Choosing a career’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make during your life. Your profession determines how you spend your workday. It also impacts who you interact with, how much money you make, and whether you enjoy job security.
Perhaps you’re interested in becoming a manager. Managers lead projects and oversee staff. They have the authority to assign tasks, monitor workflow, and modify specific goals. Ensuring stakeholders are satisfied with their department’s performance is one of their primary goals. Let’s look at three different types of managers, what they do, and the education they need for their careers.
1. Marketing Manager
Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers develop marketing strategies to promote products and services. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports these managers took home median annual incomes of $142,170 in 2020, a figure that’s more than three times the average income for all occupations.
To create marketing campaigns, marketing campaign managers draw on the knowledge gained from earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing or communications. Marketing campaign management involves establishing business goals, creating appropriate marketing strategies, overseeing marketing teams, and evaluating the marketing activity. Campaign managers should identify the target audience for the campaign and develop content marketing for appropriate social media platforms. They also develop content creation plans for new products, use social posts and ad campaigns, and use campaign management software to monitor their campaign’s progress.
Successful marketing campaigns generate brand awareness and attract new customers. A marketing manager draws on insights from analytics reports to determine if the marketing campaign’s effectively reaching potential customers. These managers use various marketing channels, including TV and radio ads and social media campaigns. A comprehensive ad campaign may involve using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to achieve the specific goal of raising a company website’s domain authority (DA) score, ensuring it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Boosting your DA score’s an inbound marketing strategy that makes it easier for new customers to find your company website’s landing page. Marketing campaigns may involve contributing blog posts to relevant blogs and including a backlink to your company in your bio.
2. Sports Manager
Sports managers may work for postsecondary institutions or professional sports teams. Their duties vary based on their place of employment. One sports manager may be coordinating with the team’s coach and supplying training resources for athletes, while another may be running a sports facility. Sports managers may even contribute to marketing campaigns and perform event planning duties.
PayScale reports sports managers in the United States earned an average annual income of $55,000 in 2021. The BLS notes sports and entertainment careers should enjoy a high job growth rate of more than double the projected average job growth rate for all occupations between 2020 and 2030, which suggests demand for sports managers will also be strong.
Aspiring sports managers need strong business and organizational skills, as well as extensive postsecondary training. After earning a bachelor’s degree, aspiring sports managers can complete an online sports management masters program. Courses cover managerial strategies, athletic governance, strategic athletic marketing, and sports facility operations. You could use your master’s degree to pursue coaching opportunities or become a facility manager, fundraiser, or athletic director.
3. Project Manager
Project managers work in several industries, including information technology and construction. Project managers typically have a degree in their field and project manager certification. Their certification programs equip them with the knowledge needed to lead projects. Like other managers, they oversee staff, identify specific goals, and assign tasks. They also maintain a project budget and schedule, striving to ensure the project’s completed on time and budget.
The BLS reports that project management specialists took home median annual incomes of $77,420 in 2020. This figure’s almost double the national average income for all occupations. The highest-paid project managers earned average salaries of more than $135,000 the same year.
Managers typically earn substantial salaries. They’re in demand because they have the skills required to complete projects and meet the stakeholders’ goals. Managerial professionals include marketing managers, sports managers, and project managers.