Jobs for operations occur in every industry and at every level. Nonetheless, no matter what industry you work in, you'll need to be both analytical as well as able to see the broad picture at the same time. You'll need to be a good leader, and you will also need to be decisive yet flexible as the situation may demand. You will be required to work with people from a variety of backgrounds, and you'll have to communicate with them on their own terms. So you need good communication skills as well.
As an operations manager in administrative services, for example, you may be in charge of coordinating support services that let businesses and companies operate effectively. Or, if you own your own business, you as the proprietor may be operations manager for every facet of the company, depending on its size. Because this is such a broad and diverse field, the designation of "operations manager" or "operations leader" is more of a generic term than a specific job description that can be clearly explained.
Nonetheless, this type of position entails that you oversee the operations of the sector of which you are in charge and make it run efficiently.
Depending on where you are placed in operations, you may be in charge of day-to-day operations, or you may be in charge of developing long-term plans, policies, and goals and then delegating them to other, lower-level managerial staff to implement.
Looking for jobs in operations
If you have the capability to be analytical and to see the big picture at the same time, you may have the propensity for jobs in operations in your particular field of expertise. In general, if you wish to work in operations, this involves establishing yourself in a managerial position within a company, either as an entrepreneur or as someone else's employee.
Of course, you may wish to begin working for someone else and then decide to branch out on your own. This has been the career path of many entrepreneurs who have decided to start off on their own after having worked under others in their chosen industry.
Management skills in operations
Jobs in operations in any capacity involve being a good manager. Therefore, you're going to have to like working with people, and you are going to have to be able to delegate responsibilities in some respects. You may also have to supervise people in their job duties. That depends on the level of management you are in, of course; if you are a manager in the upper echelons of your company, you may not deal with personnel directly at all but may instead deal with long-term planning or goals for the company. As managerial staff moves down the company ladder, managers have more and more direct and supervisory contact with personnel in day-to-day operations of the company.
Getting operations jobs
Whether you get operations jobs Boston or elsewhere in the country, the best way to go about it is to begin at an entry-level position and then work your way up. As you advance through your career, you will be given more responsibilities and you may indeed move up to managerial or operations positions. You may even decide to move to other company or you may eventually begin your own business, in which case you are likely to be in charge of most if not all operations yourself, at least initially.
Education and background
Most managerial or operations jobs require that you have a college degree in your particular area of expertise. In some cases, very talented entrepreneurs have begun their own businesses with no more than a high school education (and sometimes not even that), only to go on to build multimillion dollar empires, simply because they have the drive, talent and desire to succeed. It's up to you, of course, to decide whether or not you need a college education to work in operations jobs, but in most cases, established businesses are going to require that you have a college degree in your area of expertise before you begin to work with them.
Compensation and outlook
Because operations jobs occur in every industry, compensation and outlook for each of these jobs vary within those industries. Doing your own research on the Internet should help you determine not only the compensation and outlook for each of these industries, but the availability of jobs currently in your particular area of expertise, too. As one example, though, company managers in general across all job sectors had a mean salary of about $127,000 a year as of 2007. Again, this is just one example and a very general average across all industries.
