CTOs have all the fun — and money, too

REGARDLESS OF THE current state of the economy, a senior-level job in IT is still one of the more rewarding jobs a person can have. On one level, you get a ringside seat to watch the social, political, and economic effects of technology adoption ripple across your organization. On another level, you have a job that pays pretty well compared to most other professions. So more often than not you have the best of both worlds in that you have challenging work for which you are reasonably well compensated. But we all know that compensation can vary widely based on geography, experience, and sometimes, unfortunately, gender and race. The only way you can be sure that you are being compensated fairly is to check various salary surveys to see if your salary is in line with what your colleagues earn.

With that in mind, we encourage you to participate in a confidential salary survey at InfoWorld.com ( www.infoworld.com/2002compsurvey ). Our primary goal is to represent your interests as readers of InfoWorld.

The other thing we can help our readers do is advance their careers. Probably the best job in all IT is that of the CTO. Although many people have the title of CTO, just as many perform the function of CTO in their organizations under titles such as vice president, director of technology, or even sometimes chief architect or scientist.

But people who have the CTO title tend to earn more than those who don’t. At InfoWorld, we have been helping build the CTO community for several years. In less than three weeks (April 8 through April 10), we will hold our third annual CTO Forum in San Francisco. Because one of the better ways to become a CTO is to interact with other CTOs, we encourage you to visit InfoWorld.com to request an invitation to the conference regardless of your current title.

The truth is that talented, motivated IT staff is always in high demand regardless of the economy. But unless you have a title that accurately reflects your skills and experience, organizations outside your own may not comprehend your true worth. At some point, you need to think about your own bottom line and how to keep your career moving forward.

Of course, meeting CTOs is not the only reason to attend the CTO Forum. We have recruited some of the brighter minds in the industry as speakers and panelists, including CTOs from General Motors, J.P. Morgan Chase, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. government, Boeing, and Staples.com. On top of that, CTOs from vendors such as Intel, EDS, Rational Software, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, Cisco, Loudcloud, Motorola, Xerox, Vitria, and Research In Motion will share their industry insights.

We recognize that the price for attending these events in the current economy might be a barrier to your participation, so we’ve decided to do something about it at great cost to us. As an InfoWorld reader, we’re offering you a special rate of $995. Go to https://ctoforum.infoworld.com/reg995 and request an invitation. If you have already received your registration number, go to the URL and enter the number for the special rate. We’re making an investment in your career, and we encourage you to do the same by attending CTO Forum.