Year after year, students choose to devote their college studies to the field of business. There are many advantages to majoring in business, both during your education and after you graduate. A business degree puts you on the path to numerous growing and profitable careers. Going to business school offers you the opportunity to learn a little about every facet of business and a lot about the areas that most intrigue you. You also have the satisfaction of knowing that the information you learn in your college courses has practical applications beyond the classroom.
A Great Investment in Your Future
Careers in business and finance are among the best-paying occupations, and many of these occupations are seeing above-average job growth. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts opportunities in this field to increase by an overall rate of 10 percent over a decade, leading to the development of 773,800 new jobs for current and prospective business professionals. For students considering a business major, the wealth of job opportunities is promising. A high overall median salary – $67,710, compared to the $37,690 median wage for all occupations in the U.S. – also makes a business degree appealing. If you aspire to work in a management role and are willing to put in the work to do so, the job prospects are slightly less bright, with just eight percent growth expected, but the median salary is much higher at $102,590 per year.
The fastest-growing business occupation is market research analyst, which the BLS anticipates will see a 23 percent increase in job opportunities. The most lucrative non-managerial job is personal financial advisor, which has a median salary of $90,640.
The Perfect Blend of Academic Breadth and Depth
In any academic field, students have to choose between breadth and depth of studies, at least to some degree. After all, you can only cover so much material in the curriculum of a single degree. Choosing a major that is too broad can be detrimental to your future career, because you may not know enough about any one subject area to be valuable to a prospective employer. However, students encounter the opposite problem when they focus their studies on too narrow a subject and find that their degree is not versatile enough to get them a job.
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Business degrees tend to bring together the best of both worlds. When you study business administration, your curriculum typically includes studies in a breadth of business areas. This coursework helps students learn enough about all areas of business that they can understand the fundamental principles and processes involved in business operations and have the educational foundation necessary for a wide array of jobs. Most business administration programs also allow students to choose a concentration or major in which they will explore more specialized coursework. Students can develop expertise in one or two subject areas while still learning about the larger business world that provides the context to these specialized areas.
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The opportunity to declare a concentration within your business administration studies is valuable, because it allows you to cultivate more technical and practical skills. Certain concentrations, like finance and accounting, are more marketable than general business.
A Focus on Real-World Career Preparation
If you have always been the kind of student who gets bored or impatient with studying abstract theories, there are many academic disciplines that might not suit your temperament. Fortunately, business isn’t one of them. While business majors do learn the theories and principles behind business strategies and operations, the best business schools emphasize the development of the same skills employers are looking for in the real world.
Business school instructors are often industry experts who bring their firsthand experiences into their classroom lessons. Assignments recreate real business scenarios. Schools partner with companies to offer co-op experiences, special projects and internship opportunities that help students network with business professionals and apply their classroom studies to real situations on the job. By preparing students for the realities of life in the business world, degree programs in this field are meeting the needs of both their students, who will soon be seeking a job, and employers who have a need for job candidates with practical job skills.
Many business degree programs include a capstone course requirement that can take the form of an internship or independent study experience, a review of case studies, group projects or other methods of integrating the material you learned in the classroom.
Additional Resources
What Is the Salary Potential for Someone With a Business Degree?
What Is the Demand for a Degree in Business?
What Kind of Job Can You Get With a Degree in Business Administration?
What Should You Know When You Interview for a Job With a Degree in Business Administration?
