How Do I Become a Company Officer?

You can become a company officer by either starting your own business and appointing yourself to an executive position or by applying for a position with a company that is owned by someone else. If you apply for a position with a company, you will be expected to meet educational minimums, certification requirements in some instances, and have applicable work experience. Officers are the leaders of the company, so open positions will likely require candidates to have demonstrated leadership capacity and soft skills that will allow the effective management of a team.

The typical person who wants to be a company executive will hold an undergraduate business degree. There are a number of business majors to choose from, and your specialty depends upon which officer position you ultimately want to obtain. Business administration, finance, accounting, human resources management, and marketing are some viable options.

Some officers will have an advanced business degree, typically an MBA, but that is not necessarily a requirement. Other officers hold law degrees or PhDs. The larger the company, however, the more likely it is that you will need more than an undergraduate degree to become a company officer.

Officer positions typically require years of extensive experience unless you work for a small company or own the company. Smaller companies have less resources and have to rely on employees to do more advanced work with not as much acquired experience. To become a company officer in larger corporate settings, you would start at the bottom of a department and work up through the ranks, unless you apply as a lateral hire. A lateral hire obtains experience at one company and then transfers to a higher level position in another, entering the new company at the executive level.

Some companies have officer training programs that will put a candidate in an executive position upon completion. These programs are sometimes offered before you are hired and sometimes offered mid-career as you are working for the company. In either case, the program often provides a guaranteed route to an officer's position.

In addition to education and experience, you will have to demonstrate leadership and an appropriate set of soft skills to become a company officer. Officers often lead multiple departments and have a high level of responsibility for the overall success of the business. Even though an officer might have a functional area of responsibility, such as finance, he is still part of an executive team that will be assessed based on the success of the company as a whole. Extracurricular activities and trade associations offer opportunities to develop leadership qualities and hone soft skills, such as teamwork, poise, and comportment, that will be essential to any person stepping into an officer's role.