# Best degrees for business?



## SevSevens (Aug 5, 2015)

What are they?

Accounting, financing, marketing? Economics?

Everyone says accounting for some reason.

Most successful people I know are accountants....if success is defined by salary.

What do you think?


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## LibertyPrime (Dec 17, 2010)

SevSevens said:


> What are they?
> 
> Accounting, financing, marketing? Economics?
> 
> ...


Thats because accounting is actually useful in comparison to marketing & financing which you can pick up on your own, most economics you learn is bullshit, you can read about Austrian economics on your own yet again. If you get a degree in business its worth nothing really and its unlikely anyone will hire you straight out of school.

So yeah accounting it is....HOWEVER accounting stands to be automated in the very near future by software bots. The estimate for this happening is 94% probably within the next 5 years. This means its not a future proof career to be in.

My brother is in business school for example, however he went there to learn just enough and make contacts in order to start his own business straight out of school. He has no illusions about the state of the job market for ppl with his kind of education.

Since technology will be eliminating most office related white collar jobs in the near future it will be even easier to run a business with less ppl, so startup costs are going down every year.

*Go here to check out estimations on how automation will affect the job market:* http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/05/21/408234543/will-your-job-be-done-by-a-machine


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## SevSevens (Aug 5, 2015)

FreeBeer said:


> Thats because accounting is actually useful in comparison to marketing & financing which you can pick up on your own, most economics you learn is bullshit, you can read about Austrian economics on your own yet again. If you get a degree in business its worth nothing really and its unlikely anyone will hire you straight out of school.
> 
> So yeah accounting it is....HOWEVER accounting stands to be automated in the very near future by software bots. The estimate for this happening is 94% probably within the next 5 years. This means its not a future proof career to be in.
> 
> ...


Interesting. Some accountants told me that it is impossible to automate their job because financial markets would crash without real people auditing transactions, and real people recording them, because if machines did it then there would be no way to check for the integrity of information passing through the system without highering an army of software engineers to ensure data was altered....much easier to pay someone 20 bucks an hour than 100.

Does any of that make sense?


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## Carpentet810 (Nov 17, 2013)

Depends on whether you want to run things or work for someone. I chose International Economics, because I prefer working as a problems solving consultant. Also a Minor in a Foreign ie Asian Language is a smart move, which is to say Mandarin.

Accounting is all right if you like working for a big company for the long term. My brother is an accountant at Deloitte.


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## FakeLefty (Aug 19, 2013)

Engineering + MBA isn't a bad idea.


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## LibertyPrime (Dec 17, 2010)

SevSevens said:


> Interesting. Some accountants told me that it is impossible to automate their job because financial markets would crash without real people auditing transactions, and real people recording them, because if machines did it then there would be no way to check for the integrity of information passing through the system without highering an army of software engineers to ensure data was altered....much easier to pay someone 20 bucks an hour than 100.
> 
> Does any of that make sense?


The financial markets may crash (the stock market has been halted before to prevent the robots from causing a crash), however that isn't going to stop ppl from trying to replace most if not all human components. You know the stock market is run by software bots, right? If they could do that, what is to stop them from replacing Accountants? In the end robots make less to no mistakes.

Accountants will say anything because they would want to keep their jobs, same would go for drivers (another group who's job is in danger of being replaced by machines).

Its not as expensive to replace these ppl. I'm not saying this to discourage you, I'm just informing you on possible future scenarios.

Even if the above is trure, accounting is still THE thing to learn if you are considering to start a business later on imo.


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## SevSevens (Aug 5, 2015)

FreeBeer said:


> The financial markets may crash (the stock market has been halted before to prevent the robots from causing a crash), however that isn't going to stop ppl from trying to replace most if not all human components. You know the stock market is run by software bots, right? If they could do that, what is to stop them from replacing Accountants? In the end robots make less to no mistakes.
> 
> Accountants will say anything because they would want to keep their jobs, same would go for drivers (another group who's job is in danger of being replaced by machines).
> 
> ...


It's not the accountants...It's the owners of the companies. They don't want to pay taxes so they needs to manipulate the numbers in strategic ways. So they will put all their money and power against automation. Automation implies there can only be one efficient way, and since there are at least a few dozen powerful people none of them want to lose their power...so they will all agree to keep the status quo...


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## SevSevens (Aug 5, 2015)

But yeah...thanks for validating some of what I thought with well thought out post. I really appreciate it.


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## LibertyPrime (Dec 17, 2010)

SevSevens said:


> But yeah...thanks for validating some of what I thought with well thought out post. I really appreciate it.


No prob. Google around and ask some people who are already in business for their opinion as well.
I can only tell you what I know and thats ACCOUNTING>FINANCE>ECONOMICS.

The real problem would be with economics (which is mostly non-practical) and the possibility of learning something that is parallel with reality, which can lead to a false understanding of the market and loss.

It looks like Keynesian economics has failed for example & if they teach you that crap.....its better to learn Accounting & Financing.

The best thing you could do however is to build passive income in the form of assets and don't put all eggs in one basket. Diversify your income sources and build a business if you can, teach yourself accounting & finance, learn about Austrian economics instead (my advice). Its what I'm working on in my own way. I'm looking at at least 5 ways of generating value in my chosen field of combined photography and web development. 

Learning accounting & finance as well as understanding the market goes a long way in turning a profit. Why trade time for money when you can build systems which produce value and generate wealth for you?


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## runnerveran (Dec 19, 2011)

SevSevens said:


> What are they?
> 
> Accounting, financing, marketing? Economics?
> 
> ...


https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37

The amount of business majors is almost double the next most popular area. So yes, it's extremely important for business majors to pick an area of high demand given their general overabundance. 

Accounting, Finance, Supply Chain Management/logistics are the best business majors by far if you're going by median starting salary, median mid career salary, and job prospects. You can find this information on payscale and the bureau of labor statistics. Of course, you should factor in your interests in well, in which case they may not be the best ones for you.


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## drmiller100 (Dec 3, 2011)

runnerveran said:


> h
> 
> The amount of business majors is almost double the next most popular area. So yes, it's extremely important for business majors to pick an area of high demand given their general overabundance.
> 
> A.


Sigh. A business major would understand supply and demand, and understand just because there are a bunch of BS majors, there is not necessarily an overabundance of them.

Business majors get jobs. 

Business Administration or Business Management are great degrees. I HATE accounting. Ick. 

Supply chain is a joke anymore. No one hires because of that degree. 
Project management is hot right now.


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