How To Become A Director/Executive Producer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director/executive producer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director/executive producer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.44 an hour? That's $59,157 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDirector/Executive ProducerUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,157

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.2

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 6.40%

Black or African American 7.96%

Hispanic or Latino 14.63%

Unknown 5.59%

White 65.24%

Gender

female 30.15%

male 69.85%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

9.2

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director/executive producer

Explore director/executive producer education requirements

Most common director/executive producer degrees

Bachelor's

76.7 %

Master's

10.1 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific director/executive producer skills

Skills	Percentages
Video Production	35.92%
Promotional Campaigns	5.62%
Photography	5.02%
Web Series	4.76%
R	3.54%

Complete relevant director/executive producer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors/executive producer learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a director/executive producer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director/executive producer resumes.

Research director/executive producer duties and responsibilities

Manage schedule, budget, film fundraising, set logistics, equipment, lighting, scriptbreakdowns and all photography on set.
Manage day-to-day completion activities including project planning and QA testing.
Work with presenting PBS station for projects that include promotional campaign, and national outreach.
Secure all contracts and letters of intent, and coordinate and negotiate terms with PBS for client.

Get director/executive producer experience

Generally, it takes 6-12 months to become a director/executive producer. The most common roles before becoming a director/executive producer include executive producer, producer director team lead and producer.

Prepare your director/executive producer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director/executive producer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a director/executive producer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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