Best Jobs For Former Owners [2023]

It’s tough to be a owner nowadays, and more and more of them are losing confidence in their own profession.

While the amount of people majoring in courses preparing people for a job as a owner isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become owners in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many owners no longer sticking around, this begs the question:

What are they all doing now?

We were curious, so we looked through the resumes of former owners to see what kind of jobs they were moving into after leaving the field. There were thousands of answers, so we made the cutoff at the top 100 jobs.

But given that there are some very surprising and interesting items on this list, we’ve decided to highlight a few of those instead.

Best Jobs For Former OWNERS

Some of these items are admittedly more attractive than one another as far as actually working the job goes, but one way or another, you’ve got to admit they’re eye-catching.

The full list of those jobs can be found below.

Detailed Ranking of the Most Common Jobs of Former OWNERS

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Project Manager	1.32%
2	Manager	1.24%
3	Sales Associate	1.01%
4	General Manager	0.97%
5	Office Manager	0.94%
6	Customer Service Representative	0.86%
7	Operations Manager	0.77%
8	Administrative Assistant	0.75%
9	Sales Representative	0.73%
10	Supervisor	0.66%
11	Consultant	0.62%
12	Store Manager	0.6%
13	Assistant Manager	0.56%
14	Account Executive	0.51%
15	Sales Manager	0.5%
16	Owner/operator	0.48%
17	Maintenance Technician	0.47%
18	Substitute Teacher	0.44%
19	Teacher	0.44%
20	Vice President	0.42%
21	Internship	0.4%
22	President	0.4%
23	Technician	0.39%
24	Volunteer	0.39%
25	Account Manager	0.39%
26	Driver	0.36%
27	Co-Owner	0.32%
28	Director	0.32%
29	Superintendent	0.3%
30	Server	0.29%
31	Sales Consultant	0.29%
32	Program Manager	0.29%
33	Chief Executive Officer	0.27%
34	Owner/manager	0.27%
35	Marketing Director	0.27%
36	Cashier	0.26%
37	Team Leader	0.26%
38	Marketing Manager	0.26%
39	Business Developer	0.25%
40	Associate	0.24%
41	Controller	0.24%
42	Registered Nurse	0.23%
43	Partner	0.23%
44	Instructor	0.23%
45	Realtor	0.23%
46	Property Manager	0.23%
47	Security Officer	0.22%
48	Service Manager	0.22%
49	Maintenance Supervisor	0.22%
50	Senior Project Manager	0.22%
51	Specialist	0.21%
52	Information Technology Manager	0.21%
53	President/owner	0.21%
54	Operations Director	0.2%
55	Executive Director	0.2%
56	Graphic Designer	0.2%
57	Customer Service Trainer	0.2%
58	Field Service Technician	0.2%
59	Foreman	0.2%
60	Service Technician	0.19%
61	Executive Assistant	0.19%
62	Human Resources Manager	0.19%
63	Business Development Manager	0.19%
64	Systems Administrator	0.19%
65	Accountant	0.18%
66	Production Manager	0.18%
67	Office Assistant	0.18%
68	Principal	0.18%
69	Truck Driver	0.18%
70	Real Estate Agent	0.18%
71	Agent	0.18%
72	Director Of Sales	0.18%
73	Welder	0.18%
74	Receptionist	0.17%
75	Sales/marketing	0.17%
76	Machine Operator	0.17%
77	Human Resources Coordinator	0.17%
78	Construction Manager	0.17%
79	Technical Support Specialist	0.16%
80	Senior Software Engineer	0.16%
81	Carpenter	0.16%
82	Recruiter	0.16%
83	Chief Finance Officer	0.16%
84	Facilities Manager	0.14%
85	Assistant	0.14%
86	Computer Technician	0.14%
87	Electrician	0.14%
88	Administrator	0.14%
89	Operator	0.14%
90	Territory Manager	0.14%
91	Business Analyst	0.14%
92	Adjunct Instructor	0.14%
93	Mechanic	0.14%
94	Business Manager	0.14%
95	Regional Sales Manager	0.13%
96	Adjunct Professor	0.13%
97	Coordinator	0.13%
98	Delivery Driver	0.13%
99	Chief Operating Officer	0.13%
100	Branch Manager	0.13%

Most Common Jobs For Former OWNERS

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a owner would have or being a stepping stone to a different career.

Here’s the thing about these jobs though — they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect a lot of former owners to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former OWNERS

Using resume information from our database of over 7 million resumes, we looked at all resumes that listed owner under their work history. Then we looked at which jobs showed up on their work histories following their stints as a owner, sorting them by their most frequent.

That’s how we made the initial ranked list.

To make our list of most interesting jobs, we looked through the ranked list to see if any positions:

Showed up in fewer than 1% of all new jobs
And, were not part of the 100 most common jobs in our database

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

Create Resume