Can you have a corporate director?

Yes, you can have a corporate director. The term corporate director refers to a corporation's board of directors member. The board of directors generally takes responsibility for the corporation's business affairs. A corporate director does not make decisions for the corporation on their own. As a member of the board of directors, they must function as a part of a group.

What is the difference between a corporate officer and director?

The difference between a corporate officer and a corporate director is one is managing the business as a whole, while the other is overseeing the daily running of the business. The board of directors elects corporate officers.

What qualifications do you need to be a director of a company?

The qualifications you need to be a company director are a degree, intimate organizational knowledge, and various soft skills. Company directors are responsible for their organization's strategic planning and keeping the plan on track and on time.

How To Become A Corporate Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a corporate director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

It must be somebody's job to make sure that things are running smoothly as possible, that the company is developing, moving further in the direction that is agreeable to all, and that growth is maintained and even accelerated. All these responsibilities fall on the valiant Corporate Director. A Corporate Director already has years, if not decades, of experience in the field they are working in, and knows all the bits and pieces of their line of work and of the company as a whole. They also must cooperate with many people and keep all these different ideas and projects running in their head all at once. They must be technically savvy and particularly innovative.

ScoreCorporate DirectorUS Average

Salary

9.0

Avg. Salary $154,906

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.4

Growth Rate 5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 33.56%

male 66.44%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress Level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.4

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a corporate director

Explore corporate director education requirements

Most common corporate director degrees

Bachelor's

70.4 %

Master's

18.2 %

Associate

7.3 %

Start to develop specific corporate director skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	7.26%
Oversight	6.80%
Customer Service	5.60%
Financial Statements	5.36%
Patients	4.52%

Complete relevant corporate director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New corporate directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a corporate director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real corporate director resumes.

Research corporate director duties and responsibilities

Lead corporate governance and compliance functions and manage securities law and relate issues for ESOP (employee-own) enterprise.
Manage RFP for selection of new benefit consultants.
Manage the RFP development and review process through to vendor selection and contract finalization.
Manage accounting staff to provide accurate financial close in compliance with all internal control and SOX requirements.

Get corporate director experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a corporate director. The most common roles before becoming a corporate director include director, manager team lead and general manager.

Prepare your corporate director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your corporate director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a corporate director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Corporate Director Resume templates

Build a professional Corporate Director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Corporate Director resume.

Apply for corporate director jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a corporate director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

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Corporate Director reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

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