Deciding what to study? Business studies may be an option. Here’s why…
The private sector drives the world’s economies. Email, Dropbox, Google Docs, Skype and Teamviewer have made it more possiblefor businesses to be global. Because of this, there is a huge demand for graduates with business degrees. If you’re thinking of studying at university, and are not sure what to do, you could consider a business study course. In this article, we discuss some of the pros and one of the cons of studying business at university.
How important is earning a good salary to you?
Business-related careers tend to be far better remunerated. The starting salary for a BCom graduate is around AUD$50,000 in the private sector and AUD$55,000 in government. As you climb the ladder in large organisations, these salaries increase. Recent business and management graduates at the postgraduate level earn an average of AUD$97,295. If a good salary is important to you, doing business studies is the start of your upward journey.
However, if earning a very good salary is what you’re after, the main fields where that can be achieved are dentistry, optometry, engineering, earth sciences, and maths, which occupy the top rankings according to the Australian Graduate Report for 2014. Accounting, economics and business studies rank jointly at 14. The chart below taken from the Report, shows the high and low earning starting salaries by rank for men and women under 25 who have started their first full-time job, but field of education.
If you really don’t mind what you earn, and you feel that you would not be able to find meaning in your life in a business career, then studying business may not be the best choice for you.
Range of career opportunities
Business studies has many facets. You could study accounting, banking, business information systems, economics, finance, logistics, human resource management, international business, marketing and management, sports management, hospitality management, entrepreneurship, or a host of other courses. At undergraduate level, you can study a broad degree and specialize afterwards.
But even if you only have an undergraduate degree, you will still be in demand for employment.
Business degrees are portable
If you would like to work or live outside of Australia, your Australian degree will be well received, provided you obtained it at a good university. Many courses are recognised internationally, and accredited with the worldwide Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). This accreditation gives you access to jobs anywhere in the world.
Career opportunities in business
Business qualifications allow you to enter a wide range of careers in a variety of businesses. Some careers are directly connected to business degrees, such as accounting, banking etc. In addition,you could go into marketing, advertising, retail, sales and human resources. You could even start your own business or consult to other business.While small- to medium-sized enterprisesand start-upsmay be founded by people with great ideas, they need solid business skills to turn dreams into reality, to look after issues like tax, and to make sure they are compliant with the law.
Great foundation for anything you do in the world of work
Even if you decide the world of business is not for you, and that you’d rather be a pole dancer or open a florist, you will always have a good foundation in how business works. You are much more likely to succeed in your chosen career with this background than someone who does not know anything about business principles.
Skills you will gain from a business course
Topuniversities lists the following skills that you will gain from a business course:
- An understanding of how organisations operate
- Strong communication skills (oral and written)
- Analytical and critical thinking
- Problem solving
- Decision making
- Logical thinking
- Presentation and report writing skills
- Numeracy and an understanding of how to interpret and use financial data
- Self-motivation, initiative and effective time management
- Project and resource management
- A close understanding of economic fluctuations and other external changes affecting business
If you are not interested in business
If what you really love doing is lepidoptery, and the idea of working with numbers and people and strategies turns you off, studying a business course is probably not for you. These courses are demanding, and require you to put a lot of effort and time into them.
If you are under pressure from family to take a business degree, we suggest you compromise by doing a more general university course with one business subject to see if you really hate it. You never know!
