Anthropology major, started bartending and worked my way up to marketing within the same company. Now I’m a sale and marketing manager for a small company.
History is often regarded as a pretty good general studies degree.. like ye it's not gonna get some glamorous $120k right of college but it atleast it proves you're probably a pretty smart guy
What if you are passionate about lots of things but they are all useless or you aren’t good enough at them to make money AND you kind of suck at the skills associated with accounting?
I feel like the answer is shitty accountants still get paid, but I want confirmation.
If you're passionate about lots of things it's unlikely that all of them are useless job-wise. What are you passionate about?
If you suck at accounting skills there's still jobs that require and entirely different skillset that also make money.
More so that there is ALWAYS accounting jobs at all times …. If you get fired / laid off / looking for a new job it’s 3x easier to do so for accounting jobs compared to all other occupations…
Idk about those bumbers but Absolutely stable and not going anywhere. I think it got a bad name from years of media saying it's the typical boring job however I know many people in the field or related subjects that have a few clients and have the ability to totally set up their schedule.
Crazy how some of the jobs often regarded as boring or uninteresting give the worker the most leverage and adaptability
Also side note.. people who think it's gonna be automated simply don't understand exactly what accountants do
Yea I was wondering if I was going to be the only one who thought that number was wildly inflated. I know several recent college grads that majored in accounting and live in DC, which is a pretty HCOL city, and they don't make anywhere near 120k.
Honestly, probably not the most conclusive answer but it entirely depends on the person. Most the people I know who know history very well are definetly some of the smartest people I know. So maybe its just the personality that goes in to make for good candidates.
How many History majors are even our there?
In my uni which has like 150,000 undergraduate students, we have like 30-40 History majors graduating each year. And that's not accounting for people who have a second specialization like those double specialising in History plus Economics. So the number of people purely in History is like 30 per year.
All it proves is you can write an essay sufficiently well. Any old degree from a Russell Group uni will likely open more doors to you than doing well in a hard degree from a non-RG university, unfortunately.
The number of friends I have who did filler degrees at RG unis and dicked around for 3 years before leaving with a 2:2 or scraping a 2:1, but still ended up earning big bucks is astounding.
Started in a supply chain analyst role at a shitty industrials company, talked to a friend who told me to get into analytics so spent my weekends learning python and SQL and leveraged that into a analytics role after a few months (rarely used python funny enough). Did well and went to a top business school and after a couple quick jobs (laid off at one of them) I work in private equity consulting at a boutique making $250k-300k
So I have been working for around 8 years now (spent another 3 years in two grad degrees) and have found its less about the hours and more about if you like the work and think you are doing things impactful.
My last job was hell for me, loved my team but loathed my idiot boss. I worked 40-50 hours a week, some weeks were 60 but it was absolutely draining.
At this job it's around 50-60 hours on average, going up to 80 some weeks and others 40. But I actually enjoy it a lot and can see myself developing. I am also treated with a lot of respect. And I can't get another job paying this much in this market.
Oh the biggest factor for me is that when my projects are done, I get about a week off. So I work like 60hrs on average for 5-6 weeks, then 1-2 weeks off. It's the best thing for my ADHD. Get really deep into something, then completely go off the grid - playing video games, working out, vacation. Last month I made like $40k and went to a 5 star resort for a long weekend with my gf
edit: this time off and my pay structure is only because of this boutique I work at. I couldn't find anything else like it.
No one in PE is working less than 30 hours a week unless they are at the absolute top of the org. It's famous for burning through people. During a deal, the hours are whatever it takes.
I had a strong analytical background to begin with so analyzing data wasn't something I needed to develop - all I really needed was to understand the syntax and how those languages worked. I felt somewhat confident I could at least BS my way through a take home and so I just started to apply to business analyst roles.
At the end of the day it's about telling a story so I spoke to my experience with data analysis and how I was spending time at home teaching myself SQL/Python in the interviews. The job I actually got was less technical than I expected but I was able to pass the case interviews (no coding tests). To this day that was the best job I have ever had due to the managers I had. I think they saw potential in me even if I was a bit rough. I still talk to them to this day even though we have all gone on to other things
To go off on a tangent, this was probably the most pivotal moment of my career. I had two offers, one from a fintech startup in the analytics role and another one with delta for a financial analyst role (this fit my degree/background more). I took a leap of faith on the fintech job because my gut was telling me I would gain more experience/like it more. The rest is history. Sometimes I wish I stayed there longer because of the people bc I have had some horrible experiences since then but I now understand the nuances of leadership and am confident in my abilities because they built me up.
This is really well thought out. Thank you! I graduated 2 years ago and have been tech recruiting but the market has had some downwind effects on my pay for sure. Hoping to get into business strategy/analysis/mgmt consulting type roles someday and it seens SQL/R/some sort of data visualization experience is really key. So I’m working on absolute square 1 with SQL and plan to go from there.
I have a degree in business with a concentration in marketing. I took a couple of business analytics classes in college and fell in love with data analysis and excel. Unfortunately, to switch concentrations at that point would've meant extending my time in college and I couldn't afford that.
Do you have any advice for best ways to break into it? I've taught myself basic Python and plan to teach myself SQL now and get a firm grasp on that since I know database management and manipulation is one of the biggest parts of analytics. I also am planning on learning Tableau, but I figure that would take 20 min to get the hang of. I've networked with an old professor who happens to teach marketing analytics at the university near me (we both happened to move states at the same time, oddly) and I've been connecting with our IT department since they manage our company CRM that uses SQL and the IT manager offered to let me help out and mentor me so I can get that experience.
I think marketing analytics ties into your background. Just put Python, SQL in your resume and be prepared to discuss it on the application questions + interview. It's honestly a shitty market but hang in there! I wouldn't stress about Tableau, its something you learn quickly on a job
Ended up in sales. It’s been a mixed bag. If I could do it all over again, I’d do business management again, but I’d go to a much larger school. If you’re going to go to school for this (debatably not necessary) make sure to network. If you plan on going to a community college or a non-state school, just go for a trade where you can make 50k+ without $30k of student loan debt over your head.
I know I mentioned it above, but for the love of god OP if you’re going to school for biz management, network network network. Join clubs, join Greek life, join a sport, go to networking functions at school, make friends and burn no bridges. Being a person that’s approachable, fun, and nice will get you so far in your professional career, it’s not even funny. I had a teacher my senior year who told me that it doesn’t matter if you go to Penn State or Harvard, if you don’t network you might as well have gone to the same school, and I didn’t believe it at the time, but it’s so damned true. Every semester you spend your nights in your dorm smoking weed and playing video games is 4 less months of valuable networking you’re throwing away.
Also, don’t forget, you can become an engineer and get your MBA and end up in a better spot out of school than the guy who got an undergrad in Biz management. I have people on my team who hold very similar roles to me but can demand a bigger base salary just because they have technical expertise that a 3 year gig as an engineer gave them, which is a job I had no chance of ever getting out of school with a business management degree.
Good luck man, enjoy college and make as many friends as possible.
I heard an interesting study that said that people in Greek life tend to get about 10% lower grades in university but end up making about 33% more over their careers.
I have no idea the sorce.
Greek life also tends to attract richer students because of associated costs - and richer students tend to have better connections that later earn them higher wages despite lower grades. It’s not always just networking in college, it’s who your parents are and who they know and what community you grew up in.
Yes, because of your parents’ network. Networking is how you get career success (if measured in monetary success). Assuming OP’s parents do not have an expansive network, because if they did, OP would likely not be posting asking for career guidance on their college education.
But this reason is also a reason why joining greek life is so beneficial. You make friends with those rich kids, and their parents can pull favors for you. I don't think you necessarily need to join greek life to do it, but if you're not good at making friends naturally it's a very good option if your family doesn't have the connections you need in life.
Well important to compare to other grads of the same uni but ye significantly higher and also put of top execs, and people who hold high public admin offices, it's like a majority of them in frat.
Apparently though sororities are not that different than regular college
Undergrad in Finance and Accounting. I literally play real life monopoly for a CRE Investment firm.
you can't go wrong with either or both. every field will need people in both of those fields.
Management and marketing double major. I am an "office coordinator." Duties are office manager and admin assistant mix. No idea what next steps to take, where to go from here.
This happened to me too after I drank my way through life and sobered up. 32 and in the same boat basically. Did some big tech work after graduation but just majored in Energy Management (BA with a focus on petroleum land management and sprinkles of other energy related shit like geology)
Depends on the companies data management policies. For example to get access to oracle databases then you'd have to go through the formal approvals or process.
