How To Get a Great CIO Job 
 

Job opportunities are picking up for CIOs and other IT leaders in 2025, but so are expectations, with AI, change acceleration, and business transformation at the top of most companies’ wish lists. This week we published an article showing how to get that next great job as a tech executive.  
 

Key to any role is the skills you bring. And readers of CIO asked Smart Answers - our generative AI chatbot that parses insights from decades of human reporting - what are the skills that make a top CIO? The answer is... a lot of skills. Cost and resource management, data strategy, cybersecurity and great management skills. CIOs are special people. 
 

Find out: What are the top skills required for a CIO role in 2025?  

 

How To Be a Positive Disrupter 
 

This week we reported that CIOs have a golden opportunity to be more strategic this year. We said that with three key actions they can help organizations transform: hire key talent, navigate complexity, and modernize data.  
 

This provoked readers of CIO to ask Smart Answers how they can drive positive disruption. And the answers came in three: leverage emerging technologies such as AI; bridge the gap between IT and business strategy; and adopt a holistic leadership approach to break down siloes. 
 

Find out: How can CIOs drive positive disruption globally?  

 

Reputation Management 
 

CEOs are sometimes less than impressed with their IT organization’s performance, but vague expectations, misapplied metrics, and resource issues all play a role in creating this situation. This week we reported on why so many IT orgs fail to exceed expectations today. 
 

That's the negative. Readers of CIO wanted to know the positive: how to improve the reputation of IT. Smart Answers recommends managing expectations, being accountable only for what you can control, and building collaborative relationships.   
 

Find out: How can IT departments improve their reputation?