Thursday | 16 October, 2008
CIO
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
How working with VCs can help your career take off
Martha Heller 05 July, 2007 10:08:09

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4. Test-Driving a VC Career

Oh, to lead the life of a successful venture capitalist. You wake up, work out, put on a designer suit, slip into some sort of Italian sports car, drive to your office and spend the rest of the day listening to cutting-edge business ideas from today's most brilliant entrepreneurs. No fire-fighting, no project management, no users.

It is no wonder that more and more CIOs are telling me they would like their next job to be as a VC. However, if you've achieved success as a CIO, you might possess exactly the wrong attributes for the job.

"CIOs interested in pursuing a VC role should do a gut check," says Solvik, since CIOs are often paid to be risk averse and spend money only on established technologies.

"It probably only makes sense if you are more of a futurist than a mainstream adopter," he says. "If you have built your career on being conservative rather than bleeding edge, the VC role might not be the right one for you."

Working directly with venture capitalists will give you a much closer look at whether this particular career path belongs in your future and the contacts to make it happen, if you decide that it does.

Martha Heller is managing director of the IT Leadership Practice at ZRG, an executive recruiting firm based in Boston. Reach her at mheller@zrgroup.com

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