Currently doing a business double degree. One of my majors is marketing and I’m undecided on the other. My question is what second major would be the best out of finance, stats and management. I was told the finance industry is going down and people don’t earn a lot in marketing. Does anyone here have a marketing degree and get paid a high salary ? Or does anyone have a finance degree and get a high salary ?
Business major
AmyLK on 21/07/2018 - 01:06
Comments
I second accounting.
Also, depending on the availability at your university and your capability, you might want to consider actuarial studies.
Accounting is good for principles - and the fact that all CEOs are basically accountants. However I see automation taking a lot of vanilla accounting jobs in the coming decade. Accounting is rules based and therefore can be automated.
I think marketing and data science/statistics is a very strong combination. Marketers are always required to back up their plans to the bottom line and this is often difficult. Data science assists compiling a robust case, while uncovering market trends.
Truthfully it makes very little difference in the real world. Do the one you enjoy the most
Marketing pays well but theres not as many jobs out there compared to accounting / finance / stats. Most companies doesn’t need as many marketing people as they do number crunchers.
Don’t do management - you learn leadership on the job not out of a book and you need technical skills more.
Finance and stats have some overlap in career path but imo are a bit strange to pair with marketing. This is again a bit of a high paying path but not as many jobs (those far more than in marketing). Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong on this.
Accounting is probably what I’d pair with marketing - both as a fallback career and the general business knowledge you take out of it. Good luck op
I also vote accounting - hard to understand some financial results properly without account knowledge. You can earn very good money as an accountant.
If you like the sound of working with data stats is a great choice that would allow you to work in marketing or finance, and the pay isn’t bad either. But you’d have to be interested in looking at data.
For example, doing a marketing major and working you’d have tasks like writing copy, sourcing creative, and looking at the response to your ads and the effect they had.
Marketing + stats you can figure out what type of customers to market to for each desired outcome, and predict the value of customers in the future to figure out if its worth marketing to them in the first place
More jobs available in finance and accounting industries, however if your passionate about marketing go with that. There’s many roles that you can branch out into afterwards such as sales.
Thanks for all the feedback :) seems like accounting is a good option. Does that require postgraduate study ?
If you want to get anywhere as an accountant you'll need to study your CA or CPA which takes 3 years (2 years of study within 3 years of mentorship).
What's your expectation of a "high salary"? And do you mean starting salary or ultimate potential? Within financial services, the range is huge.
Over 80k I guess. Ultimate potential. And availability of jobs is what I’m considering.
In terms of difficulty, how would you compare finance and accounting ?
Despite what everyone here so far has said, I do not recommend accounting. Just for a counter point here is why:
- Your go to major is Marketing and you seem dead set on this. Accounting is like the opposite end of marketing for a business. Marketing deals with creativity and strategies on how a business is able sell and promote themselves as a brand. Accounting is the opposite often dealing with lots of rules, regulations and guidelines on how the numbers need to be reported. It can get very dry if you are not into this.
- There are more jobs in accounting but there are also lot more candidates. Accounting is one of the most saturated and competitive careers. As a result, low to mid end accounting jobs don't pay that much. There are definitely no shortage of accountants especially in the low end levels
You also probably don't need to decide now until you have completed the end of your first year of uni. Most unis will have the first year doing "core" subjects (or it did when I was there) which every major would have to do. At least one of core subjects would be accounting focused. Perhaps wait till you have done the first year course before you decide if you want to persue it as a major.
I’m doing a double degree in business so it’s a bachelor of business and a bachelor of marketing. I’ve got a year of another degree credited as electives and at Monash Uni we have to choose in first year what accounting unit we do depending on if we want to major or not in accounting. I’m into both the creative and mathematical side of things. So I have to choose from either statistics accounting or banking and finance as management seems worthless . So is it worth doing a major that goes great with marketing or do something completely different and have two career options in different majors ?
I think generally a skill that compliments eachother rather than a skill that is in a completely different direction is a much better option.
Accounting - broad range of skills but not quite relevant as much to marketing. But good business knowledge but again very dry subjects
Finance - Do you enjoy financial services? Some jobs will be in scrutiny especially in the wake of the royal commission and jobs will change
Actuary - If you like maths and you got the skills for it then this will be an optionIf you had a taste of the subjects, which ones do you like more?
As I’m doing business and not commerce, unfortunately we don’t get an option of doing actuary. I was just wondering that marketing isn’t a very well paid job. I really enjoy marketing and finance. I haven’t tried accounting yet.
If you enjoy finance then maybe that would be better. It is a very diverse field and could couple better with marketing.
Accounting, I would still think you can take a 1st year subject before you decide. I could be wrong but back when I was doing my degrees (although different uni) accounting 101 (1st year accounting or equivalent) was required across all business disciplines no matter if you done business/commerce/economics/actuaries/econometrics. Fundamental business will require some understanding of basic accounting principals.
There is no right or wrong answer. Once people are in the workforce, experience becomes more important than what you studied at uni.
Actuary: It's a well paid profession, but it's more of a professional degree rather than a general business one. You do need to do a fairly difficult post-grad exam to be able to call yourself an Actuary (I believe you're an "analyst" when you finish the undergrad degree). A few people I know never managed to finish that exam, but still have been able to get very well paid positions. Job prospects are very good, but in the last few years, there have been occasional reports of redundancies… this was unheard of before. (Source: I'm married to one)
Accounting: I agree that it doesn't seem to gel well with Marketing. It is quite flexible though. I have an acquaintance who worked as an auditor for a large auto manufacturer. One ended up being sent to Japan for 2 years and seems to be doing very well for himself since coming back. Also give you an option to work for yourself one day.
Statistics: I think this might be a good complement to Marketing… it has the analytical tools for marketing research. "Big data" is a huge buzzword atm… I would think statistics makes up a good portion of the skill set, although I'm not sure how a stats major itself fits into this.
NB: I'm looking at this through an outsider's eyes… I'm not in business/finance.
It might as well OP be worth thinking of what you want to be doing when you finish uni, how hard it is to get into, and do you have a good plan B in case plan A falls through. Also what your appetite for post grad study is.
Some examples (this list is no where near exhaustive / complete)
Finance - derivatives trading, risk management, portfolio management. CFA is the post grad qualification. This also is useful for finance sales roles.
Accounting- financial accountants / management accountants / fund accountants / product controllers, auditors. CA is the preferred post grad qualification. Easier to get into than finance roles if you’re a strong candidate.
Try figure out soon what you want to do and don’t leave it to graduation to be knocking on doors of companies looking for internships - you need to stand out. Good marks are important fresh out of uni too
Does anyone here have a marketing degree and get paid a high salary ? Or does anyone have a finance degree and get a high salary ?
There are people in both areas who get high salaries. The question is really do you have the personality type, drive and intelligence to warrant a high salary. Degrees do not guarantee this.
Accounting!
You cover wide topic that would be useful to your career, business and general life
Tax, Management and Financial Planning