Page 20 - FCW, March 30, 2016
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16 March 30, 2016
FCW.COM
7 THINGS NO ONE TELLS A NEW CIO
What current and former CIOs wish they’d known before they jumped into an agency job
BY TROY K. SCHNEIDER
The role of federal agency CIOs, like most senior government positions, has always been a high-pressure, high-turnover job. And with the two-term administration of President Barack Obama winding down, CIO departures are all but certain to increase as political appointees cycle out and career execu- tives choose to retire before a new team cycles in.
That means new hires — lots of them — at a time when cybersecurity concerns, the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act and the growing digitization of all government services make the CIO role more important than ever. And although there are talented IT professionals inside government and out, leading IT for a federal agency comes with high expectations — and not much of an owner’s manual.
FCW asked both current and former agency CIOs what they didn’t know when they started and desperately wish they had. Here’s what they had to share.
