What You Should Do

Fewer than 40 technology executives in the entire Fortune 500 are paid enough to be publicly reported. Here's who made the cut.

Making the Top-Paid List

1. Avoid some industries. Utility, drug, oil, and diversified financial companies are some of the realms in which other senior executives almost always make more than CIOs
2. Build alliances. Work strategically among other senior managers to become a full partner in setting company's direction
3. Hang tough. Length of time on the job influences compensation and stature
4. Lose the inferiority complex. Confidently change the way the CEO views technology
5. Talk in the other fellow's language. Use business terms to describe your initiatives' accomplishments, not technology jargon
6. Focus on what the CEO cares about. Pick out the company's key business goals and plan a technology project to satisfy at least part of each