It's the year 2000. A regional US bank has just brought you on as its IT engineer. Your mission: build the systems, networks, and team that will carry the bank through 25 years of growth โ from a few branches to a national institution.
Every year the bank grows, demand for compute rises, and your budget grows with it. Buy servers, hire the right people, and keep the lights on. Miss capacity, understaff your systems, or skimp on security and your reputation takes the hit. Hit zero and you're out.
Watch for the tech shifts: virtualization (2006), public cloud (2012), containers & DevOps (2016) and beyond reshape what's possible โ and what's cheap. Build your fleet from Linux (cheap, lean) and Windows (runs core banking apps, needs anti-malware) servers, and subscribe to the growing catalog of software licenses โ backup, anti-malware, vulnerability scanning, ticketing, encryption, web app firewall, DLP, identity โ that keep a big estate safe, efficient and compliant.
Do well and you'll climb the ladder โ Engineer โ Manager โ Director โ VP โ CTO โ CIO โ with a salary jump at every promotion. Once you reach the executive ranks the board sets you a mandate every year โ operational targets and, increasingly, regulatory mandates (SOX, GLBA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, PSD2 and more) that demand the right controls be in place. Deliver to build board satisfaction, earn equity and unlock the top jobs; miss a regulatory mandate and you'll eat a fine and a reputation hit โ and if board confidence collapses, you're ousted.
Each year you bank a salary (it leaps as you're promoted) plus a bonus. Spend it in the ๐ต Life tab on personal goals โ but only a near-flawless career all the way to CIO earns enough to buy them all.