Management is a varied job title and can span a wide variety of more niche specialities from human resource management, marketing management, accounting management, executive management, and beyond.

However, it is the role of the General Manager, or “Operations Manager” to oversee the day-to-day ongoings of a business and ensure all departments and their respective managers are working together in conjunction to achieve goals set out by business leadership.

From planning and forecasting to directing staff and coordinating departments, Operations Managers are at the core of a businesses organizational structure and are thus always in high demand in growing industries.

Given the varied tasks expected of this job title, individuals often have to balance the use of various inter and intra-personal skill-sets in order to both manager his/her personal duties including planning, forecasting, and reporting to director level individuals.

The place in between front line management, that is departmental managers or floor managers, and executive management, is bridged by the General Manager.

These individuals may be responsible for business units, corporate divisions, or geographic regions and are often promoted from within an organization as their job requires an in-depth understanding of all levels of a business’s operations.

While the responsibilities assigned to General/Operations Managers are numerous, their compensation is usually structured in a way to reward hard work and dedication within an organization.

The ability to lead teams, hit business targets, and communicate directly with company leadership are some of the reasons this profession is both highly stressful yet highly rewarding.

Median Pay

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median Operations Manager salary at just over $94,020 year, on average, as it is considered a senior level position.

Salary aggregator puts their median salary figure slightly lower at around $64,000/year. The large discrepancies can be attributed to a multitude of factors including the location of the job, with those in top-tier and coastal cities paying considerably more, to the company worked for, as well as the industry.

High tech and finance industries have the highest average salaries, while retail and durable goods industries have lower average salaries.

Operations Manager Salary Statistics 2019

It should also be noted that many management compensation packages are often incentivized, including profit sharing, bonuses, commission and stock options.

It is important to factor these other remuneration methods into account when applying to a job or negotiating a salary before accepting the offer.

Industry Forecast

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a growth rate of around +7% between 2014 and 2024, which is in line with the average growth rate for all occupations combined, which is also around +7%.

These growth rates are logical, as the demand for managers can only increase if industries across the board are also growing. An economic downturn or recession that impacts all industries will also likely hit the Operational Management sector, as well.

National economic growth rates and demand for this profession are symbiotic in nature.

To always be prepared for the ups and downs of an economy, managers will do well to continually update their resumes so that they are always prepared to shift employers, if necessary, and updating regularly is much easier than trying to recall all of your achievements over a 5 year period all at once.

Likewise, nurturing professional relationships and building your network is highly valuable as it will most likely be your network that lands you your next job, given the seniority level of your position.

Types and Classifications of Operations Managers

Besides being known as General Managers, other titles include:

• Operations Director
• Director of Operations
• VP Operations
• Store Manager
• President
• Executive Director

Given that this is a senior level position, many managers are also directly groomed for more executive level roles within companies as many board of directors and CEO’s prefer promoting from within their pool of talented employees who have just the kind of in-depth understanding of an organization and its workers that Operations Managers hold.

Operations Example Resume Download (MS Word Format)

Below is an example of a professionally written Operations Manager resume that you can download, save, and print out for reference when crafting your own resume.

How To Write Your Own

In addition to the above provided sample, below is a selection of additional writing tips to keep in mind when composing your resume.

Include Diverse Skills & Experiences

Because of the non-specialized nature of this position, meaning you do not just focus on one very specific aspect of a company, like an HR Specialist, for example , you will have to include skills and experiences that reflect this broad and complex position.

A good operations resume will include a mix of customer service skills and experiences, project management experience, leadership abilities, and people management.

To reflect the above roles you will mention teams you led, efficiencies achieved, big projects managed through to completion, sales growth, company expansion, and positive customer service/brand image promotion.

You will illustrate these abilities via various more descriptive bullet points in your professional experience section as well as mentioning leadership type skills later again in the additional skills section of the resume.

Ultimately, you want your resume to accurately reflect the challenging and diverse skills required to be the hub of organization within the epicenter of a busy beehive of a company.

