Name: Robert Worrall
Title/Employer: CIO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Age: 45
Education: MBA, California State University Hayward
Tenure in IT industry: 25 years
First ever tech job:
I began my technical career writing 4gl programs and reports for a manufacturing organization.
What is the best career advice you've ever received?
"Learn the business first, only then apply technology to solve the problem."
What's the top advice you'd give to a new IT staffer?
I tell newcomers to make a concerted effort to spend time in all the disciplines of IT (e.g. operations, development, support, engineering, finance etc).
What is the one career decision you would change if you could?
I wouldn't change a thing: All the mistakes, all the ups and downs, have been good learning experiences in their own way, and have helped me in my career.
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If you had the choice to jump into any other job, tech or non-tech, what would it be?
I love photography . If I could make a decent living at it, that's what I would be doing.
What's been one of the most challenging aspect of serving as a CIO?
Like all CIOs, I deal with a complex and diverse set of issues every day. For me personally I sometimes find it a challenge to quickly switch gears, given the gamut of topics that need to be addressed, from managing enterprise security to identifying future technologies to providing services to a global workforce.
What advice would you give to an upper level IT manager seeking the role?
I've found the advice I received early on in my career to be just as relevant to my current role. The CIO position is more about managing the business aspects of IT and business relationships than about being a world-class technologist, while granted this may be more important at some companies than at others.
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