I have been meeting a lot of great technical leaders lately. Not a single one of them had the same career path. Here is an ascii illustration of various possible ways you can become a CTO. It could be useful for someone navigating their career in software technology.

Technology career path

                                                                                cto, public company

                                                                                cto, private company

                                                                                cto, divisional, private company


                                                             svp of technology              svp of engineering

                                                             vp of technology               vp of engineering

                                                             director of technology         director of engineering

                                                             director of product mgmt       engineering manager

                                                                                                                                                                                CIO

                                                                                          sr tech lead                                                                          IT SVP

                                                                                          tech lead                                                                             IT VP

                                                                                          architect                                                                             IT Director

                                                                                          principle engineer                                                                    IT Project Manager

evangelist                                                   cto, startup                 staff engineer                                                                        IT Program Manager

solution engineer                project manager             senior software engineer     senior backend          senior frontend       sr devops            sr full stack      IT Manager

sales engineer                   technical program manager   software engineer            backend engineer        frontend engineer     devops engineer      fullustack         IT Helpdesk

developer advocate               product manager             junior software engineer

                                                             intern
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