<p>I'm a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I originally thought about majoring in history, but I do not want to teach so I am looking at other majors. I took Econ 101, and while it was fairly boring and basic, I could see myself really liking more real-world and in depth economic analysis. It seems like more specific and realistic economic subjects could be really interesting. I've always liked dealing with money and reading about business, so that's why I think I might enjoy a career in economics.
So what do many econ majors do? Do a lot become economic or financial analysts for the government or companies? What about private consulting? Just trying to get a feel for what to expect.
I know people on this site talk about Investment Banking all the time- I don't think that sounds like a great career for me. I would rather have a stable, well-paying job that I ENJOY rather than try to become a millionaire or something.
Anyways, any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Check to see if your university keeps a record of what majors go into what industry. That should give you a fairly general view of what econ majors can do. That said, I know econ majors that have gone into stuff like finance, consulting, management, and graduate studies.</p>
<p>Econ 101 is not an accurate representation of what economics majors “do” or study. Econ 101, although it does provide a somewhat new way to think (if one has not taken economics before) is more similar to other social sciences courses than it is to higher level economics. At the higher levels you will focus more on how you arrive at your answer than on the answer itself. You learn general trends, and then (at least this is my experience) are asked to evaluate what a change in a certain variable would do to a group of “markets” (in intermediate macroeconomics especially). For example the largest question on my exam in intermediate asked what would be the effect of an increase in the money supply. We were required to answer this by giving a step by step run through of what would happen, not, simply arriving at the final answer. To be cliche, you can be almost anything with an economics major. With more and more of business shifting towards quantitative decision making (or at least incorporating it more thoroughly) learning to think like economics teaches you to think would be quite useful. The most obvious industry for an economics major is Finance, but that does not mean it is the only.</p>
<p>“For example the largest question on my exam in intermediate asked what would be the effect of an increase in the money supply?”
That was a lot like the final essay in AP Gov (Econ section). I liked Econ a lot too. I think I should consider majoring in Econ.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s funny, I’m in intermediate macro right now and we just covered the effects increasing the money supply has on inflation and the nominal interest rate.</p>