How To Become A Corporate Executive: What It Is and Career Path

What is a corporate executive and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average corporate executive salary is $116,273. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes more than 10 years of experience to become a corporate executive. Corporate executives with a IT Information Library Foundations Certification (ITIL) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCorporate ExecutiveUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $116,273

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 7.55%

Black or African American 3.70%

Hispanic or Latino 7.64%

Unknown 3.89%

White 76.57%

Gender

female 50.11%

male 49.89%

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 corporate executive

Explore corporate executive education requirements

Most common corporate executive degrees

Bachelor's

66.2 %

Master's

17.5 %

Associate

8.8 %

Start to develop specific corporate executive skills

Skills	Percentages
C-Suite	17.81%
Sales Process	17.54%
Business Development	15.35%
CRM	8.83%
Customer Satisfaction	7.51%

Research corporate executive duties and responsibilities

Manage accounting process optimization through implementing KPI s that are strategic and realistic.
Lead restructuring/divestiture analysis of underperforming and strategically challenge traditional and digital business units helping to dramatically decrease EBITDA and market declines.
Understand the Kohl's process for resource management, change approval, PMO gating, and escalation management.
Create and maintain a SharePoint site, eliminating frequently ask questions from clients and increasing cross group communication.

Get corporate executive experience

Generally, it takes more than 10 years to become a corporate executive. The most common roles before becoming a corporate executive include internship, account executive team lead and manager.

Prepare your corporate executive resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your corporate executive resume.

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Choose from 10+ customizable corporate executive resume templates

Build a professional corporate executive resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your corporate executive resume.