what business major is best for you?
BY KEEMY MARTINEZ
With college application season at its peak, and deadlines around the corner, the question “What should I major in?” weighs heavily on every high school senior’s mind. The amount of fields someone could go into are endless; there’s engineering, medicine, social sciences, arts, business, and more. However within these fields there are a variety of distinct majors. In business alone there’s marketing, finance, management, accounting, and these are just some of the most popular majors, but how can you figure out which one is best for you? Well lets break these downs to make that decision clearer.
Within business there are 3 major pillars. There’s people, money, and systems. Marketing involves the people. If you’re someone who enjoys the artsy side of business and are naturally curious about why people buy certain products, marketing might be for you, but what is marketing? Marketing is what gets products sold, whether it be to a business or a consumer. It blends creativity and data analysis into one. If you were to major in marketing you would study the 4 P’s, product, price, place, and promotion. These will help you in the process of creating a marketable and compelling campaign to connect the product to your target consumers. Although marketing gives you more creative freedom, math is also involved which is something lots of people tend to overlook. Some of the surface level math in which you will engage in are statistics, algebra, and data analysis. All of these are necessary in order to analyze trends and make strategic decisions to make sure the ROI (return on investment) is positive. You can pursue a variety of jobs with a marketing degree; some of those jobs are an account executive, market analyst, and product manager.
How about the money side of business? Well two of the majors that are heavily involved in the money aspect of business are finance and accounting. Finance is on the harder side of business and students learn about the movement of money and how it affects both individuals and world-wide organizations. Its four main focuses are investments, banking, corporate finance, and international finance. A finance major is a reliable major because money is involved in every business, but how can you figure out if it’s right for you? Well if talking about money is not of interest to you finance might not be the best choice. A key point I’d also like to point out to you is that finance is not all math, and that just because math isn’t something you’re the best at doesn’t mean you can’t pursue finance. Yes, math is something that will be applied daily and you are working with numbers a lot, but it’s also something you’ll find in almost every business major, so don’t let that hold you back from entering the finance world. If you major in finance some possible career fields are investment banking, financial planner, and chief financial officer. These are just a small portion of the career field finance offers. A common misconception is that finance and accounting are about the same thing, but although they are similar in finance you are focusing on how to strategically use the money, while in accounting you are keeping track of and reporting how that money was used. If you were to major in accounting you would study the methods of how to record transactions a business has made, how to prepare financial records, economic outcomes, and ensure that all financial statements comply with laws. Accounting involves a lot of details and it’s all about the numbers, so if you consider yourself detail-oriented, are looking for a typical 9-5, and enjoy analytics, accounting might be for you.
Now let’s get into management, which is considered the most flexible major. The purpose of a management degree is to learn the skills and training that apply to all the aspects of business. If you have a specific interest and passion in a certain specialization in business like the previous ones mentioned you could major in them in order to have a deeper understanding, but if you feel you have multiple interests regarding business, management allows you to combine them. Majoring in management prepares you to oversee a business team, coordinate resources across all the different departments, and overall just ensure the business is running smoothly. If you consider yourself someone with great leadership skills and are interested in every part of a business, management is a really compatible major.
If you’re reading and still feel you’re not sure what to declare your major as, remember these are not the only majors business offers. There’s still so many to explore such as entrepreneurship, real estate, business analytics, and many more, so don’t feel discouraged! Business is a field of many opportunities and pathways, but I hope a part of you has a clearer mind on what you’ll declare your major as.
