Jay Rollins has served as VP of IT/CIO of several midsize companies and technology startups. If you see the CIO track in your future, read his advice about which undergraduate courses to take and what to do to prepare for the position. He also offers insight about the CIO’s evolving role.

Here are links to his previous columns about the CIO track, along with excerpts from each post.

Top ten undergraduate courses for the CIO track

“I was recently asked by a prospective undergraduate student what courses she should take if she wanted to become a CIO. Here is my version of the top ten classes that have an impact on the CIO role in order of how frequently the skills learned are used in the course of a month in the life of a CIO.”

How do you prepare yourself for a CIO position?

“IT leaders need to understand how they can apply technology to grow the business. That’s the only way for IT to get a seat at the management table. To that end, promising candidates that are interviewing for these top IT jobs are forgetting the basics.”

CIO modeling: The evolving role of the CIO

“CIOs are increasingly asked to be more strategist than functional department head….CIO.com’s State of the CIO 2008 found that a business focused CIO earns ‘44% more than the function heads.’ So make time to focus more on strategic areas – it will pay off in the long run.”