A friend of the family directed her 18 year old son to me, who's getting ready to start college (Spring Semester, for those like "October?? Huh??"). He was curious about majors and what not and wanted some advice. Why he came to me ... who knows.
His First Choice: Communications. At which point I laughed.
Nadi: Why communications?
Boy: I don't know... it sounds interesting
Nadi: Go look on monsterfor jobs that ask for someone with a "Communcations, or similar background". "I'll give you $100 for each one you find".
And I especially laughed because when I was on my way out of high school, I wanted to be a communications major, and my folks laughed at me.
His Second Choice: Business. Note: yes, the kid is afraid of math - that much is obvious.
Here's where things get interesting, because I was a Business major. What is a business major?!?!
Unlike a lot of other majors where they teach you helpful methods of analysis or ways in which outcomes can be predicted - business is a "science" that's really not well understood. When articles and whatnot are published about the success of marketing techniques (i.e. Sherna's post on user-driven content), its not because the method is tried and true across the board, but simply is the result of an observed trend. "X number of companies were successful" "and all X companies used user driven content marketing" "maybe user driven content marketing is a path to marketing success". "Lets write about it and say it is".
What an undergraduate business major is:
- A schedule of courses designed to help students understand the BASIC analysis tools that businesses use to make decisions (financial accounting, managerial accounting, income statement, balance sheet, COGS)
- How to calculate basic profitability metrics: revenues, net income, depreciation, operating expenses etc
- Understanding some business math (and no the mess is not hard...get a damn calculator): present/future value of money etc.
- Marketing classes: the 4Ps (price, product, place, promotion)
- Management classes: waste of damn time
- IS classes: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access
- Courses in new business technology: Oracle, SAP, Hyperion, Lawson
- Courses in project management: MS Project, Visio (process re-engineering), Spreadsheet Modeling, Six Sigma (or other Quality Management)
- Courses in business strategy: real business strategy like product life cylce, new product introduction, logistics (Supply Chain Management), Customer Relationship Management etc
In theory, all the theory is great. But what about the practical side of things?! What about the practical side of things? Why aren't more schools spending time giving students those skills that you see in the "required" field on most Monster.com posting?
What's the point of a BUSINESS major?!
4 comments:
I think it depends on what you specialize in. I took a lot of finance (would have been my major had I been in business). That knowledge and methods are directly used in capital budgeting decision, particularly in investment banking (which is where most of my classmates that were good ended up).
Accounting's similar - very specific classes that are taught based on real world knowledge they need once they're done to become CPAs (or CAs in Canada).
As for the rest - I don't know since i didn't take enough of those classes.
Totally agreed.
My thinking at this moment: any business degree that ends in s (meaning BBS instead of BBA) is worth something in the long run - finance, accounting, SOME management and IS.
The rest? Classes here and there can be helpful but I can't see the value in building a 4 year "emphasis" around it.
I guess I"m just feel like a lot of a business education is working in reverse - here's what companies are doing and it worked - here's why it worked. Now go do before some company comes out with a new way and we re-analyze the whole process.
After going through the whole college experience, I really think business is just another degree where you won't make anymore more money in the long run than any other degree.
First off, I agree that communications is baloney, especially after taking some of those classes. I was always curious how they would make a whole major out of it.
But as for being a business major...I agree that its not really practical for entrepreneurs. Perhaps if you want to be molded into a management position at a corporation, sure go for it. But if you have dreams of starting your own business, go to college for what you love doing, like graphic design, film making, programming, whatever, and learn the aspects of running a business later.
There are so many good materials out there that are more cost-effective and less time consuming then a college education for learning how to run a business. Just check amazon and read the top-ten rated books for a start, and you'd be better off than anyone with a business degree.
A business degree provides some great background points - but in my current job, almost EVERYTHING I do I learned in internships, not sitting in class. And the same goes for what we're trying to do with OUR business.
If I could go back I would have taken up a minor in computer science or graphic design. Something useful.
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