Why Study Business? 10 Good Reasons

Business is always among the most popular fields of study. Students take business courses in large numbers at colleges, universities and graduate schools around the world.

You’d think there must be good reasons why people study business. And there are. Here are 10 of the best reasons for choosing to study business.

1. You’re Good, or Even Great, at Maths

Business is a logical field of study to go into if you’re good with numbers. Alongside science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields, business is an area where you can put maths skills to great use. Not all business careers depend on having maths ability, but many do.

Get Educated has a list of 16 Best Jobs for Math Majors. You could qualify for at least eight of the jobs (i.e. half) with a business degree: accountant, budget analyst, cost estimator, economist, financial advisor, financial analyst, insurance underwriter and market research analyst.

In fact, students who study mathematics or statistics at university are often advised to pair maths with business or another applied field. The daily activities of companies and other organisations present many interesting and important problems to solve using numbers.

2. You’re a Strong Communicator

Compared to the STEM disciplines in particular, business graduates are more likely to end up in roles that put a premium on communication skills. This is actually the key reason why I decided, after one year of university study, to specialise in Economics instead of Maths or Computer Science. I wanted writing to feature strongly in my future career, which it definitely has.

Effective communication is essential in many business fields, including administration, entrepreneurship, human resources, management, marketing, and project management. It would be fair to say that, if you enjoy communicating and working as part of a team, the business sphere provides almost endless job opportunities.

3. To Keep Your Career Options Open

A legitimate and common reason to enrol in a business course is to get a valuable education while you develop a career plan. A Diploma of Business or Bachelor of Business are among the best choices if you find yourself enrolling to study but still haven’t figured out what you want to be when you grow up.

Studying business is highly flexible. A diploma, business degree or graduate certificate can qualify you for numerous jobs. And you can easily branch off into other fields. You can, for example, use completed business subjects at university as credit towards other degrees or combined degrees.

Aside from Business, the most popular generalist kind of field is Arts. But an arts qualification isn’t as flexible in terms of career options. A BBus will get you more job interviews than a BA. Likewise, an MBA is likely to create more job opportunities than an English masters.

Enrolling in a more niche field than business is also risky when you lack career conviction. Fine arts, nursing and teaching courses, for example, are quite limited in what they qualify you for. Job-specific training could leave you in the horrible position someday of having to decide whether to (a) junk your education investment or (b) stay in a field that is not really for you.

4. To Become Forever Employable

Why study business? Because business courses are highly effective at making you employable. Graduates can apply for numerous types of jobs. How you go after getting a start is only limited by your ambition, effort and talent.

In the 2020 Australian Graduate Outcomes Survey, a Bachelor of Business was found to be the best-performing 3-year degree in terms of full-time employment.

• Close to 3 in 4 people with a ‘business and management’ undergraduate major were employed full-time after graduating.
• The study field placed between Law and Nursing bachelors, which are both 4-year professional degrees. Overall, ‘business and management’ was 9^th out of 21 undergraduate degree categories.

Every employer needs professionals to do core administration jobs. They can’t do without people doing accounting, financial management, human resources management, marketing, public relations, and so forth. That means people with business qualifications are always in demand.

5. Learn How to Start or Run a Business

Business management is the best study area if you have ambitions to start or run a business. You can learn core skills required in every company or organisation, such as accounting, finance and marketing. Courses are also available in being the boss fields such as business development, entrepreneurship and leadership.

Gaining skills for running a business can prove valuable even if your main goal is just to land a salaried job. With experience, you might find yourself running part of a business soon. As well, opportunities could arise to be a freelancer, franchisee or small business owner. The online gig economy is a growing destination for enterprising people with business skills.

6. To Learn How to Manage and Lead

Going to business school is the best place for gaining a formal education in management and leadership. Business courses at all levels can cover the topic but most learning happens at a masters level.

A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is the world’s most popular and famous postgraduate qualification. When you do an MBA, you learn the art of leadership while also studying regular business subjects from a manager’s perspective.

People enrol in MBA programs for all sorts of reasons, including the significant salary benefits that often come with holding the degree. But the unique and distinguishing feature of an MBA is the management and leadership training you receive.

MBA candidates are required to have significant professional experience before joining the course. Through a combination of leadership theory, case studies and personal reflections, students refine and extend their boss skills.

Related: Is Business Management a Good Degree?

7. To Work in a Chosen Profession

Studying business allows you to qualify for a chosen profession. Some examples are accountant, economist, entrepreneur, financial advisor, human resources manager, logistics manager, marketing professional, project manager and social media marketer.

The business field is made of many disciplines. Each of them is associated with a host of possible careers. Generally speaking, a business qualification gives you a strong advantage in applying for jobs. You can major in the discipline in a diploma course, graduate certificate, or bachelor or masters degree.

8. For Abundant Career Opportunities

A great reason to study business is to allow you to easily change careers in the future. You effectively gain access to more opportunities for better work or refreshing changes in your daily activities.

How any new graduate’s career might unfold is uncertain. Over the course of time, you can expect to have numerous job changes. Statistics show that the median number of years a US employee has been with their current employer is just 4.1 years.

And people are often eyeing career changes, with extra pay being the most common motivation. According to an edX survey, close to a third of people have considered changing careers during the previous 12 months. Furthermore, it was found that 29% of college graduates had completely changed careers since their first post-college job.

In a business field, you can change careers more easily. You have transferable analytical and communication skills. While working in one field, you also gain exposure to and experience in others. Overlap between business functions means you could, for example, transition from working in marketing to taking a job in public relations or senior management.

9. To Develop Your Thinking Skills

By choosing Business for your education and career, you will develop a well-rounded ability to think that will benefit many aspects of your life. While every field of study produces spillover benefits beyond job skills, business is perhaps the most comprehensive.

Some of the transferable skills you gain in business are the ability to:

• communicate simply and effectively
• manage the performance of yourself and others
• solve problems by identifying key elements
• evaluate alternative solutions to problems objectively
• manage finances, investments and spending
• organise and manage projects through to completion
• negotiate based on financial and other trade-offs.

10. You Have a Business Mind

If you have a mind for business, then studying the subject and having a career in the field is the only logical thing to do. Going into business will give you the best opportunity to put your brain to work and make a high salary or large profits.

Probably few people. including those with business degrees, really have a business mind. But you’d hope that most business graduates have, or at least develop, some of the characteristics.

According to Danial Darrow, the qualities of someone with a business brain are that they: see opportunity, tolerate risk, have a forward vision, are able to find solutions, and are accountable for getting things done. These traits help them make money consistently.