In a word, an account executive is a salesperson. Their day-to-day roles include finding new clients, serving existing customers and nailing the sale deal on the head. Essentially, it's safe to say that your communication skills have to be off the chart. Especially since most account executives work on commission.
In general, you'll probably want to secure a bachelor's degree before pursing this career. Even after you graduate, you'll probably have some more to learn. But no worries because your employer will probably supply that.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an account executive. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.45 an hour? That's $59,174 a year!
There are certain skills that many account executives have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and leadership skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an account executive, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.2% of account executives included customer service, while 9.9% of resumes included sales process, and 6.8% of resumes included sales goals. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the account executive job title. But what industry to start with? Most account executives actually find jobs in the media and technology industries.
If you're interested in becoming an account executive, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.6% of account executives have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.9% of account executives have master's degrees. Even though most account executives have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an account executive. When we researched the most common majors for an account executive, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on account executive resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an account executive. In fact, many account executive jobs require experience in a role such as sales representative. Meanwhile, many account executives also have previous career experience in roles such as account manager or sales manager.