So You Want to Work in Corporate Strategy? Learn What It Takes.

Career Expert

Corporate strategy roles can take a number of different forms – from requiring experience in investment banking or consulting to an understanding of data-driven business analysis and coding languages. At my company, UpScored, we think a lot about what skills are required for different roles, and on the flip side, what types of careers people are most interested in. We are constantly looking at trends and career interests across the candidates on our platform.

The Most Popular Non-Technical Roles Are in Strategy

We recently took a look at the most popular job openings on our site. Interestingly, the three most in-demand non-technical opportunities were all strategy roles. Before jumping into the specifics, I’ll offer more background on how we came to our findings.

UpScored is a career discovery platform that connects professionals to their best career prospects. That said, an important part of our platform is a feature by which candidates can like or dislike different job prospects so we can learn from their preferences (similar to Pandora). We analyzed career interests across 16,000 job descriptions to find the most popular roles. Currently, the top opportunities are:

• Finance & Strategy Manager at ZocDoc
• Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Viacom
• Strategy Analyst at Squarespace

While all three strategy roles require a sophisticated level of analytics, it’s clear from the job descriptions that each opportunity is notably different. For instance, the strategy role at Squarespace requires experience with programming languages (Python, C++, Java) while the position at ZocDoc is more focused on operations and financial planning. These findings piqued our interest, which led us to further explore what it means to be in a strategy role.

Advice Straight From a Former Corporate Strategist

We took our research beyond the job description to ask an expert: what does it really take to be a stellar corporate strategist? We sat down with Alexandra Nicholson, a former Corporate Strategy and Business Development Manager at NBCU and Harvard Business School grad. Prior to NBCU and Harvard, Alexandra honed her analytical skills in investment banking at Barclays Capital covering the Media and Communications sectors.  We asked Alexandra what it takes to work in corporate strategy.

Elise: What is the single most important skill for someone in a corporate strategy position?

Alexandra: The most important skill for anyone working in corporate strategy is the ability to focus. It sounds simple, but there are a lot of challenges and opportunities that come across your radar in a strategy role, related to competitors, potential partners, product development, etc. My best colleagues have been able to rise above the noise, clearly see which issues are most and least critical, and deliver targeted recommendations on the right next steps.

Elise: What would you recommend to candidates who want to move into a corporate strategy role? Any tips for getting the job?

Alexandra: Before considering any strategy position, you should be clear on what’s expected in that role. Strategy can encompass many different types of work depending on the company: finance, business development, and strategic planning, among others. It’s easy to apply for a strategy role, expecting one type of work, and find yourself engaged in something completely different. Probe deeply into the types of projects that you can expect, the backgrounds of your future teammates, and the actual day-to-day tasks of the job.

The good news for anyone interested in corporate strategy is that the positions are often multi-faceted, so firms may be open to candidates with passion and relevant skills (in addition to those with prior strategy experience). In the past, I’ve worked with former lawyers, consultants, and operating managers on strategy-focused teams. Even if you don’t come from a consulting firm, your perspective can be incredibly valuable to a corporate strategy group.

Elise: How do you think your background in investment banking helped you prepare for your role as a Strategy & Business Development Manager?

Alexandra: Having a strong finance background has helped me immensely. Many of the projects that I’ve worked on required the capacity to analyze and dissect historical financial statements and build forecasting models, or both. I would say, though, that any experience demonstrating an analytical mindset would be valued by a strategy team. Broadly speaking, the strategy team offers perspective to senior leaders about the future of the organization and provides recommendations around the choices that the company needs to make, given its value proposition, resources, and place among competitors. This advice needs to be grounded in solid quantitative analysis, as well as theory. As such, the capacity to work with numbers and an interest in using data to answer questions is crucial for any strategy hire.

Discover Strategy Roles and Other Top Opportunities at UpScored

If you’re interested in strategy roles or discovering other career opportunities at top companies like ZocDoc or Viacom, we’re offering exclusive access to our platform for Women For Hire readers.  Discover your next career move at www.upscored.com.

 

Author’s Background
Elise Runde Voss is the CEO and Co-Founder of UpScored, a career discovery platform that intelligently connects professionals to their best career prospects. Before co-founding UpScored, Elise worked at Point72 Asset Management (formerly SAC Capital Advisors), a $10bn multi-strategy investment firm.  During her time at Point72, she played central roles in helping launch two different business divisions: the firm’s big data strategy group and its multi-sector research platform. She’s extremely passionate about helping people find their ideal careers through better technology. You can contact her directly at elise@upscored.com.

