Career Design in the AI Era

This week’s guide tackles the question many tech leaders are quietly asking right now: “How do I build an IT career that actually survives layoffs, Gen AI, and flatter orgs?”

Instead of another list of job titles, we walk through an 8-step playbook for putting your career on a deliberately layoff-resilient trajectory – from choosing your lane (IC vs leadership), to building a skill stack AI can’t easily replace, to designing rotations, sponsors, and networks that give you real options when the org chart shifts.

If you’re on the fence about stepping up – especially with our next cohort onboarding in a few days – this is a great piece to sanity-check where you are, where you’re heading, and whether the Future Leaders Course or the Digital MBA for Technology Leaders is the right next move. 

Read the full guide here →

Did You Know

In the US alone, companies have already announced over 1.1 million job cuts in 2025, yet AI is explicitly cited in only about 4–5% of those cuts. Most cuts are still driven by old-school reasons: cost, over-hiring, and restructuring.

At the same time, leadership development is booming: global leadership training is projected to more than double from around $90B today to over $230B by 2035.

In other words, companies aren’t done with leaders — they’re done with generic, replaceable ones. The guide we’re featuring this week is about designing your career so you’re not in that category.

Spotlight

Learn to Lead in a Flattening World


If you’re 2–7 years into your career and starting to carry leadership responsibilities (with or without the title), this is the course that helps you step up deliberately instead of winging it. Future Leaders Course gives you the essentials to run a team in today’s environment: 

  • Clear communication with stakeholders
  • Basic finance and commercial awareness
  • Setting and tracking team metrics
  • Leading people through change in an AI-shaped, “do more with less” world 

It’s CPD-accredited, fully online, and built for busy engineers and tech leads who want to become the person their organization trusts to lead the next chapter—not just ship the next sprint.

Learn more

Recommended reading

Tutorial

Mastering CTO Interviews

A practical walkthrough of real CTO interview questions, what they’re really testing for, and how to answer them like a seasoned technology leader—not a nervous candidate. Perfect if you’re eyeing your first CTO role or stepping up to a bigger stage.

Guide

Design a Resilient IT Career 

Design a layoff-resilient IT career path that stays relevant in the Gen AI era.

Book

Lead Without the Guesswork

Plain-English frameworks, checklists, and real examples to turn business–tech tension into a productive partnership. Perfect for product leaders, founders, and execs who need to make better tech decisions and manage engineers with confidence.

Digital MBA for Technology Leaders

The next cohort launches on Monday, December 1.

Enroll Now

Trustpilot Review Summary

(based on 153 independent reviews)

Reviewers overwhelmingly had a great experience with this company. Customers appreciated the program's design, which addresses the specific challenges encountered by IT leaders. The course blends strategic insights and real-world case studies, with instructors who are industry experts. People found the focus on emerging technologies and digital transformation particularly valuable.

Consumers highlight the breadth of technology knowledge provided, delivered by experts. The lessons accommodate busy schedules, allowing learning at one's own pace. The additional resources, including Slack, expert sessions, and live events, are great for networking and knowledge sharing. The quality of the lecturers is good, each bringing deep expertise to their respective domains.

Program at a Glance

  • Outcomes over theory. Turn modules into deliverables: OKR-linked roadmaps, CFO-ready finance narratives, a shippable AI strategy, and execution systems that stick.
  • Built for busy weeks.~2.5 hrs/week. Finish in 9–12 months. Keep lifetime access to playbooks, templates, and recordings.
  • Practitioner faculty. Learn from leaders who’ve scaled teams and platforms—case-led sessions with feedback on your real work.
  • Coaching + peers. Weekly live sessions, AMAs, and structured peer reviews to de-risk plans before rollout.
  • Proven globally. Trusted by tech leaders across industries for satisfaction and career acceleration.
  • Membership included. 12 months of CTO Academy community access from day one (debates, Q&As, peer support).

Curious if it fits? Book a short Discovery Call with our CEO to map the program to your goals.

CTO Community Pulse: Highlights

 London Meetup

 

Thank you to everyone who joined our final London meetup of 2025 last night, followed by an end-of-year Q&A with Jason Noble and Sanjay Mistry.

Congrats to our tech quiz winners, Jeremy Macdonald, Helen Tabunshchyk, and Stephen Morris.

And a warm welcome and thank you to Yuichi Matsui from The Hitachi Academy, visiting London and joining us for the evening.

Final thanks to our wonderful sponsors at Mixpanel for their support this year with our events program, in particular to Anna Crisp and Larissa McIntyre for their help throughout.

We wrap up 2025 with a Johannesburg Breakfast Meetup on Dec 10, with many significant in-person events planned for next year.

Join us