Have you ever wondered how to become a manager or even a chief executive officer, just out of college, with no experience? Well, a more practical pathway is to consider becoming a management trainee. This program, offered by companies, usually lasts between one and two years and allows a fresh grad to experience the nuts and bolts of an organization's operations.
During the program, a management trainee will rotate between different departments such as finance, marketing, and sales to understand how they operate independently and collectively. Their tasks include attending meetings, learning about dispute resolution, shadowing senior staff, participating in workshops as well as understanding policies and processes of the organization.
Employers require management trainees to be in pursuit of or have completed a bachelor's degree in a related field. This role earns, on average, $20 per hour and suits individuals who enjoy doing business and learning the art of resource management.
Management Trainee Overview
Management Trainee Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a management trainee. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.99 an hour? That's $43,667 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -276,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Management Trainee Do
There are certain skills that many management trainees 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 interpersonal skills, organizational skills and writing skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a management trainee, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.9% of management trainees included communication, while 14.4% of resumes included management training program, and 13.9% of resumes included customer service. 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 management trainee job title. But what industry to start with? Most management trainees actually find jobs in the retail and finance industries.
How To Become a Management Trainee
If you're interested in becoming a management trainee, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 66.2% of management trainees have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 19.4% of management trainees have master's degrees. Even though most management trainees 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 management trainee. When we researched the most common majors for a management trainee, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on management trainee resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a management trainee. In fact, many management trainee jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many management trainees also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or customer service representative.
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Management Trainee Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a management trainee can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as account executive, progress to a title such as sales manager and then eventually end up with the title district manager.
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Average Salary for a Management Trainee
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Enterprise Holdings Management Trainee Management Trainee | Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $43,00001/27/2021 $43,000 |
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Management Trainee Management Trainee | Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $43,00001/27/2021 $43,000 |
Enterprise Holdings Management Trainee Management Trainee | Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $43,50001/20/2021 $43,500 |
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Management Trainee Management Trainee | Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car | 01/19/2021 01/19/2021 | $43,50001/19/2021 $43,500 |
Enterprise Holdings Management Trainee Management Trainee | Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings | 01/19/2021 01/19/2021 | $48,00001/19/2021 $48,000 |
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Management Trainee 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 Management Trainee. 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 Management Trainee Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Management Trainee 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 Management Trainees
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Public
3. Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN • Public
4. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
5. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Public
6. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
7. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Public
8. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Public
9. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
10. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
Top Skills For a Management Trainee
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, 14.9% of management trainees listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.
- Communication, 14.9%
- Management Training Program, 14.4%
- Customer Service, 13.9%
- Product Knowledge, 10.3%
- Human Resources, 5.1%
- Other Skills, 41.4% See All Management Trainee Skills
Best States For a Management Trainee
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a management trainee. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington. Management trainees make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $58,175. Whereas in Hawaii and Alaska, they would average $56,910 and $56,355, respectively. While management trainees would only make an average of $53,901 in Washington, 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. New Jersey
$58,175
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
$53,134
Avg. Salary
3. North Dakota
$48,921
Avg. Salary
How Do Management Trainee Rate Their Jobs?
Top Management Trainee Employers
Management Trainee Videos
