Balancing Act

The trick seems to be finding the balance point between giving yourself time to think and being out of the public eye so long it is hard to get back in the game.

"You always expect it to take six months to a year. But I talked to Simon McNamara and he said it took him two years between his last role and getting Westpac. So it's not unusual," Kogekar says. "But you do need a cash flow. You may get a redundancy but it won't last forever.

"The biggest worry is that you'll never make the role you want," he admits. "But I left Franklins and got a better job and was promoted there. Just because there is a lapse of time it's not about your skills or abilities, it's just that the right opportunity hasn't come along.

"It's a long road so you need to take care of personal things, to take the time to re-establish relationships with a partner or children, to use the time to create more balance in your life and regain your energies."

But how much time is the right time to be out of the market?

One ex-CIO who has been contracting for more than a year now isn't sure that, after such a long break out of the firing line, he wants such a high-profile role again. "Finding a CIO role isn't easy at the best of times, and after you've been retrenched maybe people look at you as damaged goods. I've had two interviews where it went right up to the wire - and the last question is: 'Well, if you're so good why did they let you go?' It plants a seed of doubt."

Looking for other permanent roles hasn't been easy either. For some he was told he was overqualified, while for others he didn't have the requisite experience. His CIO networks weren't especially helpful either. "As a CIO you have very senior contacts. I found that when I went door knocking those contacts weren't as good as I had thought - I was perceived as a threat.

"I actually don't know now if I ever want to do the role again. I could still do it and I would love to walk into a Qantas or CBA. It was dispiriting at first but once you get used to it, and you get a contract, then you make sure it's the best project. Maybe you don't want to run yourself into the ground building up someone's IT department," says the ex-CIO.

"There's not a big, strong fire down there saying that I've got to go out and be a CIO. I can handle 50 projects and work 18 hours a day - but I'd really walk around it before I took it."

Another CIO, after taking a year off, decided it was time to get back on the horse. "I was afraid that if I stayed too long out of the market I wouldn't get back in. I was thrilled to find myself pursued by a number of companies. So foolishly I joined one but at least had the wherewithal to go in on a short-term contract - three months. They wanted longer but I wasn't sure. Anyway, I left after the three months and did the big trip.

"By the time I returned I didn't care about work; the change had happened. I was confident something else would happen, which it did. After two years in another role - and I've just left that, which was my decision to get my work-life balance back - I didn't really mind what happened because it was my plan and I had thought it through."