City Managers

High School

Take courses in government and social studies to learn about the nature of cities and counties. Math and business courses are important because you'll be working with budgets and statistics and preparing financial reports. English and composition courses, and speech and debate teams are also very important, as you'll need good communication skills for presenting your thoughts and ideas to policy makers, special interest groups, and the community. City managers use planning, data analytics, and a variety of time-management and record-keeping software in their work, so it's a good idea to take as many computer science classes as possible. Take journalism courses and report for your school newspaper to learn about research and conducting polls and surveys.