Business Degree Help!

College Majors
1

Ok be prepared I have a lot of questions. If you don’t have answers to them all but have an answer to at least one please post it. Thanks! Here they are:

  1. I know that to become a CEO you need to have a lots of experience in management. So is it smart to have a bachelors/masters in Business focusing on Business management?
  2. What are some good minors to accompany a bachelors in business that will help in management positions?
  3. To become a CEO do I need a masters degree or will I succeed just as much with a business degree?
  4. Also if I want to become a CEO, a Vice President, COO of a of a company what business major paths should I take? Thanks for the help!
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  1. You will find that CEOs come from a lot of different backgrounds. Many don't have any either an undergraduate business degree or a MBA at all, but many do of course. I would say it is very specific to the type of company you want to run, especially the industry, the size of the company, etc. For example, if you told me you wanted to be the CEO of a public utility, a degree in electrical engineering coupled with an MBA would be a powerful combination. If you wanted to be the CEO of Avon or a chain of restaurant franchises, not so much.
  2. Again, very specific to the industry you want to work in.
  3. I won't discount the value of an MBA or masters degree, but in certain tracks it doesn't add value. On the other hand, in large Fortune 500 companies you are more and more likely to see executive level employees who have a MBA or other type of graduate degree.
  4. If you want to be VP of Finance, accounting and/or finance makes the most sense. You won't see many CFOs who don't have one or the other. CEOs and COOs - it really depends on the industry. For example, if you wanted to be COO of a chemical company, chemical engineering is really the ticket. CEO of a large bank - back to accounting or finance.

Hope this helps. BTW - I am a CPA and a partner in a regional accounting firm.

Good luck!

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  1. I think that the following minors make sense to supplement a business degree:

Psychology - To better understand people generally
Demography/Sociology - To better understand different populations; this comes in handy with targeting
Communications - To better communicate with customers and co-workers
Lit/English - Ditto ^
Statistics/Math - To better crack the numbers

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  1. To be a CEO you need to work your way up the ranks of management. But you can do that with any major - not just a business management major. In fact, it may make more sense to get a bachelor's in the field you want to work in. Marissa Mayer's BS is in computer science; Satya Nadella's BS is in electrical engineering; Bob Iger's BS is in television & radio; Jeff Bezos studied computer science & electrical engineering; Tim Cook studied industrial engineering; Indra Nooyi studied physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

You could, potentially, major in business management. However, it might be more prudent to major in a specific field and then enter that field and work your way. Alternatively, you could always found your own company - that’s how Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates became CEOs.

  1. Anything - it doesn't matter. It depends on the field that you enter and what you want to do. Nobody's going to hire you as a CEO because of a minor you picked probably 20-30 years before you became CEO, though.
  2. I think that many - possibly most - CEOs have master's degrees. Certainly it's quite common for CEOs at top companies to have one. Do a bit of research - look up the degrees of the CEOs in the companies that you might want to be CEO for one day (or in the same industry). What kinds of degrees do they have? Also be aware that the world and our economy will change quite a bit in the next 20-30 years, which is likely how long it will be before you become the CEO of anything (unless you start your own business) - most CEOs are in their 40s or 50s when appointed so. 30 years ago most people didn't even go to college; nowadays most people at least have some college under their belt. So who knows what the educational landscape will be in another 30 years.

The other thing to remember is if you plan on an MBA, your undergraduate major matters less.

  1. See above. There's no right or wrong answer to this, although certain arms of a company are more accessible (as someone already mentioned, if you want to be VP of finance, then you probably need to pursue finance or a quantitative major).