1. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,555
Enrollment
30,360
The fancy ads that we view daily, over the internet or television, require specific skills to make. Creative Manager leads and directs the design and production of visual and audio materials and media used for advertising, broadcast, and web communications. The job is to maintain a cohesive look and feel of a project, be it an advertising campaign, fashion line, video game, or magazine, by ensuring the visuals and interactive and motion designs are on point.
A creative manager position usually requires a bachelor's degree or master's degree in a specific creative field, such as marketing, graphic design, or fine arts. Besides creativity, you need humility, perspective, openness, and resolution. Knowledge of art history, design history, pop culture, and counterculture can prove beneficial as well. The rewards for the position are massive.
A creative manager can earn over $40 an hour. That equates to over $84,000 per year. The position is likely to experience growth in the coming years, upwards of 8%, resulting in massive job opportunities being created all over the United States.
There are certain skills that many creative managers 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 organizational skills, analytical skills and creativity.
If you're interested in becoming a creative manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 79.6% of creative managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.1% of creative managers have master's degrees. Even though most creative managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of creative director you might progress to a role such as marketing director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title brand director.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a creative manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general creative manager responsibilities:
There are several types of creative manager, including:
Role:
Role:
Role:
Mouse over a state to see the number of active creative manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where creative managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 6,841 | $109,099 |
2 | New York | 2,987 | $91,745 |
3 | Texas | 2,400 | $83,495 |
4 | Illinois | 2,240 | $71,643 |
5 | Massachusetts | 1,825 | $86,246 |
6 | Washington | 1,721 | $99,262 |
7 | Florida | 1,649 | $84,113 |
8 | New Jersey | 1,407 | $106,373 |
9 | Pennsylvania | 1,348 | $92,335 |
10 | Georgia | 1,346 | $77,041 |
11 | North Carolina | 1,215 | $101,197 |
12 | Virginia | 1,140 | $95,204 |
13 | Ohio | 917 | $86,804 |
14 | Minnesota | 909 | $84,543 |
15 | Oregon | 846 | $91,664 |
16 | Colorado | 830 | $78,312 |
17 | Maryland | 698 | $95,343 |
18 | Arizona | 651 | $86,326 |
19 | Michigan | 636 | $80,535 |
20 | Utah | 570 | $72,885 |
21 | Wisconsin | 520 | $72,118 |
22 | Indiana | 490 | $90,165 |
23 | Missouri | 483 | $75,075 |
24 | Connecticut | 476 | $97,116 |
25 | Tennessee | 472 | $79,628 |
26 | Kansas | 260 | $64,168 |
27 | Kentucky | 243 | $72,747 |
28 | South Carolina | 242 | $73,853 |
29 | Arkansas | 213 | $75,160 |
30 | Nevada | 208 | $86,400 |
31 | Iowa | 202 | $70,314 |
32 | Alabama | 202 | $70,144 |
33 | Idaho | 185 | $78,265 |
34 | New Hampshire | 180 | $78,290 |
35 | Nebraska | 176 | $63,238 |
36 | Rhode Island | 156 | $103,628 |
37 | Louisiana | 153 | $73,385 |
38 | Delaware | 135 | $80,175 |
39 | Montana | 127 | $70,937 |
40 | New Mexico | 124 | $80,363 |
41 | Oklahoma | 116 | $65,926 |
42 | Maine | 107 | $70,010 |
43 | Vermont | 98 | $70,247 |
44 | Mississippi | 79 | $77,715 |
45 | Hawaii | 75 | $73,347 |
46 | North Dakota | 66 | $94,226 |
47 | South Dakota | 45 | $68,369 |
48 | West Virginia | 40 | $87,836 |
49 | Alaska | 39 | $76,993 |
50 | Wyoming | 33 | $67,238 |
Madison, WI • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,555
Enrollment
30,360
Athens, GA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,830
Enrollment
29,474
West Lafayette, IN • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,992
Enrollment
33,495
Columbus, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,726
Enrollment
45,769
Austin, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,610
Enrollment
40,329
College Park, MD • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,595
Enrollment
30,184
Seattle, WA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,207
Enrollment
30,905
Minneapolis, MN • Private
In-State Tuition
$14,760
Enrollment
31,451
Washington, DC • Private
In-State Tuition
$26,756
Enrollment
6,166
Blacksburg, VA • Private
In-State Tuition
$13,620
Enrollment
27,730
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 6.9% of creative managers listed project management on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and analytical skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Creative Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Creative Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. Creativity Toolkit II: Creative Collaboration
Creativity requires us to collaborate with others, and this course helps you be a better creative collaborator. We need to be able to pitch our creative ideas so that others are excited rather than baffled or dismissive by them. We need to be able to evaluate the ideas of others so we identify rather than miss creative solutions. We need to be able to work with our teams such that creativity thrives rather than is suppressed. This course addresses each of these needs, identifying challenges and...
See More on Coursera2. Creativity And Entrepreneurship
Creativity & Entrepreneurship will help you tap into your inner creativity and learn how to leverage it for career development or business innovation. Presented by Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship founder Panos Panay, this course features interviews with world renown entrepreneurs, innovators, songwriters, producers, creative directors, educators, performers, visual artists and chefs as they discuss parallels between the creative and entrepreneurial journeys. The course...
See More on Coursera3. Artificial Creativity
Artificial Creativity explores the emerging field of creativity in artificial intelligence (AI) from a design perspective, bringing together insights from computer science and creative disciplines. In this course, you will survey the history and theories behind today's creative AI, analyze the unorthodox approaches that have advanced the field, and experience cutting-edge creative AI tools. At the same time, you will learn design thinking research methods, how to implement them for your...
See More on CourseraSome places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a creative manager. The best states for people in this position are California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Creative managers make the most in California with an average salary of $109,099. Whereas in New Jersey and Rhode Island, they would average $106,373 and $103,628, respectively. While creative managers would only make an average of $101,197 in North Carolina, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$109,099
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$99,262
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$106,373
Avg. Salary