An operations specialist is the brain behind the machine who coordinates the workflow over all the departments of a company. They optimize, prioritize, and analyze to make sure nothing takes more time, money, or energy than necessary. They see to it that processes that depend on one another are completed in a timely manner, that every equipment is functional and all necessary materials are on stock, that there is no empty time or overload of work in any department, and everyone is doing what they are supposed to.
Much like the conductor of an orchestra, really. With perhaps less impressive gestures. Although, who knows. They come in all shapes and sizes.
On average, they make $53,767 a year, which seems fair, considering they do have a lot on their plate.
Operations Specialist Overview
Operations Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an operations specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.17 an hour? That's $58,595 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 83,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Operations Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many operations specialists 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 customer-service skills, listening skills and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an operations specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 19.3% of operations specialists included communication, while 18.6% of resumes included customer service, and 7.7% of resumes included sales goals. 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 operations specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most operations specialists actually find jobs in the finance and technology industries.
How To Become an Operations Specialist
If you're interested in becoming an operations specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 44.2% of operations specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.5% of operations specialists have master's degrees. Even though most operations specialists 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 an operations specialist. When we researched the most common majors for an operations specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on operations specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an operations specialist. In fact, many operations specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many operations specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as administrative assistant or sales associate.
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Operations Specialist 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, an operations specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as team leader, progress to a title such as manager and then eventually end up with the title senior operations manager.
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Average Salary for an Operations Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Operations Specialist Operations Specialist | Randstad Randstad | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $37,56601/30/2021 $37,566 |
Wheels Field Operations Specialist-Overnight Shift Field Operations Specialist-Overnight Shift | Wheels Wheels | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $26,08801/29/2021 $26,088 |
Manpowergroup Avail-Lot Operation Specialist/Supervisor Avail-Lot Operation Specialist/Supervisor | Manpowergroup Manpowergroup | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $41,74001/29/2021 $41,740 |
Wells Fargo Fraud & Claims Operations Specialist 2 Fraud & Claims Operations Specialist 2 | Wells Fargo Wells Fargo | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $33,39201/29/2021 $33,392 |
Randstad Data Operations Specialist Data Operations Specialist | Randstad Randstad | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $31,30501/28/2021 $31,305 |
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Operations Specialist 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 an Operations Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Operations Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Operations Specialist 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 Operations Specialists
1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Public
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
4. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
5. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
6. New York University
New York, NY • Private
7. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Public
8. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
9. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
10. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Top Skills For an Operations Specialist
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, 19.3% of operations specialists listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and listening skills are important as well.
- Communication, 19.3%
- Customer Service, 18.6%
- Sales Goals, 7.7%
- Emergency, 3.3%
- Clearance, 3.0%
- Other Skills, 48.1% See All Operations Specialist Skills
Best States For an Operations Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an operations specialist. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Maryland, Alaska, and Rhode Island. Operations specialists make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $68,035. Whereas in Maryland and Alaska, they would average $67,918 and $66,000, respectively. While operations specialists would only make an average of $64,730 in Rhode Island, 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
$66,000
Avg. Salary
2. Pennsylvania
$62,553
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$77,803
Avg. Salary
How Do Operations Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
3.0
What do you like the most about working as Operations Specialist?
Your sole goal is to achieve operational excellence. Your job description grows with you. It's flexible in terms on variety of subjects you can work with but at the end it comes to the same goal, evaluation methods. Show More5.0
5.0
Good • October 2019What do you like the most about working as Operations Specialist?
helps in learning the process and is is responsible for managing the flow of a workplace and optimizing day-to-day activities. They track and analyze various reports, such as activity budgets, operation activityTop Operations Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ operations specialists and discovered their number of operations specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that United States Navy was the best, especially with an average salary of $59,875. Bank of America follows up with an average salary of $32,451, and then comes United States Army with an average of $61,324. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as an operations specialist. The employers include Republic Services, Twilio, and Quintiles Transnational
Operations Specialist Videos