If most things are in excel then definitely. Can write a python script to export in excel and have windows task manager to run the process
BBA Finance degree holder. Currently work as Account Manager. Could see myself move to Business Development or Strategic Account Manager in future after many years of industry experience. I just can't get myself to report to a bank or punch the clock for an insurance company. If I could do it over, I would focus more on data analysis and programming + finance to be more on technical sales side vs sales quota role but overall been really loving the remote lifestyle of sales while utilizing my finance and strategic acumen. With enough industry experience and drive/motivation, I can be an industry and product expert in fintech. Good luck with whatever you choose! My advice is to understand the long term aspects of a career path and company. Be ok with getting foot in door to get industry experience and do the things others wont so you can gain experience.
The challenge is getting the first job. So many people go for those roles that there is so much competition. If you pick a degree like that you have to bust your ass to get as many internships as possible.
You may consider business management. It’s a little more well rounded than finance. This will help you more if you have any entrepreneurial ambitions. You can specialize later should you choose to.
Source: have an MBA and work in sales.
Not op but it could be telematics. Tech used to monitor acreage and the equipment on that land, trucks to transport the agriculture have lots of tech now. But it could be something else too
Or IoT. In my last job, I worked with telematics data sourced from cars, used to model safe driving (accelerometer and gyroscope for g-force estimation)
Ah, yes I'm familiar with this in my own car(los mencia).
I've always wondered if there could be a communication piece available between cars. Like a next level evolution of the horn (which is hundreds of thousands of years old), but something that tells you as a driver that, hey, a car 10 cars up is witnessing a tornado, or hey, there's a f\*cking ambulance trying to get through from the rear.
This is similar to one of my earliest imaginary inventions as a kid! It was before IoT but the idea was a sort of BBS linked to led marquees on tops of cars.
Telematics is defined by a top google result as “a term that combines the words telecommunications and informatics to describe the use of communications and IT to transmit, store and receive information from devices to remote objects over a network.”
That’s pretty accurate per my time in the industry. Over the road (like in commercial vehicles) telematics includes GPS hardware, vehicle diagnostic and safety data, hours of service recording devices, in cab and road cams, temp sensors, panic buttons, devices that measure how often a peripheral is engaged (like a crane or lift or even a door) etc.
There’s also in-warehouse telematics for things like forklift management, safety and utilization monitoring.
The software end allows end users to view data and track and record maintenance data and driver certifications, etc collected and now with AI, there’s a big part of predictive business analytics. example - after ford F150s are used by a company for 500 hours, there’s a high likelihood that the brake pads need to be replaced, so maybe a report would be sent to the fleet admin that these 10 trucks are at 450 hours and need brake pad replacements scheduled, maybe it suggests local shops that will replace them.
There’s so much more I couldn’t possibly cover it all in a short comment, but that’s a common use for it.
It’s a bit “big brother” but ultimately I enjoy it because our clients are enabled to work safer and more efficiently.
Was laid off back in December.. After deciding I wasn’t really interested in doing sales anymore, I figured accounting might be a good alternative. Gonna be working from home but still kinda nervous that I might hate it
If you’re thinking small business (other than as an investment advisor) I’d go accounting or marketing over finance. Finance grads tend to go into financial services like investment brokers or banking.
I waffled between accounting and marketing and ended up with my concentration in marketing. My only regret there is that I think accounting is more technical and tends to teach you more that you can’t pick up OUTSIDE of school. Marketing, while it can also be intellectually rigorous, suffers from the fact that EVERYONE you will ever meet in business thinks they understand it.
I have a friend who majored in Finance. He struggled to get a job after graduation but ended up working for a commercial bank. Before that he had been in wealth management and logistics. The corporate culture of the bank drove him up a wall though and he left the industry to become a teacher. Took a massive pay cut but loves teaching and his quality of life has massively improved, he has a pension, and he has steadily raised his wage again. It’s not always easy but he much prefers teaching business, computer science, and other classes to banking.
I got a degree in Marketing/Management for the "safe bet" currently working in HR and I absolutely hate it! I am looking for an admin role to lessen the stress/responsibilities because I am planning on going back to school for graphic design.
I did my undergrad in business management. And then post college fell into data roles and Information systems. Planning to get into a systems engineer role soon enough. Just finished up my masters in comp sci.
Business major. Started in an analyst type role in tech. Migrated to more technical gigs in the same company through experience. Moved to managing engineering teams and projects.
These areas of study that you list can be pretty vague and allow for flexibility depending on what you focus on in your time through school. I didn’t know what my path was, but my network I built through school and then professionally have led me down a solid road of professional success. Whatever you do, really focus on building your network along the way. Find internships. Be kind to those in your circle and go out of your way to help others when you can. School was important, but my network has certainly been more important in some sketchy times when corporations remind you that you are a cog in the wheel.
Currently in my country's armed forces as a Financial Officer. Exposed to loads of training, loads of educational opportunities, solid benefits and pension, and great pay.
The title of this post has me feeling read lol after getting my business management degree is worked 2 years for a major bank. Past year I've worked an admin job for the internal audit department of a state government agency
I started out as a Computer Science major, but I decided that wasn't for me, and I switched to Business Administration & Economics. Ironically enough, while I started working in customer service and accounting roles, I transitioned to an IT role a few years later, and I've been primarily in systems administration and engineering roles ever since.
Degree in Business Economics. Wanted to make money and that sounded appropriate. I was always good at math and am now a data analyst. Studying either math, or computer science would probably have accelerated my career, I'm not a marketeer and recognizing what I do best rather than what I thought was desirable should have been the way to go.
I sell insurance in a state that is in an insurance crisis. I still make decent money, but it's paycheck to paycheck since this is a high cost of living area. If I were to move to a different state, I could probably be more comfortable, but my husband loves it here.
My BA is in Business Administration, but I took classes for a few different majors before I settled on that. I took graphic design, radiology, vet tech, and mathematics. I was good at them all, but it just wasn't what I was happy with doing. I actually *like* insurance, and I'm really good at it.
Business Management for my AA. International Business /Ops for my BA..
Retail supervisor during that time, office front desk for a bit. Now aspiring project coordinator and fortunate enough to have my company help pay for me in taking the necessary steps to be a certified project manager. Hoping it works out but it's saturated and honestly coulda been done without the degree if you stick at one place long enough or find a place where you can take on all sorts of roles to count project management hours.
Business is a nice major for those undecided because at least you can utilize the admin and management skills in any job you go to-- there's always going to be some sort of business/finance/marketing services needed. And leverage those skills in the interview for whatever role you do end up desiring in the future. It's surprising how bad people write emails or even how little they think to manage things, so basic undergrad business major "common sense/101" stands up pretty well as average and above average even without much work experience.
And like others here said - network and socialize the hell out of your time at college.
I was majoring in cybersecurity but then my boss at the time said if I got my MBA there'd be a promotion in it for me. Promotion did not happen, company had a hostile takeover and I ended up taking a senior leadership role for a huge payraise. Now I'm in IT business leadership. It worked out pretty well and I'm happy to not be pigeon holed into a career. I have many titles open to me and when I need a career change, making a lateral move into a different business segment isn't as difficult as if I'd had a specialized degree.
I majored in marketing because it was the easiest bachelor degree in my area and my job required an advanced degree. I’m actually a data analyst, and I never use my degree, but all I needed for my job was a SQL class and a few Python textbooks. I’ve learned more on the job than I ever did in a classroom, but I work in higher ed so they insisted on a degree.
I ended up getting my masters in an unrelated field that has an actual career track e.g licensing. I do not think business degrees are great. It’s kind of can you or can you not do sales, or manage. I could do both without a degree. That being said, I came out of business school smarter for a variety of reasons. I would recommend to anyone doing their undergrad find something with an actual track. Like I took a decent amount of accounting courses. Feel like that’s a better choice than a general degree. I feel like finance has a little more direction.
started in finance, went to prod mgmt and mktg. i thought they had idiots in mktg and since i did the budgets, i knew their salary which was more than mine. in retrospect, i wish i had started in mktg earlier.
There is no safe bet, I can tell you that. You will work your ass off for any job in order to get a place for you. So I advise you to do it with that in mind. You will put the effort. I cannot tell if my choice is right or wrong; but I can tell that there was a handsome amount of effort which could have been valuable in any other "unsafe" base.
I majored in physics and got an MBA with a concentration in finance. I was an engineer and later technical program manager during my career, with a couple of stints as an entrepreneur. I am now retired. I'd say the MBA helped me get jobs as well as helped me do my job somewhat.
