InformationWeek

September 28, 1998

Do You Really Want To Be A CIO?

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

ike most executive positions, a CIO's job involves long hours, sacrifices, and compromises. The long hours are no surprise to most IT professionals, who are accustomed to shifting into overdrive as deadlines approach and working weekends to implement new systems.

How a CIO manages the job can determine his or her lifestyle. "My typical day is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and I also do a lot of strategic thinking on weekends," says Marian Lucia, CIO at Prudential Investments in Newark, N.J. "The job is really 24-by-7-by-365."

But Gordon Kerr, managing director at Securities Capital Group Inc. in Chicago, says it's possible to control the workload. "If you're working 90 hours a week, you're not delegating enough," he says.

Typically, CIOs don't have to travel as often as other executives or even IT consultants. But many of the CIOs interviewed for this story had to uproot their families when they changed jobs.

For instance, Greg Levinsky, CIO of General Electric Appliances in Louisville, Ky., has moved several times during his career. The most difficult move came when he moved from GE Aircraft in Cincinnati to GE Appliance. His son was in the middle of sixth grade at the time. "That's a tough time for kids," he says.

Of course, attractive pay and perks are compensation for the long hours and hard work. It's not unusual for CIOs to make six-figure salaries. And some CIOs in demanding Wall Street companies--as well as "superstars" in some top Fortune 100 companies--have been rumored to earn $1 million or more.

Return to main story, "What It Takes To Be A CIO."