- Based on 482 Jobtrees users who were a Chief Operating Officer in their career, on average, they have 4.65 years of experience and 3 jobs prior to this one. They have spent a significant amount of time in this job before moving on 6.0 years on average and earn $252K per year on average in this more senior role.
- 4% of Jobtrees users moved to another job with this same title in their next career step. The most common career steps after Chief Operating Officer are Chief Executive Officer, President and General Manager. Chief Executive Officer, the most common next career step, is of similar seniority which is common to see in career paths as people will often move between jobs and roles at the same level as they build experience and explore other jobs.
- If you are looking for more ideas on potential career paths from this job, you should also consider Board Member as they commonly lead to Chief Operating Officer as well. Find more insights below about this specific career path based on our Jobtrees users' experience.
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All the insights below are based on Jobtrees users’ actual career paths, aggregated together, instantaneously, to show you the real and unique most common career progression for each role.
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The roles above are the most common next steps in our users’ career paths.
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The roles below are the most common previous steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘roots grow’. It adds another level of potential previous career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.Read insights on these paths here
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How can I become a
- The most common career steps to get to Chief Operating Officer are Chief Executive Officer, General Manager and Senior Vice President based on actual career paths reported to Jobtrees.
- Chief Executive Officer, the most common step before Chief Operating Officer, is of similar seniority which is common to see in career paths. People will often move between jobs and roles at the same level as they explore new types and gain experience for more senior roles.
- While Chief Executive Officer is the most common, there is no specific role leading to Chief Operating Officer that is an overwhelmingly common path.
- Another characteristic of the Chief Operating Officer career path is that experience within the same job family as this role isn't common and as a result likely not necessary.
- This shows there are many potential paths to becoming a Chief Operating Officer so focusing on translatable skills is likely more important than a specific role.
- This is a Senior role meaning if you don’t have significant work experience and likely also experience in a closely related field, you need to start more than one or two steps away from this role in planning your path. Consider chief executive officer or general manager as these are the most popular career starting points for Jobtrees users that led to chief operating officer. For a quicker path to this senior role title, consider looking at smaller companies as they have less layers to get to these more senior titles. The scope of the role and likely the pay though will still likely compare more similarly to a less experienced role title at a larger company. This is partly why you see some unexpected experience level titles leading to this role.
- While Chief Executive Officer isn't from the same job family as Chief Operating Officer, Operations, it can help to have direct experience in this discipline shown by General Manager also being a common career path to Chief Operating Officer.
- If you are looking for more potential career paths to Chief Operating Officer, you should also consider Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President as they commonly lead to Chief Operating Officer as well.
What should I know about the career path
- The most common degrees or certifications earned by Jobtrees users on the path to become Chief Operating Officer are Master Of Business Administration (mba), Master Of Business Administration (m.b.a) In Finance, and Bachelor Of Arts (b.a.) In Economics. There may be other specific certification requirements to land a job with this role, so please make sure to check local regulations as well.
- Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Chief Executive Officer being the most common role to and from Chief Operating Officer. This is common when people move companies where the title is the same as a past one but the scope may be different but also is commonly driven by them choosing to return to a function they fit well with.
- Chief Operating Officer is part of the Operations job family which has a limited number of unique role types (65) within that discipline. Choosing to pursue a role within this family likely will mean that you will need to look outside of your discipline to find new roles and so should focus on related skills as part of that search.
- Other common titles that have similar job requirements and career paths as Chief Operating Officer are Coo, Coo & Cfo, Coo And Co-founder, President And Coo, President/coo.