As a department chair, your duties are both to your department and the college as a whole. The departmental chairperson at a college looks at the big picture and facilitating a great relationship between the college and the department. But a department chair will also have day-to-day responsibilities that include paperwork, guiding new faculty members, and being the face of the department.
On a college level, you'll be a spokesperson for the department. When the Dean has any inquiries or concerns, you'll be the person to talk to. You'll also need to advocate for the department when needs arise.
The path to becoming a departmental chair varies, but some requirements are pretty much set in stone. For example, you are qualified to work as a faculty member in a college. You must have also conducted lectures and seminars in your related field. There are also academic and research contributions to your profession and especially the college.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Department Chairperson. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.38 an hour? That's $83,998 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 13,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Department Chairpeople 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 Computer skills, Organizational skills and Problem-solving skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Department Chairperson, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 53.9% of Department Chairpeople have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 29.2% of Department Chairpeople have master's degrees. Even though most Department Chairpeople have a college degree, it's impossible 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 Department Chairperson. When we researched the most common majors for a Department Chairperson, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Department Chairperson resumes include Doctoral Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Department Chairperson. In fact, many Department Chairperson jobs require experience in a role such as Teacher. Meanwhile, many Department Chairpeople also have previous career experience in roles such as Instructor or Special Education Teacher.