Career Interviews

The SDM program is intended to prepare mid-career professionals for leadership positions. At this point, my career path is leading me to be a CIO, CTO, VP of Engineering, or CEO/Founder. But how do I pick the one I want to do? The CIO role is typically quite different than CTO or VP of Engineering. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to start my own company yet, though I don't think I'm far away from it.

Even with all the classes I attend and the speakers I listen to, I get very little information on the specifics of what it is like being in a particular position at a company. So to help me decide what position I'm best suited for, I'm going to start doing "career interviews." I'm going to cold-email various executives around the Cambridge area and ask for an hour of their time to talk about their job and career. I'll ask a variety of questions about their role, the skills and commitment required, how they obtained the position, among others. One of the last questions I'll ask is if they have any recommendations for additional people I should contact. This will be a good networking opportunity.

I've already sent out a few emails and got a couple responses. I'll blog the notes from my interviews if given permission from the interviewee. A lot of the companies I'd like to talk to are outside of the immediate Boston area and since I don't have a car, it isn't feasible to visit them. However, I should be able to stay pretty busy with companies and organizations local to me.