There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior category manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $60.02 an hour? That's $124,835 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 21,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many senior category managers 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 analytical skills, creativity and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior category manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 20.1% of senior category managers included category strategy, while 8.5% of resumes included supplier performance, and 8.2% of resumes included strategic sourcing. 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 senior category manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior category managers actually find jobs in the retail and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a senior category manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 50.7% of senior category managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 35.4% of senior category managers have master's degrees. Even though most senior category managers 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 senior category manager. When we researched the most common majors for a senior category manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior category manager resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior category manager. In fact, many senior category manager jobs require experience in a role such as category manager. Meanwhile, many senior category managers also have previous career experience in roles such as purchasing manager or buyer.
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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 director you might progress to a role such as business development director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior director of business development.
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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, 20.1% of senior category managers listed category strategy on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and creativity are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior category manager. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, West Virginia, Minnesota, and California. Senior category managers make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $149,879. Whereas in West Virginia and Minnesota, they would average $146,170 and $141,828, respectively. While senior category managers would only make an average of $138,151 in California, 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. Rhode Island
$149,880
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$136,242
Avg. Salary
3. California
$138,151
Avg. Salary