6. Highlight the similarities. Once you've found the industry, company and, most importantly, the CEO who will entertain your candidacy despite your lack of direct experience, you'll still need to manage your interview. When Mike Sebastian, who was directing PC operations for the San Diego Sheriff's Department, was on an interview at TD Industries, a construction company, he asked a series of questions about the outgoing CIO's interaction with the actual business of construction. "I learned during the interview that while its business may be construction, the company lives and dies by project management and remote connectivity," he says. "I was able to show them during the interview how important those skills are to the business and how relevant they were to my own background. In the end, I got the job."

7. Hire a number two from the industry. Aegis's Sadin suggests that once you've chosen your industry and landed the job, you should look hard at the experience of your direct reports to see what they can teach you. "If I were moving to a new industry, I would make sure that my number two comes out of that industry, or I would bring someone with industry experience in," he says. "When two levels of IT don't know the industry, discussions get pretty surreal."

To be clear, many companies want CIOs with industry experience and will not talk to you unless you have it. But there are plenty of cross-industry opportunities for CIOs who look carefully enough. For those of you who have made the switch, what experience or advice can you offer to your peers?

Martha Heller is the managing director of the IT Leadership Practice at the Z Resource Group, an executive recruiting firm based in Boston. She can be reached at mheller@zrgroup.com