Are You Really Ready to Play Golf All Day?
Here’s the scenario:
After years of hard work, you have moved up the ladder from being a solid programmer analyst (or perhaps you took another avenue) to become CIO. While in this role, you’ve tackled the big integration and migration issues, watched in awe as the internet changed healthcare IT forever, wrestled EMR to the ground and along the way mastered the revenue cycle work-flow and delivered over 7 figures of revenue that was once thought lost forever. You’ve been there – done that and yes, you have received countless kudos for the job you’ve done.
OK, that’s an awesome accomplishment, but now what? You have conquered all of the organizational IT issues that have ever existed (at least thru last week) and you are nearing what some believe is the age to retire and call it quits. My, oh my, how time has flown by…But are you really ready to pull the retirement trigger just yet’?
According to Webster, retirement is defined as "withdrawn from one's position or occupation: having concluded one's working or professional career". Have you decided to conclude your working career? Are you done? While some have amassed plenty of hard cash through hard work and solid investing and are ready to see the world, others still need to stash away more cash before calling it quits. What side of the ledger are you on?
There is actually good news for CIO’s that are not ready to “call it a day”.
Many CIO’s will be in a very solid position to consider interim CIO assignments, which allow you to work when you want, where you want and with solid compensation. And yes, that includes working and traveling to places you have always wanted to visit! You may get the chance to have your cake and eat it too!
There will be a shortage of knowledgeable healthcare CIO’s for many years to come and your options to keep working (at least part-time) are much greater than you ever imagined. Across the U.S., on average, over 16K Americans will be retiring every day for the next 13-14 years. Should you choose to continue working, your skills will be in high demand in the healthcare IT space. It may not be the way you planned things out, but circumstances have changed. Let’s face it, people are living longer and the economy and stock market is not in the best shape (which includes our personal portfolios). I say be thankful that you have choices.
