CIO: GSA Ramps Up Tech Recruiting

Federal chief information officers are more involved in talent management than they used to be, according to General Services Administration CIO David Shive.

"Five years ago, the vast majority of my time was doing IT operation,” Shive, who used to be CIO for the District of Columbia, said Tuesday at an event in Washington, D.C. The CIO was the “last rung” among management, working only on the “biggest, noisiest problems” in the organization. Today, Shive spends about 80 percent of his time working within GSA’s business units.

Today, “whenever there’s an emerging problem ... I’m one of the first five people they call to put out the fire,” Shive said.

And while “fire-fighting” is still a large part of the job, he has been assessing and recruiting students, including from George Washington University. GSA has also been hosting more open houses and hackathons, inviting outside developers to whip up quick digital prototypes and compete for cash prizes.

“Increasingly, we’re investing more and more of our time” into developing the talent pipeline, he said.