Business and Economic Development Careers | Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer

Career Area: Business Management and Operations

Occupation Group: General Managers

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Chief Executive Officer earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $85,969

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $95,605

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Provides overall direction for companies and private and public sector organizations. Develops and defines company policies. Plans and directs operational activities, with the help of management executives and staff managers.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

LocationGrowth
North Carolina559-3%
Nationwide16382-5.5%

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Chief Executive Officer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
  • Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
  • Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
  • Building Effective Relationships: Building relationships is about your ability to identify and initiate working relationships and to develop and maintain them in a way that is of mutual benefit to both yourself and the other party. Good relationships are the key to getting things done and are essential when your success is dependent on others.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
  • Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
  • Staff Management: Working experience with the management of subordinates in an organization.
  • Strategic Planning: Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.
  • Business Administration: Business administration is management of a business.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Chief Executive Officer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Financial Management: Financial management refers to the efficient and effective management of money (funds) in such a manner as to accomplish the objectives of the organization.
  • Fundraising: Fundraising or fund raising (also known as development) is the process of gathering voluntary contributions of money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies (see also crowd funding).
  • Program Development: program development - Computer Definition. May refer to the coding of an individual software program or to the creation on an entire information system and all relatedsoftware.
  • Policy Development: The decision process by which individuals, groups or institutions establish policies pertaining to plans, programs or procedures.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Experience Required%
0 to 2 years15%
3 to 5 years37%
6 to 8 years17%

Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.

Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Cfos
  • Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer
  • Chief Operating Officer - Coo Consultant

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