Is a Business and Management degree worth it?

[aegeletrolux]

DS is in year 12 currently trying to decide what he wants to do at university. He really enjoys Business A’level and is wondering if it’s a worthwhile degree. My gut feeling is that he’d be better getting a job and working his way up but I’m probably completely out of touch.

I'm not in the UK so don't know if a BA in Business Administration or Business Management is a good shout these days, but I definitely think it will give him really broad opportunities and not pigeonhole him into something defined.
He would be wise to also look at law as a minor, which will well support him.

I'm 36 shortly and have 'worked my way up' my company are now paying me through a Management degree - I guess he could take 20 years to end up in the same place, but If I'd had the degree first I'd have likely got here much quicker and likely have been more self aware than having to learn it all myself

What sort of career does he think he may want?

For most professional careers there may be better choices.

Look for ones with placement years and string links with business. Search graduate apprenticeships- v competitive, but no fees and you’re paid.

Strong even!

“Working your way up” is something that people before 1970 tend to say!

If he wants the student experience and then to go straight into a graduate position why on earth not? It’s a more established route to a management career now than anything else.

He could do any other subject and still apply for graduate schemes but business degrees generally include a grounding in Marketing? Accounting, Organisational Behaviour, HR, some law….Perfectly useful and reasonable subject to study if it interests him.

Excuse typos.

Are business management degrees not more aimed at people wanting to run their own business, or something like a group of doctors’ practices than someone who’s planning to work “in business”?

No.

The BusMan courses at RG unis are highly sought after and very difficult to get into! They are a fast track to plum city jobs!

Any course that you can do at oxbridge is usually not a 'Micky mouse' (sigh) degree.

Agree with PPs that you are out of touch. @MetellaInHortoEste of my brothers in his early 30s has such a degree and works for a well-known financial company. He wouldn't have got his foot in the door without it. Other people slightly older than him work in the areas @MetellaInHortoEst mentioned.

Yes I know quite a lot of wealthy financial services types, chartered accountants and auditors (amongst many other careers) who started with business degrees in the 90s/00s.

I had “with management” as a minor on my (more traditional) degree and it was very useful. (Not least because I now have friends to visit in the Cayman Islands.)

Then who are they aimed at? I’ve never had a CV cross my desk with it on despite years of being part of the graduate intake for most of that time.

I see lots of STEM, economics and arts degrees, but have never seen “business management.”

Well probably not aimed at your organisation then. Do you mainly recruit from Oxbridge?

A lot of big names do recruit Business grads, though. As do Mac Donald’s & enterprise rent-a-car. As with everything else, a lot depends on the Uni, the grades etc. It’s always a spectrum, with any subject or sector.

Honestly, the very specific sniffiness of “people wanting to run their own business, or something like a group of doctors’ practices” is hilarious and so wrong. Where did you dream that up from?

No, nowadays the intake is quite wide, so Russel group plus a few others in the UK then a selection from overseas.

What’s sniffy about what I wrote though? The richest people I know run their own businesses, and some have done a business management degree along the way as their companies grew and became more profitable.

The only relative I know who’s doing one did it as a condition of moving up to fully manage a local group of GP practices from her previous more junior role looking after office admin in one of them. This put her on low six-figures, so nothing to be sniffy about.

So you’re talking about a very small group of mature students you know who did a degree to help with existing careers?

OP is talking about a school leaver going to university and I’m talking about what many 21 year old graduates do with their business degrees (and no existing career).

My son did a business management degree and graduated in July.
He is now working for KPMG and if all goes well in three years will qualify as a chartered accountant.

I work at a RG University and occasionally with the Business school. The courses are very popular and they are very stringent with transfers in from other courses within the University. I always get the impression they offer very popular courses. Certainly the range of modules on offer is extensive. Placement years seem popular on these courses too which must be beneficial.

I did management with economics at uni and am now a tax adviser. My best friend who did the same is now in HR. It’s a good “I don’t know what to do” degree I think. The most important thing is that he enjoys it and is interested in it!

Well no, I was originally also commenting on the fact that out of the thousands of CVs which I’ve had in finance that I’ve yet to see one in business management.

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC in 2001 and quite a few of my peers, who have all gone on to do very well, did Business Management degrees.

I'm a CFO in an international advertising agency and would consider this a perfectly appropriate degree for pretty much any role. Mind you, we are moving away from requiring degrees for a lot of the positions, especially creative ones, to recruit a broader spectrum of talent.

Business management is a good degree to have which will open a lot of doors and be a wide enough appeal that you can then specialise later down the line. As PP have said, it's a good "not sure what I want to do" degree.

I was suppose to post but got interrupted by my DD that one of my younger brothers' in his early 30s has such a degree and works for a well-known financial investment company. He went to a plate glass university with strong links to industry.

I started a business degree at 21 after realising that it would be a real struggle to "work my way up" from my admin position as I'd hoped. I got a very low paid graduate job afterwards and then got a better job within the same company which I love and would never have got without my degree giving me a foot in the door. It's not a massive paying job but I genuinely love it a feel challenged each day.

A smug friend of mine did start working her way up while I was at uni and would say things like "we'll probably end up both getting paid the same and I won't have student loans to pay back". As it happens, she has reached the limit of what she can earn without further qualifications and now can't afford to get those quals as she has a mortgage to pay!

I have a business management degree from 30 years ago and now earn high six figures working in law. The fact that you’ve never seen a CV with a business degree on it is bizarre