As an executive recruiter at Educational Management Network/Witt/Kieffer, Gary Posner has helped many colleges select chief financial officers. He describes several things you need to know to get ahead in university business:
- Have a solid understanding of financial fundamentals -- for example, fund accounting, budgeting, federal and state regulations.
- Develop leadership skills as well as an ability to work in a team environment.
- Know that your first three jobs will determine where you end up later in your career. If you start out in a private liberal-arts college, it's unlikely that you'll become a chief financial officer at a Big Ten university.
- Know technology and what it can do. Information-technology changes are constantly under way in universities, and it's essential that you keep up.
- Attend national meetings and talk to people who've achieved success. Having a good mentor is critical.
- Stay in a job long enough to develop a track record. Eyebrows may be raised if you worked in a job for less than two to two and a half years.
- Be involved in communities. University-community relations are an important part of every CFO's job.