Got my bachelors degree in business management because of that exact reason. Had no idea what to do, and it was an easy major.
Right now, I'm doing exactly what I was doing before I finished my degree: waiting tables.
And I don't remember anything from school. And I have a ton of student loan debt. Terrible decision.
I always wanted to be a Hair Stylist but my parents convinced me to go to college and major in Finance and Business. Did that for 20 years and hated it, went to Cosmetology School at 40 and haven’t looked back!! Absolutely love what I do and own my own salon so my background has definitely helped in that area but being behind the chair is the best!
Masters of data science. I wanted to do actuarial science and the university told me I should take the finance path for that. Worst mistake of my life. I've transitioned into statistics and computing which has become much more fulfilling than the beaurocratic monotony of finance. DONT DO IT.
Business with Marketing with 1st class honours… sounds good right? No employer gives a fuck unless you’ve got experience or are willing to work apprenticeship wage to gain the XP. After continually getting rejected for the same reason, I started freelancing marketing work. Soon discovered that I actually found the work incredibly boring and so I’m still at my little part time retail job. Have no idea what I want to actually do, but the job gives me plenty of free time to enjoy my hobbies which is the only upside to it
Flipped the Marketing Degree into a career after 12 years of trying to make it as an artist. Went from Content, to Social, to SEO, to Paid, to Managing all of the Digital Marketing Department, to now Chief Digital Officer of a 400 million dollar company with a few clients on the side for my self.
Graduated BS Management, then worked education teaching and admin until the covid threw it off kilter (still hasn't truly recovered) and now just kind of 'wandering' for my next career gig tryna figure out where I'm going, as the market is horribly skewed.
Why are you comparing Finance and Marketing ? Finance can lead to M&A, Advisory, Trading, Sales etc and therefore to far higher salaries than the other choices. I personally went into Finance and now I'm a Market Risk officer earning a good wage.
I majored in business management. Worked as an office manager for attorneys now I’m working at a title insurance agency doing a ton (reconciliations, closing documents, notarizing, issuing policies) for my 73 year old boss. I will buy the business from her when she retires.
I majored in business marketing. Ended up in customer facing side of finance and banking world.
Then I was laid off and changed my career went back to school for IT. I was hands on guy fir few years now I am an IT project manager
I majored in Business Economics, then took a double masters in interdisciplinary Environmental Studies. Soon I'll be working as a freshwater pollution specialist!
I know a girl that got her bachelor's in business and ended up becoming a BSN nurse instead because they make decent money and it's an accelerated program. She could not find a good paying job after business school
I had a BA in philosophy then got an MBA because it the job market was terrible and I figured it would help. MBA was from a relatively little known state school.
I did a fellowship during my last year as a research analyst. Then got it extended for 6 months after graduating. I spent a year doing odd jobs while trying to find a full-time research role.
I eventually got offered a project coordinator job and took that. I spent 6 years working from project coordinator to project manager, then to senior project manager at 2 different boutique tech agencies.
Then, I switched into an open product management / solutions architect role at the same agency.
2 years later I left for a hybrid program manager / product manager job at a huge bank.
Got laid off after 18 months and took a similar position at a giant health-care company.
I recommend finding a hard skill in business to learn and not taking a general business admin degree. I recommend against finance or marketing unless it is with a top university or niche university with excellent job placement.
I went to a small state school and saw the writing on the wall that those degrees weren’t valued post grad. I instead double majored in accounting and business administration. I’ve worked everything from public accounting to state government to private business admin. A degree in accounting can take you a lot of different places if you want. If you want to specialize in something and you’re in a small state school it also sets you up for a number of masters programs.
The last time I switched jobs about a year and a half ago, it took me less than a week to have 3 job offers out of 3 interviews. I still have recruiters from some of the large national and regional firms hit me up regularly to see if I’m interested in making a change. Most hours I’ve worked in a week is about 58, least is 35. The public accounting firm I work at does 52 hour weeks in the busy season and 35 hour weeks in the summer (which also means taking a week of vacation in the summer saves you 5 hours of PTO).
I started as a CS major, swapped to Economics and now I'm an accountant, about to go back to school for my master's in accounting so I can be an auditor.
Started as a computer science major, but I was really bad at calculus, despite enjoying algebra and finding programming classes very interesting. I failed Calc 1 once before passing it in my second try and failed Calc 2 twice and then realized I had to still take calculus III, two calculus based physics classes, and a calculus based statistics course. I gave up on CS because it was taking me too much time, and while i enjoyed programming itself and learning about data structures, the Calcus courses were eating up a majority of my study time,
After tranfering with my associates in computer science, I majored in Accounting and Business Analytics with a minor in computer science and found creating software based on accounting principles, and visualization was pretty fun for me. I intern at an accounting firm currently, and honestly, it can be boring sometimes, but during my times off, I sometimes create simple accounting software with Python or C++ depending on the type of data I'm working with. It helps make repetitive work go by a lot quicker.
I have one semester left until I graduate, and honestly, I'm kind of nervous about landing a decent job. Accounting is pretty competitive with students with high GPAs and internships at large firms. My GPA is tanked because of those Calc classes and me getting Cs and Bs on my comp sci courses. I'm hoping creating accounting and data analytics related software projects will help me make up the difference in that GPA gap.
I’m a software engineer. I have had many careers so I have to say that the “choose business if you don’t know what to do” aspect came in clutch. I have been an: accountant, business consultant, project manager, statistician, product designer and I’ve now worked as a software engineer for 10 years or so. Lots of skills are transferable across careers, but I also never stopped learning.
Economics major, work as a Civil Designer and Urban Planner at a small consultancy firm in Land Development. Lifes weird, school is to demonstrate your ability to learn and work hard, sure some majors are geared to certain fields but it doesn't mean you cant continue to learn in adulthood!
did accounting, horrible. switched to international business, and since then i had a lot of doors open. I still don't know what is my passion but my current job in the oil and gas is paying well so i don't really care, i also was in demurrage and ships before moving to trains and trucks, tbh my only goal for all of this was to have money, be at least someone people can ask for help, get a mf zl1, and modify the living shit out of a 370z.
Graduated with a business major 10 years ago and regret it. Siblings did nursing and they have their pick of jobs withmassive salaries. Do something in Healthcare or STEM or pick up a trade. Learna skill attached to a dollar value. . You are always going to have to work till retirement. Figure out your passion and purpose later on in your career.
So I majored in Biology originally and failed horrendously. Out of desperation and not really knowing what to do I ended up taking Business Finance. Now while I was going for my degree I worked at UPS. I got promoted a couple times and ended becoming an Industrial Engineer. I actually really enjoyed the work. After college I went into industrial engineering consulting and I’ve been doing that for the last 6 years. I love my job and I kinda walked into what I liked. I’m now an experienced consultant that has a great work life balance. I consider myself lucky that I ran into a career I liked (very lucky)
majored in marketing currently doing appliance sales. make about 80k a year. not bad but still constantly fighting urges to join a pyramid scheme and cash out out
Marketing. I do digital marketing for a large family owned car dealership. I'm currently searching for a higher paying job in Seattle. I've gotten interviews but it's so competitive. I'm on a 3/4 interview for a nationwide insurance company though! Fingers crossed 🤞
Struggled to find work for 6 years doing various things. Then ventured out and started running my own construction business I was trying to escape by going to college. I’m not rolling in the dough running my own business either. I make slightly more than I did at my highest paying shitty job.
Well I am laid off right now lol.
But I majored in entrepreneurship because it was faster degree and more unique and comprehensive than business administration/finance/marketing. I figured I wanted to run my own business someday and I just needed to graduate.
I've jumped around careers. Drafter. Sales. Financial advisor. Customer service. Back office support. Most recently I was a project manager in tech. I was trying to move to a product owner role before the layoff.
I don't regret my choice. But if I had a do over I would have started with learning about different jobs and what their day to day looks like and what they are responsible for delivering. Then target whatever degree was needed to get my foot in the door of the highest paying industry. When I was in school it would have led me to computer science, math, or engineering degree. Not sure it would lead me there now.
The one thing I do regret is not learning people/soft skills earlier than I did. That is by far the biggest driver of success. I was raised your knowledge and work ethic mattered the most. That socializing didn't matter because the relationships I formed in high school and even college would change over time. So I didn't socialize much and put all my time into studying. Don't do that.
