Chief Technology Officer– High Level Career Development Plan

From last few days, I was working on my career development plan at Microsoft. Career planning is an iterative process and it keeps updating with time. Here’s the high level plan I have come up with so far. I will be blogging more details about each aspect of this plan soon.

Long term goals (10 years): By 2023, I would like to be the CTO of a large scale organization.

Short term goal (5 years): By 2018, I would like to be an Enterprise Software Architect.

Career development plan:

Personal Traits

1. Be recognized as trustworthy and truthful person. Untrustworthy and fake people never succeed in long term.
2. Be available to team members. Work selflessly. Nobody wants to work with people who always ask for credit.
3. Be helpful to others in the best capacity. There is always a return for being helpful.
4. Undergo voice modulation training. (Learn how to modulate Pitch, Pace and Power based on situation).
5. Work on Ego-management. Be driving but not aggressive.
6. Take responsibility during failures and share credit with others during wins.
7. Avoid short cuts.

Community & Networking:

1. Participate in the discussions in the technical communities and establish a reputation for being the 'go-to' person (SME) in at least 3 technologies.
2. Build a network and stay connected with various SMEs on various forums.
3. Participate in Business and Technical Conferences
4. Identify a group of trusted individuals who can advise/suggest/mentor on technical/professional issues.
5. Mentor people.

Technical Expertize:

1. Invest in being technical SME in at least 3 major technologies.
2. Be an enterprise architect.
3. Keep up to date with the latest technologies, tools and techniques (at least Level 100)
4. Become hands-on with programming.
5. Learn to strike balance for 'time, scope, cost and quality' for projects.

Business Acumen:

1. Invest in Financial & Business Education (CTO is a bridge between technology and business)
2. Keep up to date with the trends of Industry and market. Read Gartner reports regularly.
3. Interact with various CTOs inside and outside of Microsoft.
4. Participate in business and political discussions related to IT industry.

Big Picture:

1. Understand the 360 degree view of the organization.
2. Develop a 'Trust but verify' approach with people.
3. Understand business problems and identify technical solutions. Be the bridge.
4. Raise above the organisational politics.
5. Be a strategist and articulate the vision.