Your Guide to Majoring in Business

[Hank Scorpio]

Okay, I've just discovered this section of the forum today and noticed the large amount of bad things being said about majoring in business. This is a very long post, but a must read for anyone who is just starting or is considering majoring in business. I'm graduating at the end of this year from an okay private school with a major in Business Administration (basically covers every subject that's business-related) with a double concentration in finance and economics and wanted to clear some things up.

First off, the difficulty of a business degree depends on what you're majoring in. I agree that marketing is a joke. From what I saw, it's basically filled up with hot girls who can't major in anything else and people who want to breeze through their classes. I haven't had too many classes in MIS, but I suggest steering clear of it at this point due to the fact that there is currently an overabundance of MIS majors (this might not be accurate, but it's what I've been told by a few people). Accounting is respectable and does require a good deal of work. I wasn't really interested in it, though, because it didn’t include enough analysis for my liking. If you want to make a good deal of money with a career in accounting, a CPA is a must.

Now on to what I’m familiar with: economics and finance. I saw one poster say that economics is a joke and I don’t think he could have been anymore wrong. My toughest classes were by far economics classes. Once you get by the dull intro’s, you start taking interesting classes like game theory, econometrics, and intermediate courses that use calculus and methods like linear regression to solve real world problems. Finance doesn’t really involve a lot of math. Sure it’s basically one formula after another in pricing different securities and stuff like that, but in terms of difficulty anyone who knows basic algebra can do this stuff. The bulk of the finance courses are difficult because of the amount of work involved. For my Seminar class, I have a 45 page paper due next week that involves a ton of research. I’ll go more into detail about the specifics of these majors if you need me to.

Another post I read asked about what majors are there that are respectable yet don’t require a lot of math (I was going to respond in the actual thread, but thought I mine as well get it out of the way now). Not being good at math but still being successful is very hard to do. I was in the same situation coming out of high school. I think I scored a 520 on the math section of my SATs. The key is understanding that it’s one of your weaknesses and doing whatever you can to improve on it. Take a summer course to improve in it, or just go to the library and study by yourself. You have to realize that you don’t have to be naturally smart to be good at math. I didn’t work as hard as I could have in high school, so I was behind in math by the time I got to college. But I worked hard as hell in every class and now I’m taking intermediate economics classes that require a lot of calculus (just the basics, but it’s still calculus). If I was told that I would be one of the 5 people left in a math-intensive class that had 25 people in it at the beginning of the term, I would have laughed at you. Cliff Notes: Life isn’t easy (unless you play poker) and the only way you’re going to get somewhere is if you try harder than others.

Also, the majority of the people majoring in business in this forum seem to be going to average colleges. I just wanted to say that yes, you will have a disadvantage when you’ll be competing with graduates from better schools for jobs. They key is never forgetting about what your resume will look like when everything is said and done. I was focused on only grades and having a good time that I really didn’t allocate enough time to extracurricular activities that would make my resume look good. I would suggest typing up your resume after your 1st term and just keeping it nearby so that you’ll be forced to look at it every now and then. Remember that when you graduate you’ll be competing with hundreds of people for the top jobs…why should an employer hire someone with no accomplishments accept a good GPA at an okay college? Join as many activities as you can to make that piece of paper look good.

Putting an effort into your classes is crucial, but you might even learn more from what you learn outside of them. The majority of the stuff you learn in classes is theoretical and not very useful for the real world. You MUST read the wall street journal every day to keep up with current news. I started reading it my junior year and yeah, it’s a complete bitch at first because you’re not used to dedicating 45 minutes of your day to reading stuff about companies that don’t interest you. But once you make it a part of your routine, it’s just like reading anything else that interests you. More importantly, though, it’s filled with a ton of great information, especially the money & investing section. In my final finance classes, it’s so obvious which people actually cared about what they were majoring in and which people didn’t. Only around 40% of the people seem to know a great deal about what they’re learning in, but this may differ from school to school.

Finally, let me touch on what to do when you graduate. There really isn’t a lot of great information about the different types of careers available to business majors. With a good amount of research, though, you’ll be able to find enough info. I suggest knowing what you want to do by the beginning of your junior year since you’ll be looking for internships in that area. Also, be aware that you need to start looking for jobs during the fall of your senior year. For a lot of different careers a CFA is a must if you want to move up. When researching your potential career, find out if it will help, and then plan taking your Level 1 CFA test the December after you graduate (it’s only available December and June and there’s no need to rush taking it during the June of your senior year since you’ll need a few years of work experience to get the title anyway). If you want a job in investment banking or venture capital, realize that your chances are low right out of college. Networking and building up your resume are crucial.

If you have any questions or disagree with anything I said, let me know. I’ll try helping out as much as I can. If I had known what was in this post before I started college, my life would have been A LOT easier.

[whyzze]

One thing I think you did not emphasize enough is joining a professional organization at your school. i did not do this and I definately regret it. If I had joined and been an active member I would have known the best way to go about taking my classes with which professors, along with having people to tutor me.

But most importantly, alot of them will be working when you graduate, its amazing for networking. I got some of these things from my fraternity, but a professional org would have been more helpful.

Aside form that. www.ratemyprofessor.com

[En Passant]

Very insightful Hank, thanks!

[bb88]

Ok, I am graduating from an average (maybe slightly above average, but definately not top-notch) business school with a bachelor's in marketing next year. I went for marketing because that's what I'm interested in. I could've easily done finance or accounting but didn't want to. Did I completely [censored] myself over?

[whyzze]

friend of mine graduated with a 3.9 gpa in marketing and he is now working for Ameriprise.

So no, you can be a financial planner if you cant find a marketing job...my friend couldn't, so now he works at ameriprise.

ps. Ameriprise will take anybody.

[Thremp]

bb88,

You want to sell stuff, right? That is what marketing is.

[bb88]

I want to want for the marketing department of local professional and/or minor league sports teams.

Edit: I've got a 4.0 GPA through my junior year, if that makes a difference (not meant to be a brag, I just want to know if that makes me considerably less screwed).

[Thremp]

bb88,

I think pay is a pittance at those jobs, since they are in fairly high demand IIRC. Though it is a field you major lends itself toward.

A non-paid internship at a place will likely improve your chances a great deal.

[kordothebear]

Thank you for this thread, it has been very helpful. I will be finishing up a 2 year AA degree this spring semester. And this fall, I am transhering to a 4 year school into there business program. However I am still undecided what my major in business will be. I like math, so a business degree that is heavy in math is what I am looking for. Here is a link to the majors the school offers, do you have any suggestions? and or also tips? http://bulletin.stcloudstate.edu/ugb/cob.asp

[whyzze]

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you for this thread, it has been very helpful. I will be finishing up a 2 year AA degree this spring semester. And this fall, I am transhering to a 4 year school into there business program. However I am still undecided what my major in business will be. I like math, so a business degree that is heavy in math is what I am looking for. Here is a link to the majors the school offers, do you have any suggestions? and or also tips? http://bulletin.stcloudstate.edu/ugb/cob.asp

[/ QUOTE ]

I dont really want to go through all of them for you. but I can tell you a few things.

Accountants are the most in demand by employers right now for any profession.

2nd on that list is Finance jobs (not overall second, but second from business majors).

Its pretty safe to say Marketing will be the most fun.

Its pretty safe to say finance has the highest probability of becoming a millionaire before you are 35.

management, pretty self explanatory.

I dont know much about the business information systems, but I think with all of the FIs getting online these jobs are in high demand.

you gotta ask yourself some questions.

Do you want to be rich rich rich?

Do you want very high job security?

What are you interested in?