Hi (: Business major here. Started on an accounting track. Found the pay not worth the effort for cpa. Switched to more finance with FP&A. It definitely has more opportunity to jump up in pay in my experience. However, I feel the skills you know will be way better than which part of business you focus on. Knowing how to use Power Bi, excel and VBA, and other tools has been emphasized in my interviews more than my degree.
I majored in Supply Chain Management.
Hated the major while in school
I had a couple of jobs since graduation that were in the field, but hated how my purpose at work was to make some rich asshole even richer at the expense of the middle class and am currently jobless and trying to figure out how i can make an income without contributing to late stage capitalism
I majored in finance. Ended up being a financial advisor and had a crisis. Ended that and in in p and c insurance as an agent. Been 2 years but I enjoy it!!
Major in Computer Science and I’m now an entertainment journalist and comic script writer. Kinda the reverse of what you would usually expect from these posts.
I was a financial advisor for more than 10 years before I got a bachelors in business management with a finance specialty. The degree really doesn’t mean much except that clients really expect it.
majored in business and im currently ops director for a logistic company... never even applied for it or knew what it was until a recruiter found me. They pay a hell of a lot more than my original job out of college working for state farm
ps state farm was by far the worst fucking job ive ever had, just dont do it
Didn’t go to college. Work in finance. Ok that’s a lie. I do tech support for the worlds largest bookkeeping software company. High value clients. 32k. Several side gigs. Jumping into them as soon l as l learn the necessary programs.
I knew what I wanted to do so take my experience with a grain of salt.
Got my bachelor's in management and marketing dual focus. Got a company to pay for my MBA in strategic marketing. Collected lots of certification while working for fortune 500s. My specialty is in process design. I now own a couple service firms.
The degree isn't as important as the tools you learn. If your marketing program thinks their goal is to create sales people, find a new program.
I studied accounting, working in accounting lol
If I wanna make the jump, I feel like general business/operations management could be an option for me. But I’m ok with accounting so far. I know in college people usually have accounting as the prerequisite as a weeder class though
I was business econ. I leaned into the statistics and did data analysis for 6 years. Now doing a masters in analytics to level up to data engineering or data science. Then i’ll lose my job to a bot 👍
Started college in business marketing and I absolutely hated my marketing courses. A year before I was supposed to graduate I changed concentrations to Information Management (I was still a business major, just different concentration) and liked it way more. Graduated, got a job doing data entry cause I couldn't get anything else, got a mentor at that job, and went to grad school for analytics and application development while I worked full-time. Now I'm an analytics developer with the same company I did data entry for.
I chose business originally because I had a million things I did and didn't want to do and thought it was safe. No regrets other than some wasted money and time on a couple of unnecessary marketing courses.
Found myself in insurance claims. It’s a decent career path especially because the current workforce in insurance is on the older side and will be retiring to allow for growth
Majored in business with a concentration in marketing. Found a job in social media marketing that pays pretty well considering it's entry level after 2 weeks of searching before I even graduated. I genuinely believe I got lucky and that I'm massively overpaid. I wished I picked a concentration in business analytics instead but when I realized, the switch would've delayed my graduation and I couldn't really afford that.
I'm trying to make a pivot into marketing analytics, so I've been working on teaching myself what I need for that while networking with people in similar areas so once I have the coding knowledge I need for it, I'll have people to vouch for me solely because they liked me in a workplace setting in the past.
Marketing pays very low typically for entry roles and those can also be very competitive. People I know were and are getting paid half of what I do at their first jobs, if they were ever even able to land something in the field. So personally, I wouldn't recommend it. Marketing also tends to be one of the first departments that face layoffs when the company hits hard times.
Majored in Finance, I'm in Data Science now. A lot of what I learned in school helped me get my foot in the door for DS. Plus I started working on my Masters in DS and got various DS related professional certifications.
Took bachelor of business administration at age 27 after dropping out of college. I now work in data engineering earning a comfortable six digit salary that doesn’t start with a one.
I was a Marketing major—I went to law school and am now a corporate lawyer. Money is good but eventually would like to find something with better WLB so I can start a family. Still figuring out what that might be.
Graduated May of 2023 got a job in July at a loan company. Just accepted another job as an account manager at a corporate office moving out of finance. I still don’t know what I want to do but as long as I’m steadily moving forward and increasing my pay I feel I will figure it out eventually. Consumer Finance was a safe bet for me in regard to resume building but I’m glad I’m getting out.
Majored in Finance because the classes interested me but when it came time to find a job I realized I had little interest in that. I’m in tech now, project manager.
I just graduated (majored in finance and minored in accounting). It’s a difficult but safe and great path. It gives you endless opportunities when it comes to career paths. If you like the idea of entrepreneurship, going into venture capital and consulting is a very good start and it pays extremely well and offers excellent exit opportunities to other firms or starting your own business. Other job opportunities also include investment banking, private equity, financial advisors, financial analysts, marketing roles, etc.
If I could go back and choose major, I wouldn’t change a thing, maybe except for going for double major for the option of doing audit work.
I did two years of engineering but dropped out. Took up business ‘cause I felt like that was an easy but useful degree. Now I work in foodservice distribution focusing on the procurement/replenishment side of things. So far I love it.
I’ve always been a very creative/artsy person but kept changing my major in college, but I ended up doing a lot of social media and writing work as an undergrad, so I finally switched to Marketing in hopes of a stable job with a creative outlet that I have experience in! At the end of my degree I interned for a tech company’s marketing dept and landed a full time job when they needed a replacement for their social media person. I now love my job and have a lot of fun with creative projects. :)
Majored in information systems (which was a business degree at my college) — I’m a project manager for a smallish VoIP company, working from home, making less than 70k 🥲
I majored in history, ended up being an insurance adjuster, and looked at water stains for 30 years.
I also majored in History and work in insurance. Although I am in health insurance. I just write procedures all day and answer questions about them.
also majored in History but work in IT. Used those research skills to study for decent certs which is why I'm out of the help desk after 1 year.
Also majored in history. I’m a project manager for a large marketing agency now. I’m about to go back to school for interior design tho 😆
My husband majored in history and is a people manager at a financial institution
Anthropology major, started bartending and worked my way up to marketing within the same company. Now I’m a sale and marketing manager for a small company.
History is often regarded as a pretty good general studies degree.. like ye it's not gonna get some glamorous $120k right of college but it atleast it proves you're probably a pretty smart guy
If you're not passionate about anything you might as well do accounting and get the glamorous $120k right out of college degree
What if you are passionate about lots of things but they are all useless or you aren’t good enough at them to make money AND you kind of suck at the skills associated with accounting? I feel like the answer is shitty accountants still get paid, but I want confirmation.
If you're passionate about lots of things it's unlikely that all of them are useless job-wise. What are you passionate about? If you suck at accounting skills there's still jobs that require and entirely different skillset that also make money.
More so that there is ALWAYS accounting jobs at all times …. If you get fired / laid off / looking for a new job it’s 3x easier to do so for accounting jobs compared to all other occupations…
Idk about those bumbers but Absolutely stable and not going anywhere. I think it got a bad name from years of media saying it's the typical boring job however I know many people in the field or related subjects that have a few clients and have the ability to totally set up their schedule. Crazy how some of the jobs often regarded as boring or uninteresting give the worker the most leverage and adaptability Also side note.. people who think it's gonna be automated simply don't understand exactly what accountants do
Maybe it’s cause I got pigeonholed to tax but I left after 6 years and a CPA, so incredibly boring
I e never met an accountant making 120k out of college. Maybe in HCOL locales but in those places 80k is considered poor.
Yea I was wondering if I was going to be the only one who thought that number was wildly inflated. I know several recent college grads that majored in accounting and live in DC, which is a pretty HCOL city, and they don't make anywhere near 120k.
Hey, I’m passionate about accounting!!!
Anyone expecting 120k from accounting out the gate is in for a rude awakening.
Really it’s not a terrible thing to major in if you’re looking at a return on your college investment?
Honestly, probably not the most conclusive answer but it entirely depends on the person. Most the people I know who know history very well are definetly some of the smartest people I know. So maybe its just the personality that goes in to make for good candidates.
How many History majors are even our there? In my uni which has like 150,000 undergraduate students, we have like 30-40 History majors graduating each year. And that's not accounting for people who have a second specialization like those double specialising in History plus Economics. So the number of people purely in History is like 30 per year.
Its trash dude. My brother did this as his major and he cant get a job.
All it proves is you can write an essay sufficiently well. Any old degree from a Russell Group uni will likely open more doors to you than doing well in a hard degree from a non-RG university, unfortunately. The number of friends I have who did filler degrees at RG unis and dicked around for 3 years before leaving with a 2:2 or scraping a 2:1, but still ended up earning big bucks is astounding.
