What degree should i get in business?
Question:
i'd like to be a store manager i guess, and ive talked to a few people who all said different things. One said to go for the MBA, another said just a bachelors, another said a degree in any field is fine as long as u work hard.
does any1 have any ideas? And would going to a community college first be a bad choice? i live in des moines, and going to the DMACC would be easy, and then to Iowa state university later if need be?
Answer:
Definitely shoot for a MBA or masters not a bachelors, because you can't get any jobs in today's market with just a bachelors and that goes with any major and field. I've heard accounting is a good major for business, as well as finance, but since you want to go into sales, maybe marketing, business management, sales. These are pretty broad and vague, you might want to check the business major lists at your future college.
The best advice I can offer would be to just be happy with your choices. Currently, I am pursuing an MBA as a mother of two. I have a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration already and was told that "little piece of paper" would open doors. While this is true, a lot of employers look for management experience also. You can have all the education in the world, but if you don't have the experience and the people skills to go along with it then you're pretty much stuck.
What I'm saying is, yes, go for the Bachelor's degree. It could never hurt to have that piece of paper. You can always decide later if you should go on to complete your MBA - there are many resources for that, including online classes. Business Administration degrees are versatile and can get you in the door. I would also suggest asking Target if they have some mentoring program where you could shadow an assistant manager or area manager - or ask if they have a GDP (Growth Development Plan)... something that could show you how you could possibly move up the ladder. What skill sets are required, what education, what experience, etc. Be very specific.
Additionally, no, community college is not a bad choice. The fact that you go on to college at all is always a wonderful choice and employers will consider that more than what school you went to.
I hope this helps :-)
First of all, i've very happy you don't want to work at Target for the rest of your life. That being said, if you spend the time in college, you will realize that you have increased your human capital value so greatly, that you are worthy of more than a simple managerial position at some store. That being said, you will want to pursue an MBA to further your career options.
An MBA is the most flexible degree anyone can earn. If business is bad in one state, you can move to an other. If business is bad in the U.S., you can move to the U.K. or India where they also speak English. Also, you can have a full 5 years time before you really settle down on what you want to do.
Business is broken down into three fundamental components for undergraduate study. Before I list them, keep this in mind, a college offering courses in "Business" or "Management" is only wasting your time. These courses are meaningless at the undergraduate level. Your undergraduate degree sets the foundations for your specialization and profession, it is not your final knowledge base. Wasting useful space in your college career with such courses will only take away from the valueable time you have to learn more important things.
Now, the three main components of business at the undergraduate level:
Economics: Don't bother with Business if you won't bother with Economics. It's the study of choices individuals and firms make when they face certain contraints. It will teach you how to think analytically, what questions to ask yourself, and how to think about business in a way that makes sense. Majoring in Economics will allow you to explore how individuals respond to changes in Prices (Price Theory), employ their actions or form strategies (Game Theory), and how to forcast the outcomes of either short-term financial preformance or the long-term macroeconomic preformance of the entire economy (Econometrics). Excellent minors for this major are Mathematics and Statistics!
Accounting: This is the language of business. You can get by your MBA knowing as little as the first two semesters of an undergraduate Accounting degree, but did you ever wonder why people go on to learn more? An outstanding combination in the workforce is someone with an MBA and a CPA; such people are called "superman", I will explain why later. Accountants can analyze the financial statements of a company and find exactly what is holding the company back, or what can make a company sore. They are also adept at locating tax advantages by manipulating aspects of production or operations to minimize taxation costs. Excellent minors are Law (Business), Finance, Mathematics, and Statistics.
Finance: Hands down, this one sounds the coolest out of the three, but one wonders, what is Finance? Finance is the scientific valuation of investments, comparison to similar investments, to see which one makes more money. It's as simple as that. It combines elements of Accounting such as Financial Statement Analysis, and Economics such as Price Theory & Econometrics, to quantify the Future or Present Values of any particular Investment. Excellent minors are Computer Science (Linear Programing), Mathematics, Statistics.
The only two fields which stand on their own without an MBA are a B.A. in Finance, or a B.S. in Accounting. You can go to work right away, and in New York, you can expect to earn $40,000 a year as an Accountant, and $35,000 a year doing investment research as a Financer.
However, when you combine them with an MBA, the results are quite different. To see why, you have to understand what an MBA give you.
- Strategy
- Management
- Marketing
- Understanding of Markets
- Understanding of Financial Statements
- Fundamentals of Finance
These are the fundamentals of an MBA degree. You are then left to pick from an alphabet soup-full of choices on concentrations. But when that second year comes, you can't just go back to college and change what you took. You have to plan ahead of time, and this is really the perfect time to plan. Think of the different combinations and which one interests you the most; which one you can see yourself as!
B.A. in Economics & MBA: You will know the ins and outs of markets, a master at marketing and market research. You will be able to tell how much a product or service should be priced for, who it should be marketed to, and how much you can expect to sell. You are the person responsible for keeping up with market trends, consumer preferences, and new product ideas to fit consumer's needs.
Expected Annual Salary (NYC): $105,000
B.A. in Finance & MBA: You will have a firm command of investments and an exact feel for what acceptable risk looks like. You are a valueable asset to a company, investment banking firm, bank, or even private investment firm. You trade Stocks, Bonds, Futures, Options.. etc. Help people and companies make the right investments, and when to pull out.
Expected Annual Salary (NYC): $120,000 - $180,000
B.S. in Accounting & MBA: You live, drink, and eat business every day of your life. You know exactly how a company is doing, constantly in search of new ways to make it more efficient, cutting costs, allocating resources to productive operations, letting go of poorly productive assets, and minimizing tax expenses. Sometimes, the solution to a problem may require you to get creative and think outside the box, in establishing effective internal controls, corporate governance, or mutually beneficial business alliances, or mergers and acquisitions!
Expected Annual Salary (NYC): $110,000 - $200,000+
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