Quantify Numerically As Often As Possible

Always stay business-minded when writing your resume. Look at the document through the eyes of the reader, which will be both HR professionals and company executives.

What impresses these types of individuals the most? Figures. Statistics. Numbers! So, whenever possible, numerically quantify your achievements on your resume to provide scope and substance to the point.

If you managed a team or department, then state how many people were in that team or department. If you managed a budget, state that budget in dollar terms.

If you saved costs, state them in percentage terms. Do not write the numbers out, write them numerically; it is not only accepted, but encouraged, as they jump off the page.

Put Company Interests First

While your resume is essentially a professional autobiography and thus includes your experiences, the FOCUS of the document should be putting companies first and helping them operate efficiently and expand.

An applicant who only shows how he or she bettered his own professional paths is not nearly as attractive as an applicant who time and time again put the company first.

How do you communicate that you put a company’s objectives at the forefront of your professional priorities? Talk about growth. Mention exceeding expectations, critical thinking and problem solving situations where you turned potential catastrophe into opportunity.

Show how you creatively solved a problem with department heads, or improved internal workflows that not only made your job easier, but also made the jobs of those working under you easier, as well, resulting in overall efficiency gains for the company.

Metaphorically speaking, as Operations Manager you are the central nervous system of the organization, relaying messages from the brain (executives/directors) through the spinal cord and to various parts of the body such as hands, feet, and chest, representing different business units within the organization.

You want to be the fastest, most accurate, dependable nervous system possible and in doing so, you will be communicating that you are putting company priorities first, resulting in you getting called in for an interview before those who failed to do so.

Show Upward Trajectory

This job role is often a precursor to more senior level management and executive level positions. Operations and General Managers are usually promoted from within the ranks of department heads, who themselves are promoted directly from the front lines. For these reasons you are expected to have an intimate understanding of even the most minute and seemingly inconsequential aspects of a the day-to-day runnings of a business. It is this utterly thorough understanding that primes you for a managerial role.

The key to growing and obtaining even more executive level positions is showing a consistent upward trajectory on your resume.

For experience, list the positions you have held in reverse chronological order from the least senior to your current position.

Showing an upward trajectory makes you a candidate for executive positions, especially if you also document a very positive track record at your current operations-focused position.

Sample Bullet Points

Below is a selection of experience-related bullet points you can use to help brainstorm your own experience points. These details were selected as they are highly relevant to management and operations roles.

Sample Operations Manager Experience Bullet Points

Professional Summary Writing

As this is a senior level position, that is, one where most candidates have at least 10+ years of experience, you will want to be skipping the career objective in favor of a professional summary or qualifications summary.

Career objectives are limited to 1-2 sentences simply because these applicants with lesser experience do not need any more space to communicate their background and objective.

Qualifications summaries, on the other hand, can be 3-4 sentences long and even include 4-6 “key” bullet points that reflect your most prized achievements or skills. Where the career objective is economy class, the qualifications summary is business class.

Essentially it is just bigger and provides a better opportunity to summarize what can be a very extensive professional history.

Do not worry about using personal pronouns here, it is the one part of the resume where it is acceptable, however you do not want to go overboard.

Additional Skills & Certifications to Include

The additional skills section of a managerial resume can sometimes be replaced entirely by an “Achievements, Recognitions or Awards” section as more senior level candidates will have had more time to accrue such recognitions and they are much more impressive than the more common additional skills sections found on most resumes.

Some skills worth mentioning, if you do include the section, will be continued training courses in your industry, safety training and software skills, especially CRM tools when working in B2C industries.

In terms of certifications, having an advanced degree like an MBA is plenty; however, if you want to further expand you can obtain Six Sigma training (classes or online).

You can obtain other industry-specific certifications to further boost your resume, as you wish, by doing a simple search online for [your industry] + certifications/accreditations”.

Additional Useful Skills to Include

Below are some more management related skills you can use to get more ideas or to sprinkle in throughout your resume if you want to add a little more “management” flavor.

Useful Operations Manager Skills

Additional Resources