Study: Taking Low-Level Jobs Hurts in Long Run

Career Expert

A post-recession study has found that employers seeking office workers were more likely to call unemployed applicants with relevant experience than those with similar backgrounds who took a lower-level position during the economic downturn.  Nearly 10% of the jobless applicants were called by the employes, compared to 8.5% of those who had taken a stopgap job.  But some staffing experts still say having a job, any job, beats the alternative, USA Today reports. “I think the employer… says they’re continuing to work and continuing to develop their skills,” says John Reed, an executive at staffing firm Robert Half.

Sleeping More at Home Pays Off at Work

Career Expert

Sleep deprivation causes many problems: a spike in heart disease risk, depression, weight gain and certain types of cancer, says sleep researcher James B. Maas. Plus, it will make you less popular at the office, since it makes it harder to concentrate, make decisions and get along with others. But get anywhere between 7 ½ and nine hours of sleep, you’re almost three times more likely to gain insight into a problem compared those who remained awake, says Maas. Read more tips here.

Tis the Season… to Earn Extra Income!

Career Expert

As the holidays are approaching this means family gatherings, holiday cheer and loosening of the purse strings. As the temperatures drop, expenses rise due to holiday shopping. Now is the perfect time to begin exploring opportunities to earn extra income, to purchase those must-have gifts, for friends and family.

A Home-Based Business Opportunity that Offers You Flexibility
The Arise Virtual Solutions work-at-home opportunity is tailor made for entrepreneurial individuals looking to supplement their income, because you can be your own boss and choose the days and blocks of time you want to work. Therefore, you can work as little or as many hours as you want, depending on the amount of extra money you are looking to generate.

Arise provides technology and support infrastructure to a network of primarily at-home, small call center businesses. These independent, work-at-home customer service providers use the Arise network to deliver customer support, sales and technical support to Fortune 500 clients, while enjoying the freedom and flexibility it provides.

The Weather Outside is Frightful but Working from Home is Delightful!
A work-at-home opportunity allows you to put away your shovel and winter gear. When you work from home you don’t have to worry about shoveling your car out from under feet of snow or contend with the cold by wearing layers of clothing. Your commute entails walking from your bedroom, to your home office – where it’s inevitably warmer than it is outside. You can even work in your pajamas if you choose to!

Joining the Arise Network
People who use the Arise platform enjoy the flexibility of earning a living while working from home, scheduling when they want to work, and being their own boss. 

Get Started on Your Home-Based Business Today by Registering in the Arise Network.

About Arise
Arise Virtual Solutions is changing the way companies think about call center services. Arise provides a virtual platform to connect primarily work-at-home small call center businesses to Fortune 500 and other large companies. For over a decade, Arise’s platform has enabled superior and extremely flexible customer contact, business processing and consulting solutions for numerous companies around the globe, uniquely blending crowdsourcing innovation, virtual technology and operational efficiencies to deliver an enhanced customer experience for a company’s customers. Arise Virtual Solutions is an industry leader and has been featured on many national news segments, such as: Good Morning America, Bloomberg Television, Fox News, CNN, and the TODAY Show. Learn More About Arise.

 

Hiring Manager Ignoring You?

Career Expert

You’e gone through many stops in a rigorous hiring process — only to be subsequently ignored by a hiring manager after an interview.  It’s annoying and unsettling— and very common.  The New York Post has a name for it: job ghosting.  Here, six ways to come when it happens to you.

 

Pink Slip to Paradise?

Tory Johnson

“I’ve never been let go before,” SportsCenter producer Gus Ramsey wrote in a blog post of his layoff after 21 years at ESPN. “I’m still processing it. It sucks. I know everyone goes through it, some multiple times. But it’s new to me. I’m not bitter, not yet anyway.”

As I read the news of the layoff at ESPN, it took me back more than two decades when I was a young PR staffer at NBC News in New York. I loved everything about my job – from getting to work alongside network news superstars like Maria Shriver, Jane Pauley and Tim Russert, to working at iconic 30 Rock, just a few floors away from NBC’s Saturday Night Live studio.

Then one day, without warning, a new boss came in and cleaned house. Pack your stuff and leave the building, I was told. I begged him to reconsider. I told him that if he gave me a chance, he wouldn’t regret it.

“Tory,” he said from his big leather chair. “It’s a big world out there. I suggest you go explore it.”

I went home to my tiny apartment, closed the blinds and explored nothing but pints of Haagen Daz for days. I was crushed, scared and angry. Read More