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• CIO Insights

By Andy McCue, 28 January 2009 09:00

COMMENT

Tough economic times not only mean redundancies but also other cutbacks. For instance, executive training budgets might be slashed so it's important to take personal responsibility for continuing career development - even if that means investing your own time and money.

John Bovill, group IT director at retail group Mosaic Fashions, says: "You work twice as hard when things are tough and it is very easy to keep your head down. But if you do that and look up your network won't be there. Constantly fuel it and work it."

The worst tactic right now is to ignore what's happening around you and hope to come out of the other side of the recession unscathed with your career plan intact.

"Take personal responsibility," says CIODevelopment.com's Platts. "Look at skills, what makes you valuable and invest time and money in skills."

For those who still have a training or education budget, how important are the classroom and executive coaching to career development? MBAs and the like can be important but where do degrees fit in the broader plan?

Many career coaches say the ideal balance of on-the-job experience to education is '70:20:10' - 70 per cent experience, 20 per cent specific projects and 10 per cent in the classroom.

"That's a very safe and hygienic ratio to use in your own career development," says Mosaic Fashions' Bovill, who recently completed a company-sponsored MBA himself.

Just be sure to spend that training budget wisely. MacDonald recently went into a major blue-chip company and found the CIO and members of the IT leadership team were spending their precious training dollars on HTML coding courses - hardly a strategic skill.

"Often people are given training budgets but don't link it to their career plan," he says.

Mentors also have an important role to play in career development. One IT director who has just found himself on the wrong end of a corporate cost-cutting exercise says: "Practical advice I wish I'd taken along the way would be to find a mentor. Or investigate management coaches - and be prepared either to fund this yourself or justify your charging up to the company."

For now it looks like the economic downturn will last at least another year or two. The advice for CIOs is: don't leave your role unless you have to; if you are made redundant, look for opportunities to broaden your business skills (but be flexible and be prepared to move sideways or even a step down); and, most importantly, don't neglect your long term career development plan.

"At the moment there's really good people not in jobs," says Bovill. "A lot of good people have been made redundant. If you are fortunate enough to be in a job the critical fact is you need to continue to deliver to the business. Cash flow and profit are king right now."