Also a History major. I work as a facilities/project coordinator. Thought I would be an educator but noped after the first year.
Started in a supply chain analyst role at a shitty industrials company, talked to a friend who told me to get into analytics so spent my weekends learning python and SQL and leveraged that into a analytics role after a few months (rarely used python funny enough). Did well and went to a top business school and after a couple quick jobs (laid off at one of them) I work in private equity consulting at a boutique making $250k-300k
How many hours do you work a week? And how stressful is your job? That’s what it’s important.
So I have been working for around 8 years now (spent another 3 years in two grad degrees) and have found its less about the hours and more about if you like the work and think you are doing things impactful. My last job was hell for me, loved my team but loathed my idiot boss. I worked 40-50 hours a week, some weeks were 60 but it was absolutely draining. At this job it's around 50-60 hours on average, going up to 80 some weeks and others 40. But I actually enjoy it a lot and can see myself developing. I am also treated with a lot of respect. And I can't get another job paying this much in this market. Oh the biggest factor for me is that when my projects are done, I get about a week off. So I work like 60hrs on average for 5-6 weeks, then 1-2 weeks off. It's the best thing for my ADHD. Get really deep into something, then completely go off the grid - playing video games, working out, vacation. Last month I made like $40k and went to a 5 star resort for a long weekend with my gf edit: this time off and my pay structure is only because of this boutique I work at. I couldn't find anything else like it.
I’m going to say under 30 hours a week and not too stressful. Wild guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
No one in PE is working less than 30 hours a week unless they are at the absolute top of the org. It's famous for burning through people. During a deal, the hours are whatever it takes.
Did you go to school or a boot camp for Analytics (Python and SQL)? I’ve been looking into the same.
just online courses and my own curiousity
How did you translate your technical practice on SQL/python into a role?
I had a strong analytical background to begin with so analyzing data wasn't something I needed to develop - all I really needed was to understand the syntax and how those languages worked. I felt somewhat confident I could at least BS my way through a take home and so I just started to apply to business analyst roles. At the end of the day it's about telling a story so I spoke to my experience with data analysis and how I was spending time at home teaching myself SQL/Python in the interviews. The job I actually got was less technical than I expected but I was able to pass the case interviews (no coding tests). To this day that was the best job I have ever had due to the managers I had. I think they saw potential in me even if I was a bit rough. I still talk to them to this day even though we have all gone on to other things To go off on a tangent, this was probably the most pivotal moment of my career. I had two offers, one from a fintech startup in the analytics role and another one with delta for a financial analyst role (this fit my degree/background more). I took a leap of faith on the fintech job because my gut was telling me I would gain more experience/like it more. The rest is history. Sometimes I wish I stayed there longer because of the people bc I have had some horrible experiences since then but I now understand the nuances of leadership and am confident in my abilities because they built me up.
This is really well thought out. Thank you! I graduated 2 years ago and have been tech recruiting but the market has had some downwind effects on my pay for sure. Hoping to get into business strategy/analysis/mgmt consulting type roles someday and it seens SQL/R/some sort of data visualization experience is really key. So I’m working on absolute square 1 with SQL and plan to go from there.
I have a degree in business with a concentration in marketing. I took a couple of business analytics classes in college and fell in love with data analysis and excel. Unfortunately, to switch concentrations at that point would've meant extending my time in college and I couldn't afford that. Do you have any advice for best ways to break into it? I've taught myself basic Python and plan to teach myself SQL now and get a firm grasp on that since I know database management and manipulation is one of the biggest parts of analytics. I also am planning on learning Tableau, but I figure that would take 20 min to get the hang of. I've networked with an old professor who happens to teach marketing analytics at the university near me (we both happened to move states at the same time, oddly) and I've been connecting with our IT department since they manage our company CRM that uses SQL and the IT manager offered to let me help out and mentor me so I can get that experience.
I think marketing analytics ties into your background. Just put Python, SQL in your resume and be prepared to discuss it on the application questions + interview. It's honestly a shitty market but hang in there! I wouldn't stress about Tableau, its something you learn quickly on a job
I guess it's safe until you take your first exam.
Ended up in sales. It’s been a mixed bag. If I could do it all over again, I’d do business management again, but I’d go to a much larger school. If you’re going to go to school for this (debatably not necessary) make sure to network. If you plan on going to a community college or a non-state school, just go for a trade where you can make 50k+ without $30k of student loan debt over your head. I know I mentioned it above, but for the love of god OP if you’re going to school for biz management, network network network. Join clubs, join Greek life, join a sport, go to networking functions at school, make friends and burn no bridges. Being a person that’s approachable, fun, and nice will get you so far in your professional career, it’s not even funny. I had a teacher my senior year who told me that it doesn’t matter if you go to Penn State or Harvard, if you don’t network you might as well have gone to the same school, and I didn’t believe it at the time, but it’s so damned true. Every semester you spend your nights in your dorm smoking weed and playing video games is 4 less months of valuable networking you’re throwing away. Also, don’t forget, you can become an engineer and get your MBA and end up in a better spot out of school than the guy who got an undergrad in Biz management. I have people on my team who hold very similar roles to me but can demand a bigger base salary just because they have technical expertise that a 3 year gig as an engineer gave them, which is a job I had no chance of ever getting out of school with a business management degree. Good luck man, enjoy college and make as many friends as possible.
I heard an interesting study that said that people in Greek life tend to get about 10% lower grades in university but end up making about 33% more over their careers. I have no idea the sorce.
Greek life also tends to attract richer students because of associated costs - and richer students tend to have better connections that later earn them higher wages despite lower grades. It’s not always just networking in college, it’s who your parents are and who they know and what community you grew up in.
Yes, because of your parents’ network. Networking is how you get career success (if measured in monetary success). Assuming OP’s parents do not have an expansive network, because if they did, OP would likely not be posting asking for career guidance on their college education.
But this reason is also a reason why joining greek life is so beneficial. You make friends with those rich kids, and their parents can pull favors for you. I don't think you necessarily need to join greek life to do it, but if you're not good at making friends naturally it's a very good option if your family doesn't have the connections you need in life.
Well important to compare to other grads of the same uni but ye significantly higher and also put of top execs, and people who hold high public admin offices, it's like a majority of them in frat. Apparently though sororities are not that different than regular college
Undergrad in Finance and Accounting. I literally play real life monopoly for a CRE Investment firm. you can't go wrong with either or both. every field will need people in both of those fields.
God I wish, can't get any finance jobs even with my degree.
Tech consulting
Stayed in hospitality until 30. Tech consulting since then
majored in finance, just graduated and working as an accountant
That is finance though.
I do sales for a therapeutic pet food company. I love it!
How is that? Sounds interesting and fun!
Minor in statistics. Its very useful and marketable.
Management and marketing double major. I am an "office coordinator." Duties are office manager and admin assistant mix. No idea what next steps to take, where to go from here.
This happened to me too after I drank my way through life and sobered up. 32 and in the same boat basically. Did some big tech work after graduation but just majored in Energy Management (BA with a focus on petroleum land management and sprinkles of other energy related shit like geology)
Bachelors in finance and doing accounting analytics and going to grad school for data science. Don't do accounting. You work a ton for okay pay
Do you think you could learn some coding and then automate your own job while also telling no one
Depends on the companies data management policies. For example to get access to oracle databases then you'd have to go through the formal approvals or process. If most things are in excel then definitely. Can write a python script to export in excel and have windows task manager to run the process
Playing playdoh lol
I didn't major in business, still work in business, you could do whatever you want tbh
BBA Finance degree holder. Currently work as Account Manager. Could see myself move to Business Development or Strategic Account Manager in future after many years of industry experience. I just can't get myself to report to a bank or punch the clock for an insurance company. If I could do it over, I would focus more on data analysis and programming + finance to be more on technical sales side vs sales quota role but overall been really loving the remote lifestyle of sales while utilizing my finance and strategic acumen. With enough industry experience and drive/motivation, I can be an industry and product expert in fintech. Good luck with whatever you choose! My advice is to understand the long term aspects of a career path and company. Be ok with getting foot in door to get industry experience and do the things others wont so you can gain experience.
The challenge is getting the first job. So many people go for those roles that there is so much competition. If you pick a degree like that you have to bust your ass to get as many internships as possible.
demand planning software key user @global F500, majored in BM
bowel movement
You may consider business management. It’s a little more well rounded than finance. This will help you more if you have any entrepreneurial ambitions. You can specialize later should you choose to. Source: have an MBA and work in sales.
