When we look at big companies like Apple, we almost always wonder how is it possible that a chief executive officer (CEO) can manage so many decisions within a day? By using the concept of delegation, a chief executive officer (CEO) can prioritize and shift project responsibilities to different sub-leaders for efficient completion. The role of a chief operating officer (COO) is a sub-leader that is analogous to a queen in a chess game.
A chief operating officer is involved in managing day-to-day operations in line with the business strategies set by the chief executive officer. Their tasks, daily, entail managing vendor relationships, implementing business processes, developing internal financial controls, and facilitating market expansion.
The requirements of becoming a chief operating officer by an employer can be quite vague, given the high-level cross-functional skillsets involved. However, you can land this position if you can demonstrate a few years of experience in managing operations of a medium scale project successfully. To get this role, you can study for a business degree or even a science-related degree. They earn on average $86 per hour and usually work more than 40 hours per week.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chief operating officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $73.58 an hour? That's $153,056 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 150,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many chief operating officers 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, detail oriented and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a chief operating officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.6% of chief operating officers included procedures, while 8.0% of resumes included healthcare, and 6.8% of resumes included facility. 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 chief operating officer job title. But what industry to start with? Most chief operating officers actually find jobs in the health care and technology industries.
If you're interested in becoming a chief operating officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 43.5% of chief operating officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 35.1% of chief operating officers have master's degrees. Even though most chief operating officers 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 a chief operating officer. When we researched the most common majors for a chief operating officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on chief operating officer resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a chief operating officer. In fact, many chief operating officer jobs require experience in a role such as vice president. Meanwhile, many chief operating officers also have previous career experience in roles such as general manager or director.