hit on your income because few start-ups can pay the market rate and most try to balance the drop in salary with stock options.
Work hard today, for jam tomorrow.
We cover elsewhere “some of the realities about start up salaries” but, judging whether that long-term opportunity is worth the short-term hit is down to your judgment.
Is the package their offering sufficiently incentivized or are they taking advantage?
Some start-ups and founders are totally unrealistic about the potential of their company so you need to conduct your own due diligence on whether it’s worth the risk.
You can view it in the short term as a great experience and the reward will be a bonus. But that doesn’t last too long as you never get that time back so you need to make sure it’s the right decision for you.
If you are one of the founders then you need a significant stake in the company but make sure there is a realistic prospect of a reward and understand what you need personally and collectively as the business grows.
Don’t work for nothing for too long and don’t try and hold too tight, be prepared to bring in people who know more than you.
Finding the right career path to a senior tech role will be dictated by the type of company and sector you move towards, alongside your appetite for risk.
The corporate track brings perks, and market salary but lacks impact until at very senior levels. Does it suit you and your personality?
Whereas with smaller companies and startups, it is often a baptism of fire, with a high degree of uncertainty but an intensity that delivers a very sharp learning curve and real impact.
What is consistent across any senior tech role is the need to build your soft skills and be aware that long-term career impact is unlikely to be about your technical skills, however marvelous they might be, but down to your leadership and people skills.
How good you become as a tech leader will be down to your ability to attract and inspire the best people to travel that challenging road with you.
CTO Academy delivers leadership skills training and career development support to tech leaders from around the world. Our focus is to help them build the leadership skills required to make a real impact at the senior level and to achieve both the impact and the salary they deserve. We provide online courses, private coaching, and career support. You might also be interested in CTO Academy Tribes – our group coaching and peer-2-peer support program where tech leaders are matched with a cohort of like-minded peers to learn and grow together with shared knowledge, experiences, and insight.