Despite slumps in lower levels of the hiring market, companies are currently waging war to get people for senior management jobs. As many as 70% of executive recruiters surveyed say that there aren't enough people to run things.
The biggest job growth for senior level jobs is in the south and the southeast, but the west is also a big contender. Texas and the rest of the southwest are a good choice as well. Coming in behind these regions is the Midwest, with New England and the Northeast United States trailing behind in fifth place. As long as you're willing to leave your current region for Houston, Portland, Atlanta, or another major location, job opportunities for managers and leaders are extremely good. These rankings are a little bit of a change from a few years ago, when the mid-Atlantic and NYC metro area were placed better than they do now.
Because of lower costs, businesses are expanding into the southeast and southern United States. The industries that are strongest and growing fast include health care, pharmaceuticals, energy, and high tech industries; all of which are located mostly in the areas that are best for senior level jobs. Regional shifts merely represent the locations where these growing industries are concentrated.
Even in areas ranked lower, there are, however, a number of high-level operations and general management jobs. Even Midwestern manufacturing companies need people to fill senior management jobs, despite the problems faced by the auto industry. For instance, recent postings include a position of vice president of quality control in Wisconsin at $150,000 per year, plus profit sharing, and a $20,000 bonus.
Even within the financial services industry, which is generally suffering troubles at the moment, high-level jobs are available. The industry badly needs people with experience dealing with risk management and who have good turnaround skills.
Remember that the companies hiring the most might not be the biggest. Companies with sales of over a billion, plan to hire only twelve percent more people for senior management jobs, while those with revenues between fifty million and two hundred million are expanding by nearly thirty percent. No matter where you're looking for a job, it seems that a background in engineering will help, with companies placing great emphasis on R&D and on operating efficiency. It's hard to find good engineers these days! The switch to looking for engineering professionals could be a good sign for the economy in general. After all, these positions tend to be geared towards innovations and progress, which could lead to changes that create jobs for the ailing lower sectors of the employment market. A switch to hiring more engineering professionals for senior management positions could make the entire job market healthier.
One big change in recent years is that, even for jobs that aren't in your area, relocation is less important than it used to be. Computer and telephone technologies allow people to do business from many different locations, allowing companies to hire more mobile, remote, and telecommuting workers.
Even in senior levels, it's possible for an executive to try out a job at a distance before relocating, and even to avoid relocation entirely. That's a big change in the way senior level jobs work. Companies are much less willing to reimburse employees for the cost of their move, given the short duration of many executives' terms of employments. That makes a lot of us much less willing to uproot our homes and families if the transfer doesn't work out.
While the rest of the market is still fairly quiet, and job competition at lower levels is surprisingly strong, upper level jobs need to be filled. That means that many people could find incredible opportunities in senior level jobs that they wouldn't have looked at before. Hiring managers are getting desperate in some situations, hoping to find leaders and managers to help their companies.
There just aren't enough people qualified for these jobs applying to fill them. If you're a senior management professional, and especially if you have engineering experience or education, now's the time to take a look at all the available senior level jobs out there. You could be missing an incredible opportunity.
