If you've had enough of the often thankless CIO job but you're not ready to retire, there are more options than vying for the CEO seat. In an article at CIOUpdate, Pam Baker outlines four other post-CIO career possibilities to consider: COO, or head of Sales or Logistics; consultant; entrepreneur; and university teacher.

Going for the CEO seat is an admirable but difficult ambition for CIOs. Moving from CIO to CEO is not a typical career progression today, according to Chuck Pappalardo, managing director of the executive recruitment firm Trilogy Search Non+Profit. Pappalardo said his firm rarely considers a CIO for the chief executive spot.

If you are determined to go after the top spot, there are several vital steps to take along the way, Pappalardo advises. You have to move IT to a profit center, understand operations as well as the COO does, and know how to present a business case to the other executives and the board.

"It's much easier to move from the COO position, rather than the CIO position, to the CEO slot," Pappalardo said. "It's possible for CIOs to move over to lead sales or marketing functions, which are the most likely paths to the CEO role, if the employer's primary product is being sold into technology departments."

Even if the CEO spot is not your ambition, moving into another role after CIO will likely take a shift in mindset and the honing of some new skills, Baker writes. To illustrate the range of possibilities facing CIOs ready to move on, she offers the example of Ilan Levy, who was the vice president of Information Services at Sony Canada for about five years. After leaving that job, he became a consultant, then an entrepreneur and now an angel investor.

For more:
- see Pam Baker's article at CIOUpdate

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