Smart people love roles that allow them to grow and always get excited about the following roles:
General manager (coming soon)
The great thing about these roles (that they can develop in so many ways and don’t force you to specialize) is also their biggest drawback.
In your 20s you want to add to your tool-belt. If you can get one of the roles above with a great mentor, go for it! It can open up doors. But, in your 30s you need to start to specialize and build a skill set. If you don’t, you will discover yourself left-behind with an ambiguous background that is hard to market on your next search and definitely hard to build an executive career around.
These are also VERY difficult roles to search for because:
They often aren’t posted
The roles are very ambiguous (as you’ll see below)
Any time one of them gets posted, they get TONS of applications
More often than not, these roles are promoted from within vs. hired externally. If you are sharp and early career, don’t hesitate to take on one of these roles! But, think hard as you get later in career, as it likely means a custom job search for subsequent roles.
“Generalist operators are also a recruiter's worst nightmare”. Top Exec Recruiter
Below are detailed thoughts on each of these roles
Chief Operating Officer
There are four different flavors of COO. See this terrific article by Allison Pickens. Below are the flavors Allison details and what background each takes.
Chief of Staff: This is more a early/mid-career role. See our coming article on Chief of Staff roles. This is typically hired at Series A.
Operations Lead: Generally these come from finance and .. increasingly RevOps
Journey Officer: When you need a more coherent customer journey and consistency of approach across marketing, sales, and customer success. This also is titled as CRO instead. Sales leadership experience (owning a number and succeeding here) is critical for this flavor. This is often hired around Series A/B
Runs the Biz: When you want to focus on the product, evangelism, and vision of the company. This COO type manages many diverse functions and may have the President title. This one is often the most nebulous and its availability will depend on what other strong executives are already at the company. This role is typically at later stage companies.
Business Development
There are similarly many flavors of business development roles, including:
Channel: These roles can also be growth partnership or distribution roles. They are truly partnership roles
Strategic sales: This is really just sales… if you want to do sales, go do sales
Licensing: This is also just sales role.
“The BD function is either a 10 out of 10 in the value they deliver, or nobody knows why they are there. There is rarely anything in-between” Jeff Macomber
Chief of Staff
Chief of staff roles are by nature super-ambiguous. They can include components of:
Program/project manager
Exec assistant
Right-hand man/woman (this is what most people who apply for these are hoping for)
And there are so many other flavors….
These roles are often 24-7, tour-of-duty roles even when you are working with a top-notch executive. We advise people to be cautious of these roles if you are:
over 30
have a child
want work-life balance
These can be dynamic with the right executive committed to exposing you to new situations early in your career. But if the executive leaves, the role will likely change a ton or be eliminated.
“I realize that a lot of my friends had career breakouts basically became the ‘right hand’ for a billionaire”. Jeremey Giffon on Invest Like the Best Podcast
BizOps
BizOps folks are sharp and can learn a lot about a business but at some point, unless you want to be a 60-year old bizops person, you will need to specialize. BizOps is a great role for early career but if you find yourself in it in your late 30s/40s you are in danger of being behind your peers because:
You haven’t specialized
You don’t have deep experience leading a function
You haven’t built the muscle of managing bigger teams with non-McKinsey folks
You haven’t owned a number (in most BizOps roles this is the case)
Finance and RevOps roles are natural transitions for BizOps folks. Some considerations on both:
Finance: If you love numbers and strategy / planning finance is a great next step
RevOps: If you love systems and processes RevOps can be a great fit
Operating Partner
Operating partner is a role SO MANY of us execs aspire to. But it isn’t always a great role - so firm dependent - and is often an end-of-career role. See our article on Operating Partners.
Commentaires