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Chief Executives

Also called: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Vice President

What they do:
Determine and formulate policies and provide overall direction of companies or private and public sector organizations within guidelines set up by a board of directors or similar governing body. Plan, direct, or coordinate operational activities at the highest level of management with the help of subordinate executives and staff managers.
On the job, you would:
  • Direct or coordinate an organization's financial or budget activities to fund operations, maximize investments, or increase efficiency.
  • Confer with board members, organization officials, or staff members to discuss issues, coordinate activities, or resolve problems.
  • Analyze operations to evaluate performance of a company or its staff in meeting objectives or to determine areas of potential cost reduction, program improvement, or policy change.

Knowledge

Business
  • management
  • accounting and economics
Safety and Government
  • law and government
  • public safety and security
Arts and Humanities
  • English language
Health
  • medicine and dentistry

Skills

Basic Skills
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information
Problem Solving
  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it
People and Technology Systems
  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Abilities

Verbal
  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say
Ideas and Logic
  • notice when problems happen
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
Visual Understanding
  • quickly know what you are looking at
  • see hidden patterns
Math
  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include
leading, making decisions, and business.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Integrity
  • Leadership
  • Initiative
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Dependability

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Enterprise resource planning ERP software
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • SAP software
Data base user interface and query software
  • AdSense Tracker
  • Microsoft Access
Human resources software
  • Halogen e360
  • Halogen ePraisal

Education

Education: (rated 5 of 5)
bachelor's degree or
master's degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Bright Outlook
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
Salary
$166,910
per year, on average
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about chief executives.