Management and operations sector profile

• Different areas of management and operations 
• Typical roles in management and operations 
• Skills and qualifications
• Salaries
• Key employers
• The application process
• Management and operations sector graduate jobs and schemes
• More information

Are you great with people? Do you enjoy organising workplaces and planning future projects? If you want a career working with people to improve an organisation either in its environment or its output, a career in the management and operations sector could be perfect for you.

Are you interested in a job in the management and operations sector? Explore the current graduate jobs available in HR and recruitment and management and business.

Different areas of management and operations

The management and operations sector has a wide range of jobs available to suit your interests and requirements. Most of the jobs focus on the human aspect of business and management of colleagues to keep a workplace positive, make sure it runs smoothly and has a good working atmosphere for everyone. Here are the areas within the sector that you might be interested in:

Human resources (HR)

When working in human resources, you deal with all stages of an employee working in an organisation, from beginning to end. You look through applications for jobs that the company advertises and screen the applicants. You deal with workplace issues by speaking to colleagues, addressing the problems they have and coming up with solutions to prevent future issues. You suggest department-wide training strategies, for example in equality in the workplace.

Operations and communications

Operations roles help an organisation run well by providing support with tasks like project management and implementation of business strategies. The purpose of operations jobs is to make sure that business efforts are efficient and help maximise profits.

Communications roles deal with the spread of information for an organisation both internally and externally. This could be sending emails to different departments to update colleagues on success stories, new developments in the company and other pieces of information that they should be aware of. External communication includes sending newsletter and email updates to stakeholders alongside social media presence and answering questions from the public and the press.

Business management

Working in business management means overseeing what the organisation is doing. You analyse the current events and plan future ones to increase profits or public awareness. You may work with budgets, seeing whether the business is sticking to them and changing future budgets accordingly. 

If you want to know more, you can read this Bright Network guide to business management.

Typical roles in management and operations

You can find out about business and management graduate schemes but if you’re interested in learning about various career options, here are some jobs in the sector available to you:

Human resources manager

Much of your work as a human resources manager is administrative. Part of this could be reading job applications for available positions in the company. You do an initial screening of the application and sometimes even an interview with the candidate before handing over to the relevant department if you think the candidate is good enough. Your role might include working with payroll, making sure your colleagues get the right pay at the right time. 

If you’re interested in a career in HR, learn about Bright Network member Labuda and her work in HR at Kier Group.

Training and development manager

As a training and development manager, you’re responsible for giving your colleagues great opportunities and providing training for them. Your job is making colleagues feel confident that they can complete their jobs to a high level and providing them with training if they are lacking in any areas. This is to reduce the turnover of staff and improve the company culture.

Operations analyst

As an operations analyst, you review an organisation’s policies. In this role, you find areas of improvement for the organisation by looking for any issues that colleagues have within the organisation. Your job includes writing reports on the problems you found with suggestions for how to improve the workplace in the future. This role is analytical so you use the data that the organisation provides to make suggestions.

Communications manager

Communications managers are responsible for all the communications which an organisation outputs, whether this is internal newsletters or published content on a website. In this role, you represent the organisation and make sure the content matches the tone that the organisation wants to convey and request edits from junior members of the team. 

Skills and qualifications

Having the right skills and qualifications ideally positions you to work well in the management and operations sectors. Here’s what you need to succeed:

Skills

• Verbal communication. Working in the management and operations sector usually requires excellent verbal communication skills. If you’re working for human resources, you need to communicate effectively with your colleagues to help them deal with issues they’re facing. You may also need to skillfully communicate with colleagues that you’re delivering bad news to.
• Analytical skills. Some jobs in the sector require you to have analytical skills to perform the role well. This is particularly important for operations analyst jobs. You need to understand how to effectively analyse numbers so you can come up with new strategies for improving productivity within the company. This is the same for training and development. You need to analyse data to understand the areas of the business which are less successful and are encouraging colleagues to leave the organisation so you can make recommendations for changes.
• Written communication. Having great written communication skills helps with most management and operations jobs. In many of the roles, you write reports which are distributed to your manager and sometimes more widely around the company. Communications jobs require particularly good written communication skills. This helps you address the reader in the precise way that is appropriate for the organisation you’re working for so they feel like they’re interacting with the organisation rather than a single person.
• Problem-solving. The sector revolves around helping your colleagues in order to encourage productivity. Solving problems is part of this process. In HR, you solve issues that your colleagues come to you with, whether that’s a conflict with another colleague or a problem with working hours. When working in training and development or as an operations analyst, you find workable solutions to problems that you have identified. This requires not only great problem-solving skills but critical thinking too.

