Choosing a Business Degree – How Differences Matter
When one decides to go to college to graduate a business degree, it seems like a simply enough concept. However many students find as soon as they start to explore a given university’s class catalog signing up for a business degree isn’t as simple as it sounds. Most colleges have options available for business degrees, ranging from very technical programs to very conceptual disciplines. Each has its benefits, so understanding the differences are important. Here are the more common degree categories:
Finance/Accounting
One of the most classic of business degrees, the Finance or Accounting bachelors literally focuses on all the financial topics ranging from basic accounting to investment finance. This type of business degree will often be oriented on training a person to be a company accountant or financial manager. It is very numbers-heavy as a discipline, and students are expected to show a clear aptitude for financial matters when the program is complete.
Marketing
Not offered in every school, the marketing business degree provides a student the ability to go beyond basic sales and gain a career in mapping and strategizing how to leverage new markets with products and services. Marketing often covers everything from statistical research to international communications and multi-national corporation messaging. It also recently emphasizes using social media tools for brand development online as well. This degree is a natural for those who believe the Internet is the key to future business.
Operations Management
For those who subscribe to wanting to know how to run a factory, the operations management degree is the ticket to pursue. This discipline will emphasize heavily on finding ways to make existing manufacturing systems more efficient. It often spends a great deal of time on labor management, time versus product capacity formulation, and utilizing capital equipment as best as possible. There’s a heavy emphasis on operational math and formula work. This degree definitely a core area for those who see themselves managing production, whether it be micro-chips or car assembly lines.
Personnel Management
The human resources person who wants to work in the areas of hiring, recruitment, personnel management and EEO issues is going to be attracted to this business degree. There is a heavy emphasis on how to do proper job analysis, how to stay clear of EEO violations, discrimination management, labor law, labor negotiation, and mediation. The personnel management degree is often geared for those who see themselves rising to the head of HR in a company or looking to be a labor negotiator at some point.
Entrepreneurial
Being one of the newer business degrees, the entrepreneurial business degree is designed to appeal to those who want to get out and start a small business right away. This kind of program will often include the business basics, but it will then put an emphasis on startup, venture capital locating tips, operating on a bootstrap budget, and finding ways to bring a product or idea to market quickly. Website projects are often the norm for this program in terms of projects, and it is geared to catch the attention of the IT-focused Millennial student who doesn’t want to be an employee for his career.
In Summary
The items above are just some of the major business degree categories. There are plenty of variations. What really matters for a student is to think about what side of business actually seems attractive and then to pursue that area since liking the work makes a big difference between a career and just another job.
