Most Important Skills For A Senior Director Of Operations At Tend
Mark, a Senior Director of Operations, emphasizes that while experience is crucial, "hard skills" like data analysis (Excel, SQL), and understanding how technology works are essential. Additionally, strong "soft skills" including communication and leadership are vital for success in this leadership role, as is the ability to navigate and adapt to various systems and software.
Leadership, Communication, Data Analysis, Technical Proficiency, Financial Acumen
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Mark Pesin
Sr. Director of Operations
Tend
University of California, Santa Barbara
N/A
Film, Media Arts, Visual Arts
Manufacturing, Operations & Supply Chain, Technology
Operations and Project Management
Took Out Loans, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. Effective communication and leadership skills are crucial for collaboration and buy-in from team members.
2. Proficiency in data analysis, especially using Excel and SQL, is essential for making data-driven decisions.
3. A foundational understanding of technology, including how apps, websites, and databases work, is highly beneficial even without coding expertise, enabling realistic requests from technical teams and efficient problem-solving
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
I'll start with experience. A lot of the skills I'll mention come with time and experience as you experience different things at different companies.
I was very ambitious coming out of college and wanted a position like I have now, right out of college. That's not realistic. You need to put in the hours and get the experience.
Now, I think there are hard skills and soft skills. Communication is key for soft skills, along with getting buy-in from others. When you're a leader, you need to be able to communicate and present problems or solutions with context. Being able to communicate and provide context is really important.
Leadership and communication are really important in my role. Then we get into hard skills. I'd say data analysis and Excel are the basics. I use Excel or Google Sheets every day.
It's not necessary, but knowing SQL helps me not rely on more technical people to perform analysis or pull numbers. I can query our database myself. Data analysis is a must, and SQL is recommended.
In tech, even if you're not a technical employee, it helps to understand how tech works. How do operations work? How do websites work? How do databases work? What is the foundation behind what you see on your phone and computer? How does that ecosystem work?
Even if you don't know JavaScript, you should know what's possible and what's not. When you ask the engineering team for a request, you'll know if it's realistic. Just knowing how things work is really important. College is a great time to lay that foundation and understand how apps, websites, and how they get put together work.
Understanding finance is also super helpful. Knowing how to structure a forecast or an analysis is super important. Knowing different systems is also key. Every company uses a suite of software, and knowing how they work and how to make changes is important.
In this tech age, most young people coming out of college can just figure things out. But you'd be surprised how much I've had to teach people to say, "You're trying to make this send a message automatically based on these conditions. This is where you go to this setting, set this rule, and do it like that." Stuff like that is super helpful.