An In Depth Guide to Business Degree Programs

The following in-depth guide will answer several of the questions you may have about earning a business degree:

1. What will you study in a Business degree Program?

Different schools have different areas of emphasis and offer different course work, and one factor when you choose a school should be to find a program which seems most relevant to your career goals. After all, it takes many different functions to run a business, and the course work involved is as varied as those functions. Some of the choices that will be open to you include the following areas of study:

• Accounting. Even if you have no intention of becoming an accountant, every business person should understand the fundamentals of accounting.
• Finance. As distinct from accounting, which measures financial resources, finance is about the application of those resources. This can range from routine budgeting to mergers and acquisitions.
• Sales. From retail to the most sophisticated business-to-business models, sales drive revenues. This can be a career itself, or simply one of the fundamentals you should understand.
• Management. For many people the reason for earning a business degree is to be able to move into a management career track. Management courses can teach you everything from head-to-head negotiation to big-picture organizational oversight.
• Entrepreneurship. Starting a business is the dream of many Americans. Learning entrepreneurship helps you benefit from the successes and failuresof those who have gone before you.
• Regulation. Government regulation is always changing, and compliance is a very in-demand field.
• Logistics. This involves the nuts-and-bolts of making a business run, such as inventory management, transportation, and order processing.
• Global trade. Understanding global trade not only allows you to compete more effectively in the United States, but it opens your career prospects up to the global stage.
• Insurance and risk management. The first decade of the 21st century has been marked by a series of high-profile financial debacles, so insurance and risk management is an in-demand skill.
• Marketing. From targeted campaigns to competitive strategy, marketers help determine which companies are growing--and which are shrinking.
• Retailing. This backbone of commerce is changing all the time, so newly-educated people may have the edge in understanding the latest online techniques.

2. What characteristics do Business majors typically possess?

As the breadth of the above list of subjects may suggest, there is no one, narrow profile of a business major. Business majors may be detail-oriented or creative; they may be lone wolves or team players; they may enjoy contact with people or like to stay behind the scenes; their aptitudes may be in language or in math and science.

Despite this variety, there are some universal characteristics of business majors, driven by the fact that business is fundamentally a competitive enterprise. Therefore, business majors tend to be competitive themselves and driven to work hard. Also, while skills may vary, being a successful business major means you must identify your standout skills and put yourself in a position to get the most out of those skills.

3. Which specific careers can Business majors pursue?

Business careers include a huge range of possibilities, but here are some prominent examples:

• Chief Executive Officer. Many people enter business school with the dream of one day becoming a CEO. It takes leadership skills, but also a broad knowledge of how all phases of a business work.
• Operations Manager. Running the logistics of an operation requires good practical and problem-solving abilities, with a touch of people skills thrown in.
• Marketing and Sales Manager. This requires creativity combined with a strong sense of how to outflank the competition.
• Financial Managers. Efficient management of a company's financial resources requires not just knowing the numbers inside and out, but having an acute sense of risk and opportunity.
• Buyers and Purchasing Agents. These are the people who keep inventory flowing into a business. It requires not only knowing what to buy and how much, but an ability to negotiate that can make the difference between profits and losses.
• Office Managers and Administrators. Any facility where people work and business is conducted has endless details that need to be sorted out. Good office managers and administrators are able to do this seamlessly.

Remember though, just about every type of organization and enterprise needs management talent, so the job market is not limited to the above examples. The above are some of the major functional responsibilities, but these and other jobs can be performed in just about every type of company you can imagine.

4. Which well-known people in the industry have completed Business degree programs before becoming successful?

Here is just a smattering of real-world examples of successful people who have benefited from a business degree:

• Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City. You might be surprised to find a politician on the list of the richest Americans, but Michael Bloomberg is a perennial member of Forbes magazine's listing of this exclusive club, ranking #8 in 2009. Of course he didn't make his money in politics: Bloomberg's fortune comes from having founded Bloomberg LP, a financial news and information service. His business degree? An MBA from Harvard.
• Ronald Perleman, Investor. Ronald Perleman has ridden a long string of leveraged buyouts and private equity investments all the way to the #23 slot on the Forbes list of richest Americans. His holdings now range from restaurants to an automotive manufacturer. His business degree is an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
• George B. Kaiser, Oil & Gas Entrepreneur. Just behind Perleman on the Forbes list, in the #24 position, is George B. Kaiser. Kaiser made his initial fortune in the oil and gas business, but has since diversified his holdings. Like Bloomberg, he earned an MBA from Harvard.

Of course, not every business school graduate makes the Forbes list, but the most compelling measure of the value of a business degree is not a few high-profile examples, but rather by the thousands of everyday success stories found in offices around the country.

5. How much do Business majors typically earn in the various fields they can pursue?

The magnitude of those everyday success stories can be seen by the average compensation paid for various positions which are open to holders of business degrees. Based on 2008 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, here is how average annual compensation matches up with the occupations mentioned previously:

• Chief Executive Officer--$241,065
• Operations Manager--$104,086
• Marketing and Sales Managers--$101,087
• Financial Managers--$94,551
• Buyers and Purchasing Agents--$59,377
• Office Managers and Administrators--$70,781

6. In which part of the country or world do prominent Business communities flourish?

New York City, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles are all prominent business communities in the United States. Around the world, major business centers include London, Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Business is something of a universal language, so your business degree could prepare you for employment anywhere in the world.

While the above locations have some of the greatest concentrations of commerce, what should not be overlooked is the fact that business activity takes place in just about every community in the world. Whether it's the neighborhood supermarket or restaurant, or a local auto dealer or insurance company, all of these are enterprises that require a variety of employees with business training. So, while a business degree could take you anywhere in the world, it can also help you get a job right at home.

7. What type of "real world" experience could you combine with your Business Degree program to supplement what the program teaches you?

Education and experience are the ideal combination. In fact, one reason that online degree programs have become so popular is that they allow people to gain experience and advance their education at the same time. Naturally, there are also financial reasons for doing this, but pursuing an online degree while already employed can both enrich your educational experience and improve your job performance, as lessons you learn in course work are reinforced with real world experience.

Another approach to supplementing a Business Degree with experience is to learn a business from the ground up, even while your eyes are on taking over a management position. So, for example, a future grocery executive might want to spend some time working in a local store; a potential insurance executive might want to try insurance sales, etc. Knowing a little about the nuts-and-bolts of a business will help your decision-making once you assume a management role.

8. What can a Business degree give you that on-the-job experience may not be able to?

Experience is a great teacher, but there is only so much experience you can garner in one lifetime. Business degree programs put a significant amount of focus on case studies--detailed, real world examples of how companies have met business challenges, successfully or unsuccessfully. These allow you to benefit from the experiences of others much more quickly than you could ever do on your own, and without having to endure the mistakes.

All-in-all, a business degree is a perfect complement to real-world experience. There are many examples of this, and plenty of opportunity for you to write your own success story.