Where Can A Business Major Take You?
Article written and edited by Matab Mashta
You may be feeling like Chris Pratt lately:
If Chris Pratt can enter into a multimillion dollar franchise, you sure can get yourself into a great career! Here is some advice we have for you!
Have you thought about a business degree? Basically, business studies are about management and economics. You study leadership, efficiency of work, decision-making, financing, commerce (fancy word for trade), and lots of cool stuff with cooler sub-topics. You get to specialize in any of these areas too; think of an MBA in Human Resources (HR) or Marketing. The fascinating part about all of this is that you can apply almost everything in these areas to different industries.
Let’s look at some ways you can use your business degree in ways other than spinning in an office chair:
Entertainment
“Brand management is all about the vibes of what you do”
Have you ever wondered about Lady Gaga’s unique brand? Well, guess who manages it? Yes, business people. Brand management is a huge part of the media industry as agencies and celebrities need to create something that makes them distinctive. This includes fashion styles, working environment policies, merch, etc. Brand management is all about the vibes of what you do.
Another career is project management. As a project manager, you collaborate with creators of TV shows or other projects to create a plan and timeline. You get to work with the talent acquisition specialist and the casting team to find actors. On the technical side, you must allocate a budget and coordinate with the financing and communication departments to find sponsors for the show.
If you like hectic but exciting working environments, then consider being a tour manager! Just imagine managing a big concert for BTS or Marshmello. You must work with the light coordinators, sound engineers, venue manager, the project manager for the concert, and many more crucial staff to set up a lively successful concert.
Sports
Who negotiates the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from one team to another ? The Sports Agent works on employment of an athlete, contract negotiations, and even talent search for young rising players. Sports agents also work with the personal managers of athletes and the PR team to manage the overall welfare of the athletes. Personal managers schedule press conferences and coordinate with event managers on scheduling team photoshoots and special occasions that involve media presence, for example.
On the other hand , you can work in market growth analyst to understand the sources of sales and revenues from sport-related business activities and the market share of a specific sport. You can also be part of the marketing team and convince Puma that your team is a good sponsor of their new collection.
Luxury
Luxurious brands care about their brand image and clients. That is why they have a Public Relations (PR) team to oversee the contents that are presented to the clients and to prevent or deal with any scandal that could affect the business. For example, think about the people who make statements on behalf of the company when something trends in Twitter. The PR team creates policies on how the business conducts itself publicly and behaves.
“You must balance between the needs of the customer, aesthetic qualities and the budget of the company”
On the internal side, you could be a product manager. You lead and collaborate with a team to create an idea for a new product. This includes designing, technical testing, and product promotion. In this role, you must work with market researchers to understand new consumer trends and with project managers to make a product idea come to life! You must balance the needs of the customer with the aesthetic qualities and the budget and ability of the company.
Finance
“You get to predict the future and be a modern wizard”
In the financial industry, you can take on more analytical roles. For example, you can be a financial analyst and analyze the benefits and risks of a financial decision using statistics. In this case, you get to predict the future and be a modern wizard.
Another financial career is investment banking. Investment banking has several internal specializations too. You can work in a venture capital firm and research emerging entrepreneurial technologies worth investing. You can also work as a financial advisor to a CEO or a business. As an advisor, you get to indirectly boss people about how they can use their money. Should they invest in portfolios? Perhaps then, you would need to meet with a portfolio manager to discuss which type of investment is the most suitable depending on the amount of money, risk, and time.
You can also be an asset manager and develop ways to acquire assets that have high returns on investments. Additionally, you must be able to know when to sell away the assets that are not valuable as before and to keep the money flowing through the trade of assets.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have a better idea of how a business degree enables you to discover your career in the different industries out there. Many skills you gain are transferable to other job positions. If you have an interest in pursuing a business major, have a read on Millie's Guide to Business School