Name: Steven Woods
Title/Employer: CTO/Eloqua
Age: 32
Education: B.Sc Engineering Physics
Tenure in IT industry: 11yrs
First Tech Job: Process engineer in electronics manufacturing
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Current role: As CTO, I lead the groups responsible for designing, building, and running the products that we deliver to our customers. It's a varied role, and involves spending a lot of time with our customers, current and future, to understand the challenges they face in delivering qualified leads to their sales forces. Armed with this knowledge, I work with our internal teams to guide them as they hire the best candidates and develop the best processes for designing, building and delivering software that best solves these challenges for our customers.
What's been your best job and why?
My current role. I enjoy the challenge of helping our clients tackle some very tough challenges, I enjoy the excitement and dynamism of a nascent, turbulent, and competitive market, and I enjoy helping people within Eloqua grow personally and professionally as they successfully tackle greater and greater challenges.
What do you think is the number one non-IT skill IT professionals need today?
Empathy. Being able to envision and empathize with the experience, challenges, and motivations of your audience, whether it's users of your software, clients on your projects, or people calling you on the phone. The more you can empathize, the more you can find the right solution for that audience, whether it is one person, or an entire market segment.
What do you credit your career success to?
I would have to say that the biggest contributor has been the close circle of family and friends that has always been there with encouragement and support. Taking risks requires having that close circle of support as there will always be moments of doubt and moments of challenge.
What are the top three skills a high-level IT manager needs today?
Leadership: getting a highly skilled team motivated to work in a common direction.
Communication: being a strong communicator and a strong listener both within the team that you lead and with those outside.
Learning: a drive to continuously learn, innovate, and try new ways of doing things
What's your favorite IT resource site and why?
TechWeb.com
What is the best career advice you've ever received?
The secret to success in business is that there's no secret to success in business.
What's the top advice you'd give to a new IT staffer?
Being a knowledge worker means gaining knowledge as much as it means using knowledge; don't let a day go by without trying a new idea, learning a new technology, or reading something interesting. It's not wasting time, it's part of your job.
What would you advise someone looking to find the type of role you currently have?
Start a company. There are so many things that software can do to help people at home or at work that aren't being done right now. Find one of those things that you're passionate about and do it. Listen to your customers and let them meld some of their ideas into yours. Hire great people and challenge them to be the best at what they do. Admit that they're better at what they do than you are and stay out of their way. Never get complacent.
What is the one career decision you would change if you could?
I'm not sure I would. I've made good decisions and bad decisions, certainly. It's the good decisions that lead to success, but it's the bad decisions that lead to education and insight.
If you had the choice to jump into any other job, tech or non-tech, what would it be?
I've always had a lot of respect for the work of great architects. I have always admired their ability to combine both form and function to create buildings that are works of art at an overall level, but still leave nothing to be desired for those who live or work in the buildings every day.
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