Career Interviews

The SDM program is intended to prepare mid-career professionals for leadership positions. At this point, my career path is leading me to be a CIO, CTO, VP of Engineering, or CEO/Founder. But how do I pick the one I want to do? The CIO role is typically quite different than CTO or VP of Engineering. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to start my own company yet, though I don't think I'm far away from it.

Even with all the classes I attend and the speakers I listen to, I get very little information on the specifics of what it is like being in a particular position at a company. So to help me decide what position I'm best suited for, I'm doing several "career interviews." I'm cold-emailing various executives around the Cambridge area and asking for an hour of their time to talk about their job and career. I'll ask a variety of questions about their role, the skills and commitment required, how they obtained the position, among others. One of the last questions I'll ask is if they have any recommendations for additional people I should contact. This also will be a good networking opportunity.

Below are the people that have been kind enough to respond to my inquiry and allow me to interview them:

Al Essa (tbd)

Dr. Jerrold M. Grochow (Oct 31)