Michael Kubit
Vice President and CIO, The Pennsylvania State University
I don't know that I've ever felt sort of prepared. I think that was something that I developed early on in my career, as I sort of broadened my experience and perspective, was recognizing that you don't have to know it all to be willing to commit to the journey.
Raechelle Clemmons
Associate Vice President for Technology and CIO, Texas Woman's University
The growth mindset—I'm always learning. I'm always trying new things. I'm always looking for new opportunities. Or as new opportunities present themselves, I'm taking advantage of them. And that, I think, has sort of naturally prepared me, even though it hasn't been exactly intentional.
Allan Gyorke
Chief Academic Technology Officer, University of Miami
So I started building online courses. And I was working with faculty in a group instructional designers. And eventually, I felt myself hitting a plateau. Like I knew the tech really well. But I felt like they were speaking a different language that I didn't know how to speak. So that was probably the biggest step in my career path. I went back and got my master's degree in education with a focus on online education. And that started opening doors because suddenly I could translate from the faculty and instructional designers to systems admin people. And that helped me get into a management position.
Stephanie Bulger
Vice Chancellor of Instructional Services, San Diego Community College District
Networking is important. But I think what's also important in terms of preparation is developing a portfolio of skills and accomplishments. And I had the great fortune of my first job being at a community college in Detroit. And my first job was as dean of instruction. And I had the chance to grow a distant zoning program, in terms of the numbers of faculty, and also the enrollment. I also had a chance to, while there, go to a lot of cabinet meetings. And what I was doing, one of the things I was doing at cabinet meetings, was studying the chancellor. So I took copious notes in these meetings. And I was studying the way that he would move his vision forward, in a large organization, and the way that he would think and would speak. And that was part of my preparation.
Raechelle Clemmons
But the two pieces of intentional advice that I've been given, or the two things that I've done—one is participate in leadership institutes like the Frye Leadership Institute. And that wasn't specifically to advance my career, but I think it had that effect. And the other was a piece of advice that I had from a boss early on, who said that I should be doing everything that I can as I went into a CIO career to be thinking about how to sort of develop my—he didn't call it my brand—but that's what I would say is my brand. And so, how I get involved in the community, how I think about my position, and those things that matter to me. And that that would help prepare me for sort of the next CIO gig, whenever that came along.
Diane Butler
Associate Vice President, Rice University
So gaps are gonna exist no matter where you are in the organization, whether you're moving up, or you're moving across, or you're moving down. There's always gonna be something that you don't know. And so, what you wanna do is you wanna make an effort to actually learn what you don't know, have that ability, make sure that they understand that you can do that.
Michael Kubit
Building that sort of mindfulness earlier in your career, recognizing the fact that sometimes, you just have to commit to it, right? And you'll figure things out, right, with the help of mentors and peers and colleagues. Yeah, not to be so intimidated by it.