This document was created for High school students in Lake County, FL to provide advice on why they should get a business degree (or why not), and how to find major companies to work for.
The short link to this page is:
https://www.fiscalrangers.com/WhyBusinessDegrees.html
This page contains more information than the one page handout provided to high school seniors in Lake County, FL career planning days.
High School Seniors:
Consider a Business Degree at a Major College and work for REALLY LARGE companies!
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Why Do it? |
Why not? |
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Work in major Fortune 500 or Inc. 5000 fastest growing firms. This may require moving to a major city with higher wages (but also a higher cost of living). |
You want to focus on family and stay local. |
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Move up into leadership & management! |
You don’t want to work more than 40 hours/week. |
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Travel or live all over the US or the World! |
You don’t like continual learning or higher degrees. |
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Higher salaries & benefits based upon |
You don’t like competing with others. |
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You like working around BIG ideas or organizations. |
You prefer working in small groups and companies. |
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Working with highly educated employees/customers. |
You don’t want to risk being transferred to other cities. |
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You like being in new environments with new people. |
You aren’t that concerned about building income. |
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You like solving problems, and learning how things work like businesses or groups or products. |
You prefer to work with your hands or work helping people or like becoming an expert in one thing. |
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You want company paid graduate education. |
You prefer working with people you grew up with. |
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You want to move up and manage other people. |
You prefer working as a sole contributor, not a supervisor or manager. |
Tips to Learn More about Business Degrees & working in large companies
- You will need to go outside Lake County to get a credible business degree. Perhaps attend LSSC for two years, then transfer to a college that has a full four year business degree in marketing, accounting, etc.
- Read business, technical and trade magazines in fields you like. Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, Automotive Age, Remodeling magazine, Orange County Business Journal, Engineering News Record, Wall St. Journal or Business Week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trade_magazines
- Visit the counseling or placement office for your local college and review brochures for major employers.
- For professional degreed positions, create a free account at LinkedIn and join different professional groups you are interested in. I would not ask any questions for a few weeks, but just read posts and answers from others. Don’t be the naïve person who says “I just graduated and want to know a good career…” They won’t answer.
- Find the annual copy of Fortune Magazine listing their Fortune 500 list. Review it for employer ideas.
- Find the copy of Orange County Business Journal’s “Book of Lists” and review for employer ideas.
- Find a copy of Inc. Magazine that lists the Inc. 5000 fastest growing firms and find ones you like.
- List three industries of interest like automotive, aviation, manufacturing, management consulting, accounting, computers, Retailing, Hospitality (Hotels). Research companies that focus on those industries, and visit their websites and “Employment” or “Careers” webpage and read what types of positions they hire.
- Visit major employment websites like CareerBuilder, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, https://www.roberthalf.com/jobs/, Ladders (for jobs paying $100,000/year), Glassdoor, Monster.com, Google for Jobs and Dice.com. Research them for industries and jobs that appeal to you in large firms, then research what type of education or career certificate you need to qualify for them.
- Research the best colleges for your area of interest, their requirements and what employers interview there.
- Find the Forbes magazine issue about the Forbes 400, a list of the 400 richest people, and read how they did it.
- Research what higher level degree you might need to move up in a professional field. A combination of a tech degree like engineering and business are better for moving up in management at technical firms.
- Research what jobs require masters degrees or MBA’s (Masters in Business Administration). Many people get a first degree, start working at a major company and get them to pay for graduate degrees like an MBA.
- If you want to live in a particular place, research companies that are HEADQUARTERED there. Promotions are easier if you have experience working at the headquarters. Or, find those with regional or district offices there.
- As a student, join local professional or industry groups and attend meetings to learn about the profession and what their work is all about. An example is the Lake County Commercial Contractors Association or professional groups aligned with specific industry certifications.
- Find groups you can join that have mostly working adults like the Chamber of Commerce or Homebuilders Association or attend alumni groups from your target college or planned major to make professional connections. Ask for a student rate on dues.
- Working in business or a Fortune 500 company is not for everyone, but at least you now know some reasons why, or why not choose business as a profession.
This list was created by Vance Jochim, Find an updated version at https://www.fiscalrangers.com/WhyBusinessDegrees.html
Jochim is retired in Lake County, FL after mostly living in Southern California. He has a BA in Journalism, BS in Accounting and MBA (Masters in Business Administration). He has used his business degrees to work at an oil company (ARCO), automotive firm (Nissan Motor Corp.), for the 80,000 employee County of Los Angeles, an early PC software firm (Ashton-Tate), the Federal government in Iraq and Afghanistan, was a Vietnam Veteran, was a Lotus Notes software developer for IBM with Fortune 500 clients, an internal audit manager for a 40 factory construction materials firm and a salesman in the remodeling industry. He has traveled for work to Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Wales, the UK, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many US cities. Jochim has written a local, Lake County, FL fiscal watchdog blog covering local government agencies since 2006.
