Paths to becoming a CIO or CISO

The first thing to discuss is that it is likely that along this journey, the label of the actual role that you aspire to may change. The titles of CIO and CISO emerged at different times and there have been other senior labels that have been commonly used since.

The best advice I ever received on this topic was to think two roles ahead. Indeed you may have considered updating your CV with a career objective and position objective. There is usually a good chance that you are more than one job away from taking on the role of a CIO or CISO.

Let’s look at an example of how you can plot your journey to this role and the various roles that you may have to take up on the way:

Figure 3.1 – How do you plot your path forward

There is no one path along which to progress to be a CIO or CISO. You should prepare a plan that moves you forward across different roles, but it is much more critical that you develop your...