Some Humanities Majors Fare Better than Business and CJ

[sanantone]

A couple of years ago, CJ and business did have some of the highest underemployment rates according to a PayScale study. 

I don't exactly agree with the author calling business and CJ vocational. They don't teach a vocation. CJ is a social science, and I think a more appropriate term for business would be "applied." TESU uses the term "applied professional."

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I don't have a humanities degree, but since the job market recovered in Texas, I've never had a problem using my social science degree to land a job that requires a degree. It's all a matter of being willing to work with special populations and depressing situations. I've only had my business degree for a little over a year, and maybe my experience is affected by my past work experience, but having a business degree has done nothing for me so far. Of course, this is just an anecdote.

[davewill]

I think that unless you're going entry level into one of the business specialties (accounting, marketing, finance) out of college, a BSBA just becomes a tick the box, "Yes, I have a degree" sort of thing. Of course, that's true for a lot of degrees out there.

[dfrecore]

I think the BSBA is marginally better than the BALS, but only if you're working in the business world, and then only because having taken some of the business classes helps to learn the language of the business world. When you go to a meeting where they use the jargon, or talk about certain topics, they assume that you understand it. After taking multiple business courses years ago, I found that I had more interest in our quarterly update meetings - very business-y, lots of looking at income statements and balance sheets, discussing profits and losses, projections, etc. It was VERY helpful to know a lot of what they were talking about. Also, when I later went and took Management & Marketing CLEP exams, I passed them cold easily with this prior knowledge. So maybe the DEGREE isn't necessarily as helpful as the actual COURSES were.

If you aren't working in business, or aren't involved in these types of meetings, the degree isn't really applicable, and doesn't do much for you. At that point, whatever degree is most popular/important in your field is the one you should get; even the BALS, if you can get it quickly and cheaply.

I can imagine many fields where the BSBA will do absolutely nothing for you. At that point, maybe if you want to move up in management somewhere, then an MBA might be useful. Again, because you may learn the skills you may need from the courses you take, not because the degree is so great.

It really just depends on what your career is.

[sanantone]

I think the BSBA is marginally better than the BALS, but only if you're working in the business world, and then only because having taken some of the business classes helps to learn the language of the business world.  When you go to a meeting where they use the jargon, or talk about certain topics, they assume that you understand it.  After taking multiple business courses years ago, I found that I had more interest in our quarterly update meetings - very business-y, lots of looking at income statements and balance sheets, discussing profits and losses, projections, etc.  It was VERY helpful to know a lot of what they were talking about.  Also, when I later went and took Management & Marketing CLEP exams, I passed them cold easily with this prior knowledge.  So maybe the DEGREE isn't necessarily as helpful as the actual COURSES were.

If you aren't working in business, or aren't involved in these types of meetings, the degree isn't really applicable, and doesn't do much for you.  At that point, whatever degree is most popular/important in your field is the one you should get; even the BALS, if you can get it quickly and cheaply.

I can imagine many fields where the BSBA will do absolutely nothing for you.  At that point, maybe if you want to move up in management somewhere, then an MBA might be useful.  Again, because you may learn the skills you may need from the courses you take, not because the degree is so great.

It really just depends on what your career is.

I mean it hasn't done anything for me as far as getting jobs. There are a lot of sales and marketing jobs, but you can do that with any degree.

Like I said, it might be that I can easily get a counseling or social services job because of the work experience I already have. However, the high underemployment rate for business majors shows that there's a general problem. I think the problem is a combination of the degree being broad but not very deep and the fact that a few hundred thousand people graduate with this degree every year.

I did find marketing and management to be easy because of my social science background. Those two subjects are essentially applied sociology and psychology.