Senior managers of financial, communications and other business services create and set the goals for the organization. Since they hold a leadership position in their organization, they also develop and approve policies and programs for their departments.
People in this career can work for a wide variety of companies in the public and private sectors.
Source: Estimated median employment income based on 2021 Job Bank median hourly wage rate (median annual salary = hourly wage rate x 40 (hours per week) x 52.14 (weeks per year))
Note:Estimated median employment income based on 2021 Job Bank median hourly wage rate (median annual salary = hourly wage rate x 40 (hours per week) x 52.14 (weeks per year))
Source: 2021 Job Bank Wage Report
Source: B.C. Labour Market Outlook
10 year expected job openings: 6,510
N/A - Data not available
In general, senior managers of financial, communications and other business services:
Senior financial managers are primarily focused on the financial areas of a company while senior communications managers oversee elements such as marketing, public relations, social media and the company’s brand reputation. Senior managers in other business services may be involved with human resources, company culture and employee morale.
Senior managers in financial, communications and other business services usually work in an office environment. The widespread use of technology has increased the opportunity for some people to work from a home office on a part-time basis.
Senior managers of financial, communications and other business services are usually appointed by a board of directors and often report to people who hold titles such as director and vice-president. They work alone at times and other times they work directly with the Chief Executive Officer, President or Executive Director of the organization.
Source: 2016 Census
The job requirements for a senior manager, financial, communications and other business services typically include:
Senior managers in financial roles usually need a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation.
Additionally, the following may be required:
For more information about programs offered specifically for this career, visit EducationPlannerBC.
Every job calls for a certain set of skills. Knowing those skills is the first step in finding a good career fit.
Here, you will find the 35 most relevant workplace skills. Some are more important to achieving success in a certain career than others. These skills may come naturally to you or you may need to gain them through education, training and experience.
See the list of work-related skills below, ranked in order of importance for this career. You’ll also find the skill strength needed, letting you know how capable you must be in that skill.
Check out the list and see if this career matches your skills—take that first step!
In addition to the specific skills required to work in finance, communications and other business services, having good people skills is equally important. A senior manager may be called to speak to people throughout the company from the most junior employee to the chief executive officer, and they need to do that in a way that makes people feel comfortable. In addition, senior managers frequently make presentations to a board of directors, to investors or at conferences. They may also be required to attend networking events with senior executives.
Career paths
With experience or additional education, people in the role of senior financial manager can move up to director of finance, vice-president of finance or chief financial officer.
Senior managers of communications who gain several years of experience or with additional education, can be promoted to communications or marketing director, vice-president or senior vice-president. People in this career sometimes open their own agency.
For other business services such as human resources, being in this job means that with additional experience or education, there may be the opportunity to move into a director or vice-president position or to open their own human resources agency.
Additional resources