As recruiters, we at Kimmel & Associates are, first and foremost, career advisors. One of the most important aspects of our job is providing support and insights to professionals in the industries we serve, guiding them as they navigate their long-term careers.

Our Career Pathways Series is a tool we created to help support that effort. Each article provides a step-by-step guide for how to successfully earn and succeed in a specific role, including Senior Estimator, Senior Project Manager, Project Executive, Director of Operations, Regional Project Director, Senior Superintendent, and Safety Manager/Director.

For this article, we spoke with Russ Girgenti, Market Leader in our Waste & Recycling Division, about what aspiring General Managers in the waste and recycling industry need to know. Here's what he told us:

What does a General Manager role in the waste and recycling industry consist of?

Russ: Well, there's no "one size fits all" description there. For starters, within the waste and recycling industry, a General Manager is called a number of different things: GM, of course, but also Landfill Site Manager, District Manager, Branch Manager, and some Operations Managers actually function as GMs. And from the smallest companies to the largest, there's a spectrum of responsibility that a GM might have. They may or may not have P&L oversight, and they could have anywhere from 4 to 40 people under them. A GM at a huge branch with several hundred employees between the hauling, maintenance, and sales divisions could actually be the equivalent of a Vice President at a smaller company.

Is there a typical career path from early career to General Manager?

Russ: There's no specific "Yellow Brick Road" to get you to Oz. There are a few different paths. One major waste and recycling company has an accelerated GM program – their philosophy is to take someone fresh out of college with a degree, train them, and then place them as a GM once they successfully complete the program. In other companies, getting elevated to that GM role might be more relationship-driven than experience-driven, more about having the right connections to get your foot in the door.

But the most effective way to become a General Manager is to perform: Start out as a driver, then become a dispatcher, then move into routing, and on up the line. You can start on the back of a dump truck and work your way up – that gives you the benefit of experience so when you do reach the GM level, you understand the people you're managing. You know what they do and how they do it, so that gives you both empathy and insight into your people. Leaders from other paths without that experience sometimes struggle because they don't have the background – they don't know what it's like to do dispatching, they have to learn what the routing process looks like, etc.

Does becoming a GM require a college degree or formal education?

Russ: Not necessarily. Education can be helpful, depending on what kind of education you get, but I also see a lot of people who just started working at the entry level and now they have the experience they need to succeed as a GM. Some companies do require degrees, but in a lot of cases, a candidate with 20 years of experience can run circles around a college grad with 3-4 of experience, so it just depends on what the company values most.

On average, how long does it take to become a General Manager?

Russ: About 5-8 years, generally speaking. It varies depending on the company's size, the program, the scope… For example, some companies need an experienced turnaround manager to come in to a troubled operation (whatever that looks like – it might be financial issues or a safety program that's not up to par, issues with maintenance, etc.) and provide leadership, make adjustments, and get them back on track. In that case, they might need someone with 10-15+ years of experience – someone with enough experience to say, "OK, I remember when this happened before. Here's a strategy we can use in this particular case."

But as a general rule, after about 8 years, a good GM candidate will be managing fairly large sites or have significant responsibilities by that time. If you haven't shown a particular proclivity to lead by that time, you could still become a GM, it just would take some extra time to develop those skills.

Besides leadership skills, what else are clients looking for in General Manager candidates?

Russ: There are basically two different kinds of companies with different philosophies. One of the first questions I ask clients when recruiting for this role is, "Is this a corporate GM? Someone who's behind a desk, looking at P&L's and trends and things like that?" That's one kind of candidate companies could be looking for, that strategic, corporate mindset.

Other companies are more focused on someone with a hands-on, people-centric leadership style. They want someone who isn't too proud to hop in and help out, to stop what they're doing and run equipment to a site if it needs to get done, someone who goes out to all the sites and visits with the employees, gets to know them. That kind of GM is going to be someone who has that experience, who came up through the ranks and has that empathy and connection with the employees at every level.

What is the average salary range for a General Manager?

Russ: The average is about $120K up to $150K. To go above $150K, you usually have to either be running multiple sites or one larger site. If you're running 50 drivers, that's a lot, so you might be in the $160K to $170K range. As a rule, if the GM role requires someone to cover multiple sites and operations (hauling operations, landfill, transfer stations), you need someone with a lot of diverse experience and that person is going to require more money to make a move.

What advice would you give to a waste and recycling professional who wants to become a General Manager?

Russ: Two things. One, don't "job jump" from one employer to another. Companies are more likely to promote employees who show longevity and commitment to excellence within their organization over the long term. Some of the most impressive resumes are from people at one company who became Lead Driver, then Dispatcher, Route Manager, up to Operations Supervisor, Operations Manager, and then General Manager. That's a natural progression through the ranks, and you can do that on the maintenance side, the landfill side, or the transfer station side. So getting that experience, being in each "seat" and understanding that role and their side of things will help you at the GM level.

The other thing is to find someone who's willing to invest in you – a mentor who you can approach and say, "I want to get to this GM level. Can you help me walk through that process?" The different business sides of waste and recycling can be pretty diverse, but generally speaking, whatever "silo" you're in, find someone higher up who can see your potential, and be willing to put in the work and prove that you'll make the effort. Find someone who's willing to tell you what you need to work on, and then put in the time, find a course, build those skills. There are great leaders out there who are willing to be those mentors to help create a succession plan.

Those two things make great leaders – the ones who understand how hard it is to get there and who are willing to help others working tirelessly to get there.

Are there many companies in waste and recycling who prioritize that mentorship aspect?

Russ: Most C-level people don't have mentors, but some do. There is a C-level leader at a smaller company who does still have a mentor, and he's very disciplined and intentional about how he's building his business. His mentor is part of the interview process for all new hires, so he's emulating and practicing mentorship for himself and with his team – and they're rapidly growing, seeing huge success.

That said, it's not an inherent company value at most places. A lot of companies will say, "Yes, we value that," but it's important to dig in and ask, "OK – how?" How do they show they value mentorship and succession planning? What it comes down to is that it's all about people – who's always learning, who's open to being questioned and challenged? Who's that person everyone knows and will tell you, "If you want to know how things work, don't go see Joe, go see Betty. She knows everything"? Find those people. Value those people.

What makes an exceptional General Manager?

Russ: Generally speaking, the most successful GMs are the ones who know what they can do but don't brag about it. They have a sense of humility about their success that allows them to relate both up and down that chain of command, and they're the ones I think are the most well liked. There's a saying that people get promoted to their level of incompetency – in other words, you get promoted until you stagnate, until you've gotten beyond your skill set, your experience.

So the most important thing for a GM is to understand what they do well and what they don't do well, and then work on what they don't do well – whether that's through coaching, being open to criticism (that's constructive, respectful), actual performance reviews, etc. But then also being realistic about the relationships and power dynamics that can exist in companies – they're real, and you have to be able to navigate those things.