Can you be a fat CIO?

As I’ve been starting out on this road to become a CIO I found myself doing some research on CIOs, executives and other successful people and one thing that seems to come up more often than not in interviews or their list of habits is that they all do some form of exercise and from their photos they are relatively thin.  Now as someone who is busy with three young children, work and completing a master’s degree I’m finding it very difficult to find the time to exercise and as such am carrying more weight than is ideal, and so I started thinking about whether it is possible to be a fat CIO?

Although it is illegal in most places to discriminate based on the way that someone looks, consciously and unconsciously we as humans do this every day.  With politicians it is often said that if they can’t look after their own body, how can they be trusted to look after the country?  Is it possible to take someone seriously when they look like the typical ‘jolly fat man’?  Would an organization want a fat person representing their brand in public as the face of IT?

Again, despite it being illegal, hiring organizations will also take into account the fact that an obese person is likely to have health issues that may affect their ability to do their job or to continue in the role for an extended period of time.

My personal opinion is that I don’t think it is possible.  I believe that those doing the hiring will prefer someone who is not overweight to someone who is fat, whether that is a conscious decision or not.  I also believe that you need to have a certain level of mental and physical fitness in order to take on the stress and work required to become a CIO, especially if you want to maintain a life outside of the office.

I don’t consider myself to be fat, however I could do with losing a couple of pounds and I’m sure a lot of people out there are the same.  I’m going to keep trying each week to fit some exercise in, and if I can’t do that I’ll at least try to make sure that I’m eating a bit better than I have been recently

I’m interested in hearing from anyone who has missed out on a CIO or executive role because they were overweight, or indeed if I’m blowing this out of proportion and it is not only possible to be a fat CIO but a commonplace occurrence.  Please leave your comments below or on twitter @TheRoadToCIO