The career path for a CEO was a mixed one. There are some who have gone through consulting companies and have been exposed to different situations and different strategies. The experience one gets through this is quite VAST. Good CEO’s are leaders. They know how to inspire their team. They know who to recruit. They surround themselves with people who understand the vision and know how to execute the same. We mention the above because from our own experience running companies and also assisting other C–suite executives, the style and emotional intelligence of a Chief Executive matters even more than the degree pursued. When we look at their degrees then there is a mix but the most common one is Bachelors in Business Administration.
As the Chief Executive is honed by a company to take on more leadership qualities, companies invest in them further and they get their MBA through renowned institutions eventually. Although please note, just because you got your MBA does not mean you automatically are marked to take on an executive role. You will need to work on your career path, relations, business strategy, competitive strategy, investor relations to become a successor to the CEO.
But where does one start?
Any degree can take you to your dream. But the common ones are
- Business Administration
- Finance
- Marketing
- Accounting
- Engineering
- Psychology
A CEO eventually will make at least $150K in a small company but mostly upwards of $200K. The starting degree cost varies from $40K to $150K for a 4-year degree. MBA’s will be additional $60K if you do it yourself. The risk of robots taking over all of these roles is very low. A CEO requires extremely high Emotional Intelligence to deal with different situations. A robot will definitely help the CEO with numbers to make better decisions but in the end the decision will be of the CEO’s. Career options present themselves when you are out there interacting and learning skills and sometimes you do your homework, learn what you like and enjoy and plan your career path by interacting with similar people, networking and creating opportunities for yourself. The research in every area is VAST. Please ask us your specific questions and we will try and give you an answer if your question is amongst a high number.
Abhijeet Narvekar – Abhi has his Masters in Industrial Engineering & Management. He has 20 years of experience in Leadership roles and currently is the CEO of The FerVID Group and Co-Founder of CareerUnleashed