CIO — What makes a cool job? Sometimes it's the perks. But for technologists, it's the tech at their disposal—not to mention what they get to do with it—that really makes the work exciting and their friends envious.

Below, four IT leaders from different industries describe why their jobs are totally awesome—and worth the long hours and inevitable headaches.

Are you jealous? Or is your job even more righteous than these? Post a comment to add your story.

• Vail Resorts
• Robert Urwiler
• CIO
• Broomfield, Colo.
• Why it's cool: Urwiler and his team at Vail Resorts get unlimited ski passes, lodging and gear discounts, and a view of the Rockies from their office windows. These perks have a purpose: By immersing themselves in the resort, Urwiler and his IT managers can use this firsthand knowledge to improve their customers' visits. "Our job as a technology team includes enabling an exceptional guest experience in all aspects of the interaction," Urwiler says, from "contemplation" (by providing information to help plan a trip) through "reminiscing" (tools to help customers remember their vacations). Their ability to identify high-priority technology or process initiatives from the slopes enables a more efficient operation. Who would argue?
• Cool project: RFID-enabled lift passes.
• The trade-offs: None, Urwiler says, as long as he maintains a proper perspective. "We are not under the illusion that we are on vacation. We are encouraged to sample the product when we can in order to gain a better understanding of the guest experience." And sampling new ski equipment at a picturesque lodge isn't a bad way to spend a working weekend.
• How Urwiler stays cool: He loves his job. "This is the most exciting business in which I have ever worked in terms of the potential to add real value to the company and directly impact the guest experience."

• Virb
• Mitchell Pavao
• Partner, CIO, COO, Lead Developer
• Boston, Mass.
• Why it's cool: As the head of IT for Virb, Pavao runs technology for PureVolume.com, a social networking site for musicians (500,000 so far, mostly of the rock genre) to promote themselves and their music. He grooves to the capabilities provided by open-source technologies to enable musicians to dynamically interact with their audiences. "One of the things that sets us apart is our strong focus on the user interface and the marriage between design layout and good programming," Pavao says. Plus, he gets to meet up-and-coming stars—bands such as Paramore and Boys Like Girls—who are gaining a following because of the site.
• Cool project: They're all cool.
• The trade-offs: Working for a startup he launched with a couple of friends means Pavao has no one to delegate to. He's on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year because if any network problems occur, they need to be remedied immediately.
• How Pavao stays cool: As the Rolling Stones might put it, he's free to do what he wants. A flexible work day, "and the ability to explore things in a way I find interesting, make it all worth it," he says.

• Special Olympics International
• André V. Mendes
• Global CIO
• Washington, D.C.


• Why it's cool: Mendes travels the globe to oversee the technology for Special Olympics events—and gets the satisfaction of doing something good for the world in the process. The competitions, such as the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games that took place in Shanghai in October, are among the largest sporting events in the world. Mendes supplied technology to support 7,500-plus athletes, 20,000 family members and more than 50,000 volunteers during a three-week period. "The sporting and hosting venues were spread over 2,250 square kilometers and were connected to a data center via a high-speed fiber interconnect that made all of our IT applications available everywhere," Mendes says.
• Cool project: RFID technology tracks the location of every athlete, controls access to sporting venues and, via GPS, logs the location of every official vehicle—including buses, limos and cars—from a central command center.
• The trade-offs: Working across time zones and dealing repeatedly with language and cultural barriers is exhausting. But it's worth it. "I get to do that on behalf of one of the most underserved populations in the world, which does not happen very often."
• How Mendes stays cool: "One has to constantly remind oneself that there is a higher calling than money when you do a job like this, and that brings along not only great emotional rewards but also an expectation for doing much more with much less. More than I ever thought possible gets accomplished every day with far less than I could even imagine. But as any marathoner will tell you, there can be much joy in exhaustion once you get to the finish line."

• Stardock
• Kris Kwilas
• VP of Technology
• Plymouth, Mich.
• Why it's cool: Stardock distributes the award-winning game series Galactic Civilizations and makes a suite of desktop enhancements, Object Desktop, that improve the look, feel and function of Windows. "There isn't another company on the planet where I can work on cutting-edge desktop enhancements, award-winning video games and delivering content and solutions to customers on weekly basis," Kwilas says.
• Cool project: In conjunction with partners in industries such as automotive, higher education and—on deck— the NHL and the NBA, he's creating desktops with customized gadgets, icons, skins and wallpapers for various brands and teams.
• The trade-offs: Kwilas works long hours and wears many hats. "At various times of the year, the definition of weekend for me becomes sleep an extra hour or two and work an hour or two less," he says.
• How Kwilas stays cool: Virtualization technology. "We're still in the early phases of rolling this out for our data center infrastructure, but in conjunction with [Network Attached Storage] and other storage technologies, it's been a sea change in terms of how we look at provisioning."