'Every day, big, meaty CIOs are being let go... '

They may be thinner on the ground than this time last year but jobs are still out there for rank and file UK IT workers. But can the same be said for CIOs?

Is the downturn presenting opportunities for CIOs and IT chiefs to seek out lucrative pastures new - or rather, is now time to lock the office door and make doubly sure IT is delivering value for the business?

With an unsteady economy and more CIO job hunters available for hire, it's a buyer's market for companies seeking new IT leadership.

Bryan MacDonald, partner in the CIO practice of recruitment consultancy Heidrick & Struggles, said: "Organisations are going to be - and have been for some time - affording the luxury of getting the criteria that they're looking for, so they're placing greater emphasis on getting a closer match to their utopian candidate," he told silicon.com.

On the other side of the equation, redundancies have been hitting even the top rungs of the IT industry, even the 'grown up' top CIOs.

Work that CV
How IT chiefs can make the best of their prospects
Cathy Holley, partner at Boyden global executive search, recommends putting in serious time on your CV and on personal presentation. "CIOs and top IT professionals need to understand how they can differentiate themselves - they really need to work hard on their CVs, on their interview capability, how they present themselves - every little bit has got to be polished and burnished so they're really going to shine."

Vicky Maxwell Davies, partner at executive search company Boyden, told silicon.com: "We are meeting, every day big, meaty CIOs who, for whatever reason, have been let go."

"Certainly if your organisation is not doing any transformational change - if you are just cutting cost and maintaining the status quo - you don't need a grown up. So grown ups are either looking at those jobs and thinking 'why on earth am I here?' or they are being pushed out by their boards because they simply can't afford a £200k salary for somebody who is just keeping systems ticking over," she said.

Cathy Holley, also a partner at Boyden told silicon.com: "Don't start thinking about trying to get out of where you are if you don't have to - stick it out and demonstrate the value that you can bring."

For unemployed CIOs, meanwhile, the advice is to downsize expectations - both in the kind of jobs to take, and the pay packets that come with them.

"If you are unemployed, you should be glad to get a job that is as good as the one you did before… Now is truly not the time to say 'do you know I've always wanted to be a chief exec?'," Holley said.

"If you want to change your career - if you have been a CIO and you want to be a COO… the organisation most likely to give you that chance is the one that knows you and trusts you. And that is your current organisation," she added.

Despite the grim outlook, there are pockets of opportunity still to be exploited for the job hunting CIO, including...

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