How To Become A Chief Creative Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chief creative officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Yash Egami

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chief creative officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $100.12 an hour? That's $208,248 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a chief creative officer?

Yash Egami

VP, The One Club

A recent Forrester report says that the ad industry will lose 50,000 jobs through 2021, with 35,000 of them already lost since the pandemic. The traditional ad agency model was already in trouble, with many brands hiring away talent and creating their own in-house agencies. Add to that the recent reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement, and what we're seeing is an industry that is being forced to go through monumental change in order to survive.

While traditional roles like art director or copywriter are on the decline, the good news is that, in an effort to reinvent themselves, agencies are seeking creatives with digital skills like UX design and programming. The rise of in-house creative departments has also meant more opportunities for job seekers within brands rather than agencies. And because of the demand for more diversity from clients and those within advertising, recruiters are making more of an effort to hire multicultural talent.

At The One Club for Creativity, we've been at the forefront of change in the industry through our diversity and inclusion, professional development and gender equality programs. We recently hosted our annual multicultural career fair, "Where Are All the Black People?" that brought together thousands of diverse talent with 40 agencies and companies looking to hire. We launched One School, a free online program for Black creatives who want to get into the industry but don't have a portfolio or the economic means to afford to go to ad school. And we're working on upskilling courses for professionals who want to reinvent themselves or keep up with the changing demands of our industry.

So if you're a recent graduate who specializes in art direction, our advice would be to keep an open mind about what kind of company you want to work for and think about expanding your skillset to include digital skills so that you can future-proof your career. Where you are isn't as important because, since the pandemic, agencies have become more comfortable with working remotely and they are more open to having a workforce not centered on the traditional agency hubs, like New York or Los Angeles.

ScoreChief Creative OfficerUS Average

Salary

10.0

Avg. Salary $208,248

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.64%

Asian 7.54%

Black or African American 3.70%

Hispanic or Latino 7.63%

Unknown 3.89%

White 76.60%

Gender

female 29.74%

male 70.26%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.0

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a chief creative officer

Explore chief creative officer education requirements

Most common chief creative officer degrees

Bachelor's

76.2 %

Master's

10.4 %

Associate

8.7 %

Start to develop specific chief creative officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Web Development	18.11%
Graphic Design	7.70%
Creative Direction	5.75%
Concept Development	5.63%
Creative Content	4.21%

Research chief creative officer duties and responsibilities

Manage all digital marketing communication outlets (email, social media, blogs, website content, SEO, etc . )
Develop and manage business-to-business PowerPoint presentation service that create new business opportunities and increase revenue for the company.
Develop all graphics and company trademarks including the logo and UI.
Provide creative copy direction and copywriting for pharmaceutical clients' internal corporate communications programs, training programs and sales force meetings.

Get chief creative officer experience

Generally, it takes more than 10 years to become a chief creative officer. The most common roles before becoming a chief creative officer include creative director, art director team lead and graphic designer.

Prepare your chief creative officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chief creative officer resume.

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