Leadership Jobs and MBA Programs in Washington

Those looking for careers as operating officers should consider the educational and employment opportunities in Washington. For operating officers in Washington, the job pool currently sits at 2,000 and is expected to grow by 18 percent to 3,130 jobs by 2016. Prospects are significantly better for operating officers in the state when compared to the national trend, which projects a one percent drop in the number of jobs over the next 10 years. In general, operating officers recognize and create policies for the overall direction of companies or private and public sector organizations.

Washington photo by Kelvin Kay

In Washington, the income for operating officers is $88 per hour or $183,000 per year. In the U.S. as a whole, their income is $77 hourly or $160,000 per year on average.

Washington, also known as the Evergreen State, has a population of 6,664,195. It has seen its population grow by 13.1 percent over the last 10 years. The capital is Olympia. In 2008, there were a total of 4,012,270 jobs and at $42,747, the average annual income in Washington was higher than the previous year's per capita figure of $41,919. The unemployment rate in Washington was 8.9 percent in 2009. It rose by 3.5 percentage points from the previous year. Roughly 27.7 percent of state residents have college degrees. This falls short of the national average.

In Washington, the top employers are in software publishers, offices of dentists, monorail system manufacturing and refrigerated warehousing.

While being known for many things, one of the most noteworthy, Everett is the site of the world's largest building, Boeing's final assembly plant. One of the unique tidbits about Washington is the state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States president.

Leadership

Operating officers recognize and create policies for the overall direction of companies or private and public sector organizations.

They regularly present data at meetings or conventions to promote services and accomplish objectives and direct business or departmental efforts concerned with the production or distribution of products.

They are required to evaluate and judge the efficacy of solutions and manage and maintain budgets and other financial resources.

Operating officers should be able to think through problems and come up with general rules and piece together evidence to, in some sense, diagnose what is going on in a situation.

In order to be successful in the workplace, operating officers must have exceptional integrity and want to innovate to meet new challenges.