How To Upgrade Yourself From CAD Manager To CIO

Everybody wants professional advancement and her we focus on the career prospect of aCAD Manager. If you’re a CAD manager who wants to take your career to the next level, the logical query could be, What’s the next level? Some CAD managers move up to become design/engineering management, while others may move into IT management — but a few might opt for career is chief information officer (CIO). This position requires equal parts of software knowledge and corporate strategy which is beyond the scope of CAD alone. For those willing to expand their scopes and put in the work, the CIO position gives career rewards in the form of great challenge and better compensation though.

In this article, we will discuss how to become and advance your career toward the CIO chair.

Career Change

First things first, if you intend to upgrade your CAD career from manager to CIO, you must understand that it is a profound change that will require substantial planning, lots of independent/academic study, significant new skills, and a fresh perspective and attitude on technology management. So you have to upgrade yourself with required skill sets which include information security, strong IT knowledge knowledge, general business, systems work flow optimization, return on investment (ROI) analysis and many more.

Lets describe a few of them in details:

Information Security

The eminence of the word information in the CIO title is your first clue that fixing company information is a big part of the job.

These issues have a very strong association with IT, but in fact, every one needs a strategic decision involving the CIO. The CIO must develop policies that protect company information and direct IT about how to best implement them.

As you think through the action items, make sure that you don’t think like an individual user but as a leader who must balance what’s best for the business as a whole with the needs of users. It’s not always easy to take that higher-level opinion, but that’s what is needed for an effective CIO.

Strong IT Knowledge

Many of the CIO’s work policy decisions are based heavily on knowledge of existing network and IT systems.

If your existing IT skill set is solid, you’ll need to start a discovery process to understand how everything in your existing network is fitted. On the other hand, if your IT skill set is weak then you should take some online or basic education so that all network concepts mentioned are familiar to you. Ultimately a CIO will have to manage the business’ IT infrastructure and doing that will be nearly impossible without a solid general IT knowledge.

Workflow Concerns

The truly tech savvy CIO doesn’t think about tools alone, but also about the work-flow methods and their optimization.

Part technical expert, part user, part financial officer, the CIO must think of everything to solve the workflow jigsaw puzzle.

Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis

As you advance your CAD management responsibilities, start thinking like a CIO but using ROI logic to justify your decisions financially. This new thought process won’t take hold overnight, but it will become natural over the time and make you more effective in getting your budget requests approved by the senior management because you’ll be making a strong financial case for any future purchase you propose.

Education and Experience Background

In terms of educational background, the CIOs typically have a bachelor’s degree in IT, management information systems, engineering, or project management combined with years of in-the-duration experience making technology work. And although some business will only hire a CIO who has an MBA, more business today are hiring CIOs who can offer the company a cutting edge through strong industry-specific experience and managing technology changes rather than favoring theoretical studies.

Your CAD management experience will count toward the qualifications for a CIO position, but definitely the self-discipline to enhance your education shows strong motivation, organization, and mental skills that hiring managers notice.

Staff Management Experience

Last but not the least includes staff management. Specifically, a CIO would likely look over the IT director and staff, the CAD manager and IT and equipment contractors.

An effective CIO is can delegate tasks and effectively manage the staff. Becoming a good staff manager takes time and effort, but it is a skill that can be mastered with practice.

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