Hello Everyone,
Do you all think its a good idea to declare a second major in management to get business experience? I have about 30 or 40 credits for electives and am thinking about doing a double major so I wont have to go to grad school immediately. The Management major is 60 credits but I think some of my classes from psych may work for the management major (like stats). Do you all think this is a wise choice? Oh and I might have to do a extra semester or two.
No type of college class is business experience. I don’t know how much you’re paying per semester, but having an extra major typically doesn’t have any tangible payoff in terms of the job search. If you are interested in learning more about business, or you are thinking of a career in business, start taking the classes and see how it goes.
At some schools, Psych is in the school of arts and sciences, management is part of the college of business. Each school may have different requirements and having double majors may require more credits. A friend of mine got burned on this her senior year when she would have needed another 30 credits to get the double major from two colleges. She decided to just go with one major.
You don’t have to double major in order to avoid going straight to grad school with a psychology major. But instead of (or in addition to) taking some business classes, go do some internships. That’ll be what helps you get employment after college.
Since I am not that far into the psych major do you guys think I should say in the major or just change into the management major? I am opening to whatever is the best choice plus I am planning on taking a couple internship classes and seeing if I can do a internship at my schools HR department.
Classes in management aren’t a substitute for work experience. This is the second thread you’ve started to essentially ask the same question.
I’ve got over 30 years in corporate HR under my belt. Get a job- an actual job. Taking a class in management or majoring in management or double majoring in Psych and management- none of this matters. There is a fundamental difference between a career in comp and benefits (I’d tell you to major in accounting for that) vs. a career in labor relations (go to law school) vs. a career in organizational development (major in psych) vs. a career in employee relations (back to law school) etc.
Don’t do a single thing which requires an extra semester. Major in something you like and are good at doing. Write (a lot). Take statistics or an advanced math class (most HR jobs these days require really good quantitative skills. Reading spreadsheets and interpreting the data- creating spreadsheets and pivot tables to isolate one phenomenon and explain what’s going on. Basic statistics- what’s in the sample, what explains the variation around the mean. That sort of thing). If your college’s pysch major has that- great. HR has a lot of writing- internal communications, reports, studies, analyses… take writing classes which hone your skills.
There is no substitute for work experience. Taking an extra semester when you don’t really know what you want to do- why put off the inevitable?
Why are you interested in HR? Start there.
I don’t understand how doing a double major means you don’t go to grad school immediately. You need to have an ultimate goal- different paths as in an above post. It seems as though business grad school expects two years of work first. It is different for Psych. A good reason to take the management or other business courses now would be to see if you liked them. As above- college courses are NOT work experience.
I do not see why not, except that management is b-o-r-i-n-g, but it may not be boring to you. I have an MBA and based my opinion on all my business classes. On the other hand, my D. had a lot of Psych classes at college having Neuroscience minor and she enjoyed them a lot. Whatever you do after college probably has little to do with your combo of major(s) / minor(s).
Best wishes!
What are you looking to do with those majors? My son found that a double major in Psych and CS makes him a lot more marketable, but he’s going into research.
my daughter is planning to double major in marketing and psych 
I’m hoping to use both of those to hopefully get into HR or OD (I am mostly drawn towards the internship opportunities in both majors but I also emailed my school’s HR Director to see if I could possibly intern in the department), I understand that experience is the best way to get into HR but I would also like to get a Management Degree or take some business classes to see if I like them and want to get a MBA in the future
Management sounds a lot more interesting to me than any other business field. Thank goodness there are different people with different interests. OP- you need to figure out WHY you want any major. Sometimes once you are closer to graduation it is best to just get the degree instead of prolong your college experience in attempting to add another major or change majors. Many careers are not in the major one had in college. Figure out your short and long term work goals. Get some work experience to help you decide.
Which internship opportunities- developing cost models for various employee benefit plans? Assessing the retention rate of employees who have exercised stock options vs. those who have not? Sitting down with the 20 different labor unions that a municipality has to deal with (sanitation, police, fire, teachers, etc.) and coming up with a timeline for the next contract negotiation? Doing a cost-benefit analysis of arbitration vs. going to court when a former employee brings an unlawful termination suit?
If you can tell us what you are drawn to we can help you… but a generic “can I intern with your HR department” isn’t giving any of us enough specificity to help. WHAT interests you- comp? benefits? actuary? employee relations?
Getting into OD for what? exactly what do you want to do, what interests you???
I would not do an extra semester or two to get a dual major. That is an expensive proposition in terms of both time and money. Consider if you can do a business minor in the four years or else just take a few business classes when you can fit them in. If your school has any organizational behavior courses that might be a good area to take a class or two in.
You should research what type of majors and classes might help you to get into the field that you want. Definitely try and get some work experience, not just to help with grad school if that’s where you’re headed, but to really get an idea of whether you like the field, or it’s not what you thought it would be.
It sounds like you’re very close to getting a second major anyway so you might as well finish it if it’s not too much of a burden. Take a look at whether you actually can use some of the classes for both (you seem to be unsure), and how close you really are and whether it’s feasible to complete both. You should also consider getting a minor in business if you think the major will be too hard to get or will not really benefit you.