COO

Take a look at the job listings of the typical Fortune 500 company, and you’re likely to see every position from Janitor to President. When it comes to working your way through the managerial grades, a job as a COO (Chief Operating Officer) ranks pretty high. Simply put, you are the manager to all of the departmental managers, and you report directly to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer).

Your main goal as the COO is to optimize the day-to-day operations of the company. You evaluate processes, consider materials costs, oversee budgets, and, of course, manage people. You interview, hire, and fire them as needed. You also coordinate training, answer questions, provide guidance, evaluate performance, deal with interpersonal dilemmas, approve vacation requests, and recommend promotions.

Your staff doesn’t need a lot of handholding, since they’re Managers of departments like customer service, account management, sales, marketing, and information technology. But they all report to you. You frequently schedule meetings to make sure, for example, that the marketing and information technology departments share a timeline for the product rollout next month. In other words, you see to it that everyone in the building is on the same page.

Of course, the goal of nearly every business is to make money. So you set achievable yet challenging goals for each department, regularly review budgets and expenses, oversee quality control, make recommendations for cost cutting and efficiency, and generally stay informed about all activities within the company.