Senior vice presidents play an important role in every company. Without them, those companies wouldn't have set business goals and internal issues would go by unattended. Thankfully, senior vice presidents are around so we can avoid disaster.
This job can come with a few tough roles, such as when an employee has fallen out of compliance with company policies. Sometimes those conversations will go smoothly, but as with any job, you'll have days where those conversations will go south quickly.
A lot of senior vice presidents started out with just a bachelor's degree. So it really doesn't take much education. Really, the only thing that might stop you is if you don't have enough experience. But you can always change that easily enough.
Senior Vice President Overview
Senior Vice President Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior vice president. For example, did you know that they make an average of $104.09 an hour? That's $216,511 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 150,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Vice President Do
There are certain skills that many senior vice presidents 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, detail oriented and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior vice president, we found that a lot of resumes listed 7.2% of senior vice presidents included financial services, while 5.8% of resumes included svp, and 5.6% of resumes included oversight. 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 vice president job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior vice presidents actually find jobs in the finance and media industries.
How To Become a Senior Vice President
If you're interested in becoming a senior vice president, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 66.6% of senior vice presidents have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.1% of senior vice presidents have master's degrees. Even though most senior vice presidents 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 vice president. When we researched the most common majors for a senior vice president, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior vice president resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior vice president. In fact, many senior vice president jobs require experience in a role such as vice president. Meanwhile, many senior vice presidents also have previous career experience in roles such as assistant vice president or vice president and manager.
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Senior Vice President 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 senior vice president can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as executive vice president, progress to a title such as executive vice president and then eventually end up with the title executive vice president.
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Average Salary for a Senior Vice President
Senior Vice Presidents in America make an average salary of $216,511 per year or $104 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $358,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $130,000 per year.
Average Salary
$216,511
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$119k
$399k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Invoca Senior Vice President of People and Culture Senior Vice President of People and Culture | Invoca Invoca | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $225,00003/31/2021 $225,000 |
Invoca Senior Vice President of People and Culture Senior Vice President of People and Culture | Invoca Invoca | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $225,00003/31/2021 $225,000 |
Ibotta Senior Vice Senior Vice | Ibotta Ibotta | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $220,00003/31/2021 $220,000 |
USAA SVP, Risk Governance and Regulatory Strategy SVP, Risk Governance and Regulatory Strategy | USAA USAA | 03/29/2021 03/29/2021 | $271,90003/29/2021 $271,900 |
CSG Systems Incorporated SVP-Head of Americas CBU (Wireless & Telco) SVP-Head of Americas CBU (Wireless & Telco) | CSG Systems Incorporated CSG Systems Incorporated | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $238,16503/27/2021 $238,165 |
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Senior Vice President 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 Senior Vice President. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
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Learn How To Write a Senior Vice President Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Senior Vice President 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.
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Top Colleges for Senior Vice Presidents
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
4. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
In-State Tuition
$10,610
Enrollment
40,329
5. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
6. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,522
Enrollment
13,760
7. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,880
Enrollment
4,177
8. George Washington University, The
Washington, DC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,230
Enrollment
12,161
9. Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$52,930
Enrollment
5,030
10. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
In-State Tuition
$18,454
Enrollment
40,108
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For a Senior Vice President
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, 7.2% of senior vice presidents listed financial services on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Financial Services, 7.2%
- SVP, 5.8%
- Oversight, 5.6%
- Healthcare, 4.9%
- Risk Management, 4.7%
- Other Skills, 71.8% See All Senior Vice President Skills
Best States For a Senior Vice President
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior vice president. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and California. Senior vice presidents make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $209,029. Whereas in Pennsylvania and Nevada, they would average $196,107 and $195,203, respectively. While senior vice presidents would only make an average of $192,794 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. Pennsylvania
Total Senior Vice President Jobs:
910
Highest 10% Earn:
$280,000
Location Quotient:
0.79
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$196,107
Avg. Salary
2. Illinois
Total Senior Vice President Jobs:
1,585
Highest 10% Earn:
$275,000
Location Quotient:
1.34
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$187,215
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
Total Senior Vice President Jobs:
142
Highest 10% Earn:
$278,000
Location Quotient:
0.69
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$195,203
Avg. Salary
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