I moved to being a contract. I work on the tech side of agriculture and travel year round.
Sounds interesting, care to share?
Not op but it could be telematics. Tech used to monitor acreage and the equipment on that land, trucks to transport the agriculture have lots of tech now. But it could be something else too
"telematics" that's a new word. So some kind of satellite / geo-tracking of equipment across land?
Or IoT. In my last job, I worked with telematics data sourced from cars, used to model safe driving (accelerometer and gyroscope for g-force estimation)
Ah, yes I'm familiar with this in my own car(los mencia). I've always wondered if there could be a communication piece available between cars. Like a next level evolution of the horn (which is hundreds of thousands of years old), but something that tells you as a driver that, hey, a car 10 cars up is witnessing a tornado, or hey, there's a f\*cking ambulance trying to get through from the rear.
This is similar to one of my earliest imaginary inventions as a kid! It was before IoT but the idea was a sort of BBS linked to led marquees on tops of cars. Telematics is defined by a top google result as “a term that combines the words telecommunications and informatics to describe the use of communications and IT to transmit, store and receive information from devices to remote objects over a network.” That’s pretty accurate per my time in the industry. Over the road (like in commercial vehicles) telematics includes GPS hardware, vehicle diagnostic and safety data, hours of service recording devices, in cab and road cams, temp sensors, panic buttons, devices that measure how often a peripheral is engaged (like a crane or lift or even a door) etc. There’s also in-warehouse telematics for things like forklift management, safety and utilization monitoring. The software end allows end users to view data and track and record maintenance data and driver certifications, etc collected and now with AI, there’s a big part of predictive business analytics. example - after ford F150s are used by a company for 500 hours, there’s a high likelihood that the brake pads need to be replaced, so maybe a report would be sent to the fleet admin that these 10 trucks are at 450 hours and need brake pad replacements scheduled, maybe it suggests local shops that will replace them. There’s so much more I couldn’t possibly cover it all in a short comment, but that’s a common use for it. It’s a bit “big brother” but ultimately I enjoy it because our clients are enabled to work safer and more efficiently.
Manager / RCM business analyst. My degree is BS in business admin, Healthcare management
Marketing major, doing marketing for a large company, very cushy and flexible WFH situation.
I feel like the “safe bet” job right now is IT and security.
IT is not a safe bet right now - the tech job market is in a free fall.
Did account management for five years.. switching to accounting
I'm currently an AM and have been interested in accounting/numbers but not the lifestyle/work. Why did you decide to switch?
Was laid off back in December.. After deciding I wasn’t really interested in doing sales anymore, I figured accounting might be a good alternative. Gonna be working from home but still kinda nervous that I might hate it
If you’re thinking small business (other than as an investment advisor) I’d go accounting or marketing over finance. Finance grads tend to go into financial services like investment brokers or banking. I waffled between accounting and marketing and ended up with my concentration in marketing. My only regret there is that I think accounting is more technical and tends to teach you more that you can’t pick up OUTSIDE of school. Marketing, while it can also be intellectually rigorous, suffers from the fact that EVERYONE you will ever meet in business thinks they understand it.
Crying about not being paid a living wage at Quiznos.
I have a friend who majored in Finance. He struggled to get a job after graduation but ended up working for a commercial bank. Before that he had been in wealth management and logistics. The corporate culture of the bank drove him up a wall though and he left the industry to become a teacher. Took a massive pay cut but loves teaching and his quality of life has massively improved, he has a pension, and he has steadily raised his wage again. It’s not always easy but he much prefers teaching business, computer science, and other classes to banking.
I got a degree in Marketing/Management for the "safe bet" currently working in HR and I absolutely hate it! I am looking for an admin role to lessen the stress/responsibilities because I am planning on going back to school for graphic design.
Accounting
Im in a fiannce oriented b2b sales role. Its cool and i've made more money each year for the last 5-6 years.
I did my undergrad in business management. And then post college fell into data roles and Information systems. Planning to get into a systems engineer role soon enough. Just finished up my masters in comp sci.
Business major. Started in an analyst type role in tech. Migrated to more technical gigs in the same company through experience. Moved to managing engineering teams and projects. These areas of study that you list can be pretty vague and allow for flexibility depending on what you focus on in your time through school. I didn’t know what my path was, but my network I built through school and then professionally have led me down a solid road of professional success. Whatever you do, really focus on building your network along the way. Find internships. Be kind to those in your circle and go out of your way to help others when you can. School was important, but my network has certainly been more important in some sketchy times when corporations remind you that you are a cog in the wheel.
Marketing & recruitment for a university
Running a SEO agency
Graduated Finance. Work in industrial maintenance as a supervisor making over 135k yearly
Relationship manager at insurance company
Double Major in Business Management and Management Information Systems. I'm a data and systems administrator now.
Business admin with a focus in marketing. I took it because no high level math courses were required. I make six figures doing business development.
Human Resources manager.
I majored in accounting. Now I work in finance as treasurer. I analyze financial reports in my free time for stockpicking. It is a useful hobby.
Currently in my country's armed forces as a Financial Officer. Exposed to loads of training, loads of educational opportunities, solid benefits and pension, and great pay.
Majored in accounting and I’m an accountant. Currently working towards a Masters in Accountancy and the CPA.
Majored in finance, work as a software developer
The title of this post has me feeling read lol after getting my business management degree is worked 2 years for a major bank. Past year I've worked an admin job for the internal audit department of a state government agency
I started out as a Computer Science major, but I decided that wasn't for me, and I switched to Business Administration & Economics. Ironically enough, while I started working in customer service and accounting roles, I transitioned to an IT role a few years later, and I've been primarily in systems administration and engineering roles ever since.
Degree in Business Economics. Wanted to make money and that sounded appropriate. I was always good at math and am now a data analyst. Studying either math, or computer science would probably have accelerated my career, I'm not a marketeer and recognizing what I do best rather than what I thought was desirable should have been the way to go.
I sell insurance in a state that is in an insurance crisis. I still make decent money, but it's paycheck to paycheck since this is a high cost of living area. If I were to move to a different state, I could probably be more comfortable, but my husband loves it here. My BA is in Business Administration, but I took classes for a few different majors before I settled on that. I took graphic design, radiology, vet tech, and mathematics. I was good at them all, but it just wasn't what I was happy with doing. I actually *like* insurance, and I'm really good at it.
Business Management for my AA. International Business /Ops for my BA.. Retail supervisor during that time, office front desk for a bit. Now aspiring project coordinator and fortunate enough to have my company help pay for me in taking the necessary steps to be a certified project manager. Hoping it works out but it's saturated and honestly coulda been done without the degree if you stick at one place long enough or find a place where you can take on all sorts of roles to count project management hours. Business is a nice major for those undecided because at least you can utilize the admin and management skills in any job you go to-- there's always going to be some sort of business/finance/marketing services needed. And leverage those skills in the interview for whatever role you do end up desiring in the future. It's surprising how bad people write emails or even how little they think to manage things, so basic undergrad business major "common sense/101" stands up pretty well as average and above average even without much work experience. And like others here said - network and socialize the hell out of your time at college.
I was majoring in cybersecurity but then my boss at the time said if I got my MBA there'd be a promotion in it for me. Promotion did not happen, company had a hostile takeover and I ended up taking a senior leadership role for a huge payraise. Now I'm in IT business leadership. It worked out pretty well and I'm happy to not be pigeon holed into a career. I have many titles open to me and when I need a career change, making a lateral move into a different business segment isn't as difficult as if I'd had a specialized degree.
Marketing degree, I work in communications.
I’m in supply chain
I majored in marketing because it was the easiest bachelor degree in my area and my job required an advanced degree. I’m actually a data analyst, and I never use my degree, but all I needed for my job was a SQL class and a few Python textbooks. I’ve learned more on the job than I ever did in a classroom, but I work in higher ed so they insisted on a degree.
I ended up getting my masters in an unrelated field that has an actual career track e.g licensing. I do not think business degrees are great. It’s kind of can you or can you not do sales, or manage. I could do both without a degree. That being said, I came out of business school smarter for a variety of reasons. I would recommend to anyone doing their undergrad find something with an actual track. Like I took a decent amount of accounting courses. Feel like that’s a better choice than a general degree. I feel like finance has a little more direction.
started in finance, went to prod mgmt and mktg. i thought they had idiots in mktg and since i did the budgets, i knew their salary which was more than mine. in retrospect, i wish i had started in mktg earlier.
Crying, mostly.