If you want to know more, you can learn about the top skills for a career in management.

Qualifications

The qualifications that you need for this sector depend on the job you’re doing. In human resources, having a relevant undergraduate degree teaches you the skills that you need to work successfully along with examples of good work practice. Alternatively, you could get a college diploma in human resources.

As an operations analyst, you typically require an undergraduate and a master’s degree in a business-related subject. Some companies may employ you without a master’s degree if you have sufficient experience in business or another analysis-based job.

In communications, having an undergraduate degree isn’t always necessary. With experience through an internship or apprenticeship or a college diploma, you could work upwards in a communications role.

For most of these roles, you can complete apprenticeships with big companies. If you’re interested in the apprenticeship route, you can use this government tool for searching for apprenticeships across England.

Salaries

The range of salaries available to you in the management and operations sector depends on the type of job you’re doing. Here are the salary expectations that you might have in the sector:

• Human resources managers earn between £30,000 and £60,000 per year. This range depends on your experience and seniority.
• Working as an operations analyst could see you earn between £25,000 and £50,000 per year.
• As a communications officer, you could earn between £23,000 and £40,000 per year.
• As a training and development manager, you could earn between £30,000 and £70,000 per year depending on your experience, the type of company you work for and your geographic location.

For more information, read this guide to business management salaries.

Key employers

• Deutsche Bank
• Fidelity International
• S&P Global

If you want to learn more, find out about the leading graduate employers in business, management and operational roles.

The application process

CV and cover letter

Whilst you know that you’d be great in any management and operations job, you need to prove this to a hiring manager. The best way to do this is through a great job application. Your application begins with sending in your CV and a cover letter. This CV should be tailored to the job you’re applying for. This means writing out your work experience and educational history in a way that tells the hiring manager you have the right skills and experience for the role. 

One tip for writing a great CV is to write about what you achieved in a job rather than your responsibilities. For example, in customer service, instead of saying that you dealt with customer deliveries, mention how your organisational skills meant customers had a high satisfaction rate by efficiently helping them with the delivery service that the store offered. If you need a hand getting started with your CV, here is a guide for how to write a CV.

Alongside your CV, you should include a cover letter in your application. This cover letter should be written specifically for the job you’re applying for because it’s your first opportunity to speak to a hiring manager. Whilst a CV shows you’re qualified for a job, a cover letter shows you’re the right candidate for the job. You should use the job description to write the cover letter. If they’re looking for someone with a particular skill, prove to them that you have it! That being said, make sure that everything you write in your cover letter is true. If you don’t have one of the required skills, don’t pretend you do because it will become fairly obvious either in the interview or if you get the job that you don’t. Writing a great cover letter can take some skill. If you need perfecting yours, follow this handy guide for how to write a cover letter and impress prospective employers.

Interviews

If your application is successful and catches the eye of the hiring manager, they invite you in for an interview. Interviews can seem like a daunting process but if you’re qualified for the role then the most difficult part could be finding enough examples from your previous work for the situational questions! Whilst an interview is the time for you to prove to a hiring manager that you’re right for the job, it’s also the time for them to get you interested in the role and sell it to you. Having some specific questions about the job can help you understand more about what it involves and whether it's the right fit for you. If you want some tips to help you ace the interview, follow this useful guide for how to tackle face-to-face, phone and video interviews.

Has this sparked your interest? Read this guide to find out how to get a graduate job in management.

Management and operations sector graduate jobs and schemes

More information

Read this article to answer the question: what kind of business management roles are there? Has this inspired you to continue your education? Learn the 5 key tips to master a business school interview.