Becoming a CTO requires the development of your internal and external skills. Today we’re going to look at how you, as a developer, can make that jump into that C-level CTO position. Let’s dive straight in!
Who is a CTO?
A Chief Technology Officer is a C-level executive who supports the company’s operations with technical solutions. The CTO decides on tools and technologies, security procedure development and algorithm development.
The CTO also examines the company’s long and short-term needs and utilises capital to make investments designed to help it reach its objectives. CTO is the highest technology executive position within a company and leads the technology and engineering department.
How to go from Developer to CTO?
Going from developer to CTO is a raggy road. Before you seek the CTO opportunity, make sure you have what it takes or are willing to acquire the necessary skillset. Being CTO is quite challenging; it’s more than just writing good code but requires extensive technical knowledge, better communication skills, a strategic mindset, soft skills like problem-solving, digital literacy, critical thinking and more. These skills will help you as the CTO execute your duties and responsibilities.
As a C-level executive, CTO means the job is essential to the company structure and operations. When you take on this role, it’s not about technical aspects of the business, finding new solutions or writing good code, but you also must have a business mindset. Make business decisions based on facts and analysis.
Suppose you’re a developer with the required skills, experience, and a positive attitude toward becoming a CTO. It would be best if you considered some of these approaches from developer to CTO, as discussed below.
- Exit your comfort zone
You can’t be a good CTO if just a developer is all you do. A CTO’s primary responsibilities rotate around three fields, that’s to say, business (finance and income), product (what to deliver) and technology (how to provide the product). To orchestrate these three fields requires you to leave your keyboard and get more involved in the business’s daily operations.
Such a breadth of responsibilities calls for flexibility. You must broaden your mind and broaden your thinking to see beyond software programming. You don’t have to be a professional in these fields. Still, you can acquire the basic knowledge through making consultations or offering to help out fellow employees even if they’re from another department.
Action tip: Work on projects connected to business development and administration; here, you can learn more business perspectives and skills. Move around various offices in the company offering your help and making consultations. With time, you’ll have more comprehensive views and perspectives on different issues.
- Be ready to mentor and lead the team
It takes a team to build good software, and the best way to become a good CTO who oversees this team is to be a team player and a leader. This does not mean you should be bossing people around but instead, work to better understand your colleagues. Try as much as possible to find solutions to complex issues, observe the strengths and weaknesses of every member, advise them accordingly and teach them something new so you can achieve better results. Being a team player or leader means engaging yourself with work beyond your own. This helps you understand your colleagues better and give you a vivid picture of how to address the challenges faced by the company.
Action tip: Be a good listener, give time to the ideas they bring to the table, listen to their complaints and in case of a conflict, don’t take sides but be neutral. Exercise proper communication, ensure that everyone understands your point and let your team members know what you expect from them.
- Start your own business
One of the most straightforward approaches is to set up your own software development business and appoint yourself as the CTO. This company can either be a startup or a large corporation and require sufficient funds to run. If the business is a startup, you’ll need fewer experiments to run it as the CTO. As for a large corporation, being the CTO will require a distinguished set of skills, such as extensive technical knowledge, critical thinking or problem-solving. Remember that your business must have something valuable it brings to the customer. Becoming CTO in your company is much more effective. That’s to say, since you own the company, you have the bigger picture and know how you want the business to operate. Therefore, you’ll learn how to address any technical issues when they arise.
Action tip: Look for friends or partners with the same passion as you, solicit funds and start your own business from scratch. Or you could buy an already established company, which will require a large sum of money. Before starting the business, ensure you’ve done enough research about the business because the last thing you want is to go into a business with little or no industry knowledge.
- Learn to move on
As a developer, always look forward to moving to a C-level position such as CTO. Would you consider taking on a job with less coding and more business strategies, leadership and company culture? If yes, you must learn to move as you’ll no longer write code when you become CTO. For others, it happens gradually over time.
You write every line of code when you’re a developer because it’s your job. Still, when you become a CTO, you move from coding to hiring and screening candidates, overseeing the duties and operation of the team, data science and data-driven aspects of online marketing. Say you turn out to be CTO and still work close to code. Ensure you keep a distance from the sophisticated and complicated work that makes up a developer’s day-to-day life. Being CTO means being that person with a more open mind and a broader picture and seeing one to two steps ahead.
Action tip: Understand the roles required of you as a CTO. Once you’ve understood the position’s functions, gain the necessary skills and knowledge to operate fully as a CTO. Being a former developer, you’re well versed in technical knowledge and skills. You can acquire interpersonal skills by yourself. However, when it comes to business know-how, you’ll have to learn from an experienced person within the company.
- Gain experience
CTOs ought to have a technical background in understanding the principles of technology. It takes you, a software developer, a long time to become a CTO because you need to have held technical and leadership positions. To build your technical background, you must be a developer for at least five years. This will help you gain experience in solving technical issues and widen your business scope. Organizations depend on their CTOs to understand and solve complexities within the company and ensure that the company has the right people to address any concerns. To be able to execute such duties, you must have enough experience.
Action tip: First, acquire a bachelor’s degree in a computer science field. This will provide you with the base knowledge required to start your journey as a CTO. You may proceed by getting a job as a developer at any company you desire. This will give you the knowledge to overcome technical issues, find solutions and improve your communication and leadership skills.
Conclusion
After some good training, every software developer has a chance to become a CTO. The most important thing is to know how and what to do when given this position. Some developers are unwilling to give up writing code and programming, which is okay because the industry also needs highly skilled developers. If you feel you can thrive and prove yourself in this C-level position, consider the approaches above on going from developer to CTO.