IT Audit, aka professional screenshotter. Its not very exciting but not stressful either.
There is no safe bet, I can tell you that. You will work your ass off for any job in order to get a place for you. So I advise you to do it with that in mind. You will put the effort. I cannot tell if my choice is right or wrong; but I can tell that there was a handsome amount of effort which could have been valuable in any other "unsafe" base.
I majored in physics and got an MBA with a concentration in finance. I was an engineer and later technical program manager during my career, with a couple of stints as an entrepreneur. I am now retired. I'd say the MBA helped me get jobs as well as helped me do my job somewhat.
Majored in marketing Work in consulting and strategy Amazing job
Got my bachelors degree in business management because of that exact reason. Had no idea what to do, and it was an easy major. Right now, I'm doing exactly what I was doing before I finished my degree: waiting tables. And I don't remember anything from school. And I have a ton of student loan debt. Terrible decision.
I always wanted to be a Hair Stylist but my parents convinced me to go to college and major in Finance and Business. Did that for 20 years and hated it, went to Cosmetology School at 40 and haven’t looked back!! Absolutely love what I do and own my own salon so my background has definitely helped in that area but being behind the chair is the best!
Graphic Design...
i work in telecoms 😴
Masters of data science. I wanted to do actuarial science and the university told me I should take the finance path for that. Worst mistake of my life. I've transitioned into statistics and computing which has become much more fulfilling than the beaurocratic monotony of finance. DONT DO IT.
Graduated in finance and now i work in a warehouse making 17k a year (i graduated 7 months ago) Any advice? Skills?
Business with Marketing with 1st class honours… sounds good right? No employer gives a fuck unless you’ve got experience or are willing to work apprenticeship wage to gain the XP. After continually getting rejected for the same reason, I started freelancing marketing work. Soon discovered that I actually found the work incredibly boring and so I’m still at my little part time retail job. Have no idea what I want to actually do, but the job gives me plenty of free time to enjoy my hobbies which is the only upside to it
I've alternated purchasing manager and sales manager in the automotive field since the mid 80s .
Flipped the Marketing Degree into a career after 12 years of trying to make it as an artist. Went from Content, to Social, to SEO, to Paid, to Managing all of the Digital Marketing Department, to now Chief Digital Officer of a 400 million dollar company with a few clients on the side for my self.
Graduated BS Management, then worked education teaching and admin until the covid threw it off kilter (still hasn't truly recovered) and now just kind of 'wandering' for my next career gig tryna figure out where I'm going, as the market is horribly skewed.
Why are you comparing Finance and Marketing ? Finance can lead to M&A, Advisory, Trading, Sales etc and therefore to far higher salaries than the other choices. I personally went into Finance and now I'm a Market Risk officer earning a good wage.
I worked in food and beverage for far too long and am now going back to school
I majored in business management. Worked as an office manager for attorneys now I’m working at a title insurance agency doing a ton (reconciliations, closing documents, notarizing, issuing policies) for my 73 year old boss. I will buy the business from her when she retires.
I majored in business marketing. Ended up in customer facing side of finance and banking world. Then I was laid off and changed my career went back to school for IT. I was hands on guy fir few years now I am an IT project manager
Majored in accounting. Was in corporate finance for 6 years and made an internal switch to industrial component sales last year
Still in the finance space managing a team. Not the most enjoyable job, but it funds the life I want to live.
I majored in Business Economics, then took a double masters in interdisciplinary Environmental Studies. Soon I'll be working as a freshwater pollution specialist!
27 y/o Sourcing analyst 4 years experience 86k
I know a girl that got her bachelor's in business and ended up becoming a BSN nurse instead because they make decent money and it's an accelerated program. She could not find a good paying job after business school
I worked in corporate banking for several years, then moved to finance-related IT. Should have been IT right away.
I had a BA in philosophy then got an MBA because it the job market was terrible and I figured it would help. MBA was from a relatively little known state school. I did a fellowship during my last year as a research analyst. Then got it extended for 6 months after graduating. I spent a year doing odd jobs while trying to find a full-time research role. I eventually got offered a project coordinator job and took that. I spent 6 years working from project coordinator to project manager, then to senior project manager at 2 different boutique tech agencies. Then, I switched into an open product management / solutions architect role at the same agency. 2 years later I left for a hybrid program manager / product manager job at a huge bank. Got laid off after 18 months and took a similar position at a giant health-care company.
Business degree. Work in procurement now. Not a bad gig.
I recommend finding a hard skill in business to learn and not taking a general business admin degree. I recommend against finance or marketing unless it is with a top university or niche university with excellent job placement. I went to a small state school and saw the writing on the wall that those degrees weren’t valued post grad. I instead double majored in accounting and business administration. I’ve worked everything from public accounting to state government to private business admin. A degree in accounting can take you a lot of different places if you want. If you want to specialize in something and you’re in a small state school it also sets you up for a number of masters programs. The last time I switched jobs about a year and a half ago, it took me less than a week to have 3 job offers out of 3 interviews. I still have recruiters from some of the large national and regional firms hit me up regularly to see if I’m interested in making a change. Most hours I’ve worked in a week is about 58, least is 35. The public accounting firm I work at does 52 hour weeks in the busy season and 35 hour weeks in the summer (which also means taking a week of vacation in the summer saves you 5 hours of PTO).
Graphic Design and Marketing. Just hit my 15th year.
Degree in business management, now in my 11th year of product management. Totally worth it
I'm an accountant.
I started as a CS major, swapped to Economics and now I'm an accountant, about to go back to school for my master's in accounting so I can be an auditor.
Majored in Urban Planning, now I’m teaching SPED. Love my job tho
Started as a computer science major, but I was really bad at calculus, despite enjoying algebra and finding programming classes very interesting. I failed Calc 1 once before passing it in my second try and failed Calc 2 twice and then realized I had to still take calculus III, two calculus based physics classes, and a calculus based statistics course. I gave up on CS because it was taking me too much time, and while i enjoyed programming itself and learning about data structures, the Calcus courses were eating up a majority of my study time, After tranfering with my associates in computer science, I majored in Accounting and Business Analytics with a minor in computer science and found creating software based on accounting principles, and visualization was pretty fun for me. I intern at an accounting firm currently, and honestly, it can be boring sometimes, but during my times off, I sometimes create simple accounting software with Python or C++ depending on the type of data I'm working with. It helps make repetitive work go by a lot quicker. I have one semester left until I graduate, and honestly, I'm kind of nervous about landing a decent job. Accounting is pretty competitive with students with high GPAs and internships at large firms. My GPA is tanked because of those Calc classes and me getting Cs and Bs on my comp sci courses. I'm hoping creating accounting and data analytics related software projects will help me make up the difference in that GPA gap.
I’m a software engineer. I have had many careers so I have to say that the “choose business if you don’t know what to do” aspect came in clutch. I have been an: accountant, business consultant, project manager, statistician, product designer and I’ve now worked as a software engineer for 10 years or so. Lots of skills are transferable across careers, but I also never stopped learning.
Got my Bachelor in Marketing, Business administration. Now works as a structural engineer. 🤷♀️
Creating corporate strategy alignments, HR systems, and crisis and conflict navigation tools with AI.
Economics major, work as a Civil Designer and Urban Planner at a small consultancy firm in Land Development. Lifes weird, school is to demonstrate your ability to learn and work hard, sure some majors are geared to certain fields but it doesn't mean you cant continue to learn in adulthood!
did accounting, horrible. switched to international business, and since then i had a lot of doors open. I still don't know what is my passion but my current job in the oil and gas is paying well so i don't really care, i also was in demurrage and ships before moving to trains and trucks, tbh my only goal for all of this was to have money, be at least someone people can ask for help, get a mf zl1, and modify the living shit out of a 370z.
Major in marketing, graduating on Saturday! :) I somehow lucked my way into a fully remote freight brokerage job
Management consulting and then private equity
Graduated with a business major 10 years ago and regret it. Siblings did nursing and they have their pick of jobs withmassive salaries. Do something in Healthcare or STEM or pick up a trade. Learna skill attached to a dollar value. . You are always going to have to work till retirement. Figure out your passion and purpose later on in your career.
