In modern times, it is crucial to prevent risks that can ultimately jeopardize your business’s survival. For that, you need to look for professional risk managers. It is the reason why they have become a significant focus for almost every kind of company. Less and well-managed risk means more chances for your business’s success. And they know how to do that.

Their job is to communicate risk processes and policies for a business. Plus, they give analytical support and in-depth research to handle and assess the risks faced by the industry. They are also held accountable for developing various processes and strategies for risk management that’s beneficial for the organization.

They tend to work 9-5, but senior-level managers may put some additional hours in the nights or weekends. Offering your services to a vast variety of organizations and businesses, you can make a whopping $57.56 per hour! But for that, first, you must get a bachelor’s degree in finance or business. You will have an extra advantage if you earn a master’s degree.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a risk manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.33 an hour? That’s $121,316 a year!

Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 104,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does a Risk Manager Do

There are certain skills that many risk managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed organizational skills, math skills and analytical skills.

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a risk manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.8% of risk managers included procedures, while 7.8% of resumes included oversight, and 7.6% of resumes included regulatory agencies. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn’t even think offered positions related to the risk manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most risk managers actually find jobs in the finance and health care industries.

How To Become a Risk Manager

If you’re interested in becoming a risk manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We’ve determined that 66.2% of risk managers have a bachelor’s degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.0% of risk managers have master’s degrees. Even though most risk managers have a college degree, it’s possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a risk manager. When we researched the most common majors for a risk manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor’s degree degrees or master’s degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on risk manager resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a risk manager. In fact, many risk manager jobs require experience in a role such as staff nurse. Meanwhile, many risk managers also have previous career experience in roles such as registered nurse or manager.

Risk Manager Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what’s a career path you ask? Well, it’s practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of vice president you might progress to a role such as chief finance officer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title chief finance and operating officer.

Average Salary For A Risk Manager

Risk Managers in America make an average salary of $121,316 per year or $58 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $171,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $86,000 per year.

Top Skills For A Risk Manager

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we’ve found all of the skills you’ll need so even if you don’t have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.8% of risk managers listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as organizational skills and math skills are important as well.