A lead person is an employee with great responsibility. They have to make sure the quality of products or services offered by his or her employer meets the expected standards. Lead persons provide guidance, support, and motivation to their staff. They are supervisors or managers who delegate and coordinate tasks and oversee the activities of their department. They manage conflict, monitor processes, represent their team, and hire and train staff to make sure tasks are performed accurately.
Lead persons usually have a lot on their plates, and learning curves are different from the linear path of an employee who only has to worry about his or her own performance. Lead persons constantly have to adapt to changing rules in their game, and higher-level managers rarely have time to provide coaching.
With a growing amount of work load or people under your supervision, you will have less time to communicate with individual employees. Learning how to lead is not a skill you can practice on your own, you have to grow by being stretched thin in certain situations.
Lead Person Overview
Lead Person Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead person. For example, did you know that they make an average of $33.16 an hour? That's $68,969 a year!
What Does a Lead Person Do
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lead person, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.7% of lead people included communication, while 9.2% of resumes included safety rules, and 7.1% of resumes included quality standards. 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 lead person job title. But what industry to start with? Most lead people actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
How To Become a Lead Person
If you're interested in becoming a lead person, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 12.4% of lead people have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.4% of lead people have master's degrees. Even though some lead people 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 lead person. When we researched the most common majors for a lead person, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead person resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead person. In fact, many lead person jobs require experience in a role such as welder. Meanwhile, many lead people also have previous career experience in roles such as machine operator or electrician.
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Lead Person Career Paths
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 supervisor you might progress to a role such as manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title plant manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Lead Person
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
International Paper Lead Person Lead Person | International Paper International Paper | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $55,53501/30/2021 $55,535 |
Oil-Dri Multi-Line Packaging Lead Person Multi-Line Packaging Lead Person | Oil-Dri Oil-Dri | 01/13/2021 01/13/2021 | $40,25801/13/2021 $40,258 |
Oil-Dri Packaging-Leadperson, Multi Line, Direct Packaging-Leadperson, Multi Line, Direct | Oil-Dri Oil-Dri | 12/20/2020 12/20/2020 | $44,72412/20/2020 $44,724 |
Oil-Dri Multi-Line Packaging Lead Person Multi-Line Packaging Lead Person | Oil-Dri Oil-Dri | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $40,25810/27/2020 $40,258 |
International Paper Company Leaderperson Shift 2 Leaderperson Shift 2 | International Paper Company International Paper Company | 10/23/2020 10/23/2020 | $55,82710/23/2020 $55,827 |
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Lead Person Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Lead Person. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Lead Person Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Lead Person resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Lead Persons
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, ME • Public
5. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
6. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Public
7. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
8. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
9. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
10. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Lead Person
- Communication, 9.7%
- Safety Rules, 9.2%
- Quality Standards, 7.1%
- Safety Meetings, 6.8%
- ISO, 4.2%
- Other Skills, 63.0% See All Lead Person Skills
Best States For a Lead Person
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead person. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Alaska, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Lead people make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $66,238. Whereas in Alaska and Connecticut, they would average $62,101 and $58,892, respectively. While lead people would only make an average of $58,230 in Massachusetts, 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. Alaska
$62,101
Avg. Salary
2. New Hampshire
$55,906
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$66,238
Avg. Salary