
Ask HN: How to become a CTO of a mid size company? - FahadUddin92
I am interested to become the CTO of a large&#x2F;mid size company. I am 26. I have an undergrad in CS. I am looking for tips which can help me become a CTO.
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BjoernKW
As an aspirational goal or as an actual opportunity at hand?

In the latter case I'd say you'd have quite a daunting task ahead of you.
Without any previous management experience and existing leadership skills
becoming the CTO of a company of roughly 250 people (which is the definition
of a larger SME) might be biting off more than you can chew.

If it's more of an aspirational goal you should focus on people skills first
and foremost. Being able to present and generally communicate complex
technical matters in a way different target audiences (engineers, management,
customers) will understand you is one of the most important traits of a
successful CTO. Staying on top of current technological development and trends
on a general level is crucial, too.

As a CTO you don't have to know how to exactly use a specific technology but
you have to be able to decide which technology in a particular area will be
most suitable for your organisation.

Finally, if you take your job as a CTO seriously you most certainly won't code
or do any day-to-day engineering anymore. A CTO who still codes is an anti-
pattern and almost always a sign that there's something seriously wrong with
the company.

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gringoDan
High variance strategy: cofound a startup or be the first engineering hire at
a startup. Work your ass off and hope that the startup becomes a mid-sized
company.

You'll need to scale along with the company - in the early days you'll be
writing a ton of code, but once the company is "mid-sized" your role is going
to be managing people. As someone else mentioned, if at that point you're
still coding either you're a terrible CTO or you're working for a terrible
company (or both). :)

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borplk
Start as engineer, move up to senior, supervisor, lead, manager, VP roles.

