[kingkongjaffa]

I’d like to be CTO / VP of engineering one day.

How did you get to that point?

What roles did you do before that to be able to step up into being taken seriously for that kind of role?

I’m in the odd? Position of being more commercially experienced and less technically experienced than most (senior)/software engineers. Right now I fall into wanting to prove my chops technically and building new products/ mvp’s while also guiding devs on other projects.

Obviously it’s a world of difference between a start up and a f500 company in terms of what a CTO would do so feel free to think CTO at startups <100 employees size etc.

[liquidise]

Great question and one many of my very talented engineering friends express. My suggestions (in no particular order):

1. Title inflation is a thing. I got my first CTO role in my late 20's and this was partially due to hopping on with a very early stage startup that needed tech direction/leadership/IC work. Getting exec roles in your younger years is much harder with larger more established companies.

2. Learn the whole stack. If you are the VPoE/CTO of a smaller company, people expect you to have the answers for everything tech. You pick the servers, infrastructure, code styles, architecture, frameworks, etc.

3. People are everything on a team. Before you are in one of these roles, spend some time understanding challenges people face in companies you work for, across departments. Grab lunches with people, talk to them about work. Some problems can be solved with an hour of coding a script for them. Most are more complicated, but developing this empathy and willingness to understand was crucial for me.

4. Being able to interview and hire well is an undervalued skillset in the tech industry. Involve yourself in those processes early to start understanding it. Remember that as CTO of a small/mid size company you may have final say on all tech hires as well as being the one who determines when positions are posted.

5. Grow comfortable with the unknown. There is a lot of on-the-job training for your first or second CTO run. Trust that you are smart and deserve where you are. You can figure this out.

[shepik]

I was a software dev, and then a technical co-founder, so when the idea became a company and the company grew, i kinda grew into the CTO role. But I did manage to build a team and a product, so i think i was taken seriously because of that.

[jimhi]

I'm not the poster, but this is most of my career - check out my profile and website.

The short answer is either:

1. Be willing to take a severe or entire pay cut at the start (i.e. Do it because you trust the person and believe the product and your equity will be worth it)

2. Know founders and investors and have a rich history of being a CTO / technical CEO with a plethora of launched apps to point at.