A vice president of a company keeps watch over all of the internal operations. They work to build strong customer relationships while also staying focused on the financial goals at hand.
The average vice president spends a lot of time at work. I mean, we're talking, a lot of time, like upwards of 65-80 hours a week. Since the majority of the company falls into your hands, you'll likely spend a lot of that time making sure everything is running as efficiently as it can.
As a vice president, it's easy to assume you've have a lot of experience in your field. In addition to experience, it's likely you have also earned at least a bachelor's degree, if not a master's degree as well.
Vice President Overview
Working as a Vice President
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a vice president. For example, did you know that they make an average of $79.06 an hour? That's $164,447 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 Vice President Do
There are certain skills that many 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 leadership skills, management skills and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a vice president, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.7% of vice presidents included healthcare, while 6.7% of resumes included oversight, and 6.2% of resumes included business development. 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 vice president job title. But what industry to start with? Most vice presidents actually find jobs in the finance and technology industries.
How To Become a Vice President
If you're interested in becoming a vice president, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.1% of vice presidents have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.4% of vice presidents have master's degrees. Even though most 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 vice president. When we researched the most common majors for a 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 vice president resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a vice president. In fact, many vice president jobs require experience in a role such as assistant vice president. Meanwhile, many vice presidents also have previous career experience in roles such as director or internship.
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Vice President 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 chief finance officer you might progress to a role such as chief finance and operating officer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title chief finance and operating officer.
Vice President
Chief Finance And Operating Officer
14 Years
Senior Vice President, Sales
14 Years
Group Vice President
9 Years
Senior Vice President Of Marketing
13 Years
Vice President Operation Manager
10 Years
Supply Chain Vice President
17 Years
Show More
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 Vice President
Vice Presidents in America make an average salary of $164,447 per year or $79 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $240,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $112,000 per year.
Average Salary
$164,447
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$92k
$304k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
CB Richard Ellis VAS-Vice President VAS-Vice President | CB Richard Ellis CB Richard Ellis | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $400,00001/29/2021 $400,000 |
Unitedhealth Group Inc. VP, Advisory Services-Telecommute VP, Advisory Services-Telecommute | Unitedhealth Group Inc. Unitedhealth Group Inc. | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $169,50001/29/2021 $169,500 |
Broadridge Financial Solutions VP, Information Management (Jr1019577) VP, Information Management (Jr1019577) | Broadridge Financial Solutions Broadridge Financial Solutions | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $127,10001/29/2021 $127,100 |
Anthem, Inc. Staff VP Enterprise National Contracting II Staff VP Enterprise National Contracting II | Anthem, Inc. Anthem, Inc. | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $195,99901/28/2021 $195,999 |
CBRE VAS-Vice President VAS-Vice President | CBRE CBRE | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $400,00001/28/2021 $400,000 |
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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 Vice President. 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 Vice President Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless 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.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for 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 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, 9.7% of vice presidents listed healthcare on their resume, but soft skills such as leadership skills and management skills are important as well.
- Healthcare, 9.7%
- Oversight, 6.7%
- Business Development, 6.2%
- Customer Service, 5.6%
- Financial Statements, 5.5%
- Other Skills, 66.3% See All Vice President Skills
Best States For a Vice President
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a vice president. The best states for people in this position are Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Vice presidents make the most in Maine with an average salary of $173,463. Whereas in Pennsylvania and Michigan, they would average $173,242 and $172,744, respectively. While vice presidents would only make an average of $171,104 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. Massachusetts
Total Vice President Jobs:
2,136
Highest 10% Earn:
$260,000
Location Quotient:
1.6
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
$171,105
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
Total Vice President Jobs:
166
Highest 10% Earn:
$258,000
Location Quotient:
1.17
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
$168,740
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
Total Vice President Jobs:
1,322
Highest 10% Earn:
$262,000
Location Quotient:
0.74
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
$173,243
Avg. Salary
How Do Vice President Rate Their Jobs?
Top Vice President 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 vice presidents and discovered their number of vice president opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Morgan Stanley was the best, especially with an average salary of $159,309. JPMorgan Chase follows up with an average salary of $159,348, and then comes Bank of America with an average of $159,315. 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 a vice president. The employers include Mastercard, Realogy, and Molina Healthcare
Vice President Videos
Joe Biden answers What does a Vice President do?""