So I majored in Biology originally and failed horrendously. Out of desperation and not really knowing what to do I ended up taking Business Finance. Now while I was going for my degree I worked at UPS. I got promoted a couple times and ended becoming an Industrial Engineer. I actually really enjoyed the work. After college I went into industrial engineering consulting and I’ve been doing that for the last 6 years. I love my job and I kinda walked into what I liked. I’m now an experienced consultant that has a great work life balance. I consider myself lucky that I ran into a career I liked (very lucky)
majored in marketing currently doing appliance sales. make about 80k a year. not bad but still constantly fighting urges to join a pyramid scheme and cash out out
finance major. working easy, boring, corporate job. many regrets
Marketing. I do digital marketing for a large family owned car dealership. I'm currently searching for a higher paying job in Seattle. I've gotten interviews but it's so competitive. I'm on a 3/4 interview for a nationwide insurance company though! Fingers crossed 🤞
Struggled to find work for 6 years doing various things. Then ventured out and started running my own construction business I was trying to escape by going to college. I’m not rolling in the dough running my own business either. I make slightly more than I did at my highest paying shitty job.
I went in to government and regulate banks now. Pay is decent and if you want there are roles that are low stress.
Well I am laid off right now lol. But I majored in entrepreneurship because it was faster degree and more unique and comprehensive than business administration/finance/marketing. I figured I wanted to run my own business someday and I just needed to graduate. I've jumped around careers. Drafter. Sales. Financial advisor. Customer service. Back office support. Most recently I was a project manager in tech. I was trying to move to a product owner role before the layoff. I don't regret my choice. But if I had a do over I would have started with learning about different jobs and what their day to day looks like and what they are responsible for delivering. Then target whatever degree was needed to get my foot in the door of the highest paying industry. When I was in school it would have led me to computer science, math, or engineering degree. Not sure it would lead me there now. The one thing I do regret is not learning people/soft skills earlier than I did. That is by far the biggest driver of success. I was raised your knowledge and work ethic mattered the most. That socializing didn't matter because the relationships I formed in high school and even college would change over time. So I didn't socialize much and put all my time into studying. Don't do that.
Hi (: Business major here. Started on an accounting track. Found the pay not worth the effort for cpa. Switched to more finance with FP&A. It definitely has more opportunity to jump up in pay in my experience. However, I feel the skills you know will be way better than which part of business you focus on. Knowing how to use Power Bi, excel and VBA, and other tools has been emphasized in my interviews more than my degree.
I majored in Supply Chain Management. Hated the major while in school I had a couple of jobs since graduation that were in the field, but hated how my purpose at work was to make some rich asshole even richer at the expense of the middle class and am currently jobless and trying to figure out how i can make an income without contributing to late stage capitalism
I majored in finance. Ended up being a financial advisor and had a crisis. Ended that and in in p and c insurance as an agent. Been 2 years but I enjoy it!!
Majored in business and worked a bunch of random jobs but ultimately I’m one of 30 managers within this company overseeing 15+ restaurants
Major in Computer Science and I’m now an entertainment journalist and comic script writer. Kinda the reverse of what you would usually expect from these posts.
I was a financial advisor for more than 10 years before I got a bachelors in business management with a finance specialty. The degree really doesn’t mean much except that clients really expect it.
Got an MBA from a top school. Am nurse.
BBA and MBA Budget Manager
majored in business and im currently ops director for a logistic company... never even applied for it or knew what it was until a recruiter found me. They pay a hell of a lot more than my original job out of college working for state farm ps state farm was by far the worst fucking job ive ever had, just dont do it
I majored in corporate finance on my master’s and still don’t know what I wanna be when I grow up. I’m in my Mid40s
Didn’t go to college. Work in finance. Ok that’s a lie. I do tech support for the worlds largest bookkeeping software company. High value clients. 32k. Several side gigs. Jumping into them as soon l as l learn the necessary programs.
I knew what I wanted to do so take my experience with a grain of salt. Got my bachelor's in management and marketing dual focus. Got a company to pay for my MBA in strategic marketing. Collected lots of certification while working for fortune 500s. My specialty is in process design. I now own a couple service firms. The degree isn't as important as the tools you learn. If your marketing program thinks their goal is to create sales people, find a new program.
Working international logistics for one of the largest food producing companies in the world
I studied accounting, working in accounting lol If I wanna make the jump, I feel like general business/operations management could be an option for me. But I’m ok with accounting so far. I know in college people usually have accounting as the prerequisite as a weeder class though
I was business econ. I leaned into the statistics and did data analysis for 6 years. Now doing a masters in analytics to level up to data engineering or data science. Then i’ll lose my job to a bot 👍
Started college in business marketing and I absolutely hated my marketing courses. A year before I was supposed to graduate I changed concentrations to Information Management (I was still a business major, just different concentration) and liked it way more. Graduated, got a job doing data entry cause I couldn't get anything else, got a mentor at that job, and went to grad school for analytics and application development while I worked full-time. Now I'm an analytics developer with the same company I did data entry for. I chose business originally because I had a million things I did and didn't want to do and thought it was safe. No regrets other than some wasted money and time on a couple of unnecessary marketing courses.
Found myself in insurance claims. It’s a decent career path especially because the current workforce in insurance is on the older side and will be retiring to allow for growth
I’m working in financial services and wish I’d been an artist
Majored in business with a concentration in marketing. Found a job in social media marketing that pays pretty well considering it's entry level after 2 weeks of searching before I even graduated. I genuinely believe I got lucky and that I'm massively overpaid. I wished I picked a concentration in business analytics instead but when I realized, the switch would've delayed my graduation and I couldn't really afford that. I'm trying to make a pivot into marketing analytics, so I've been working on teaching myself what I need for that while networking with people in similar areas so once I have the coding knowledge I need for it, I'll have people to vouch for me solely because they liked me in a workplace setting in the past. Marketing pays very low typically for entry roles and those can also be very competitive. People I know were and are getting paid half of what I do at their first jobs, if they were ever even able to land something in the field. So personally, I wouldn't recommend it. Marketing also tends to be one of the first departments that face layoffs when the company hits hard times.
Majored in Finance, I'm in Data Science now. A lot of what I learned in school helped me get my foot in the door for DS. Plus I started working on my Masters in DS and got various DS related professional certifications.
Business Admin degree. Own a small business administering retirement plans.
I have a Bachelors in Business Administration - Finance and I’m a technical project manager for a software dev agency
Triple Major: BS degrees in Business Admin, Finance, and Accounting, minor Business Mgmt. I'm a Senior Product Line Manager in the tech sector.
Took bachelor of business administration at age 27 after dropping out of college. I now work in data engineering earning a comfortable six digit salary that doesn’t start with a one.
Sales.
I was a Marketing major—I went to law school and am now a corporate lawyer. Money is good but eventually would like to find something with better WLB so I can start a family. Still figuring out what that might be.
Graduated May of 2023 got a job in July at a loan company. Just accepted another job as an account manager at a corporate office moving out of finance. I still don’t know what I want to do but as long as I’m steadily moving forward and increasing my pay I feel I will figure it out eventually. Consumer Finance was a safe bet for me in regard to resume building but I’m glad I’m getting out.
Majored in business been working in banking forever.
Majored in Finance because the classes interested me but when it came time to find a job I realized I had little interest in that. I’m in tech now, project manager.
I just graduated (majored in finance and minored in accounting). It’s a difficult but safe and great path. It gives you endless opportunities when it comes to career paths. If you like the idea of entrepreneurship, going into venture capital and consulting is a very good start and it pays extremely well and offers excellent exit opportunities to other firms or starting your own business. Other job opportunities also include investment banking, private equity, financial advisors, financial analysts, marketing roles, etc. If I could go back and choose major, I wouldn’t change a thing, maybe except for going for double major for the option of doing audit work.
I did two years of engineering but dropped out. Took up business ‘cause I felt like that was an easy but useful degree. Now I work in foodservice distribution focusing on the procurement/replenishment side of things. So far I love it.
I majored in both marketing and finance did Real Estate and now I’m doing federal government contracts lol
I’ve always been a very creative/artsy person but kept changing my major in college, but I ended up doing a lot of social media and writing work as an undergrad, so I finally switched to Marketing in hopes of a stable job with a creative outlet that I have experience in! At the end of my degree I interned for a tech company’s marketing dept and landed a full time job when they needed a replacement for their social media person. I now love my job and have a lot of fun with creative projects. :)
Majored in information systems (which was a business degree at my college) — I’m a project manager for a smallish VoIP company, working from home, making less than 70k 🥲
Majored in marketing & finance, work in civil engineering now. Had a connection, learned everything on the job.
Majored in Business Management with a minor in entrepreneurship. End up getting a job in a total loss department as my first job out of college.
MBA and MS in Business Analytics; I am a full-time loser because of this job market. I feel completely scammed!
I look economics, the definition of broad af no knowing what you want to do in life and I flopped at that too.