CIO wannabes need much more than technical skils

So says Ken McGee, analyst and fellow with analyst Gartner. “For the past few years, we have detected some intriguing CIO hiring trends: CIO candidates are not required to have formal technology-orientated backgrounds, but they must be able to show that they have managed a non-IT business unit,” he says. “Professional qualifications and competence are still necessary for those wanting to become CIOs, but these qualities will not be sufficient in coming years.” Gartner says it’s been talking to heads of IT recruitment at four of the largest professional search firms in the world, all of whom confirm that educational background is no longer important – it’s all about technical and in particular management experience. Gartner does not infer that formal technical education and training are no longer important. However, McGee says: “For some time, we have believed that CIOs needed business experience as well. Now we have discovered that leading recruitment executives report business unit management experience to be an actual requirement of chief executives looking for CIOs.” Incidentally, it’s worth noting that the IT recruiters agreed that experience in rolling out ERP systems meant that many CIOs were already likely to have good knowledge across the whole range of activities within their businesses.