<p>I attend The Ohio State University and I am applying to the business school next year. There are 10 specializations listed here: <a href="http://fisher.osu.edu/undergraduate/academics/specializations/">http://fisher.osu.edu/undergraduate/academics/specializations/</a>
I am stuck on a couple of them, and I can honestly see my self in any one of these. I was looking for some advice on the real world jobs that apply to specifically logistics, finance, operations management, marketing, and economics. I want a job that has upward mobility and I can make it to the top. Income is very important to me, but I also don't want a job that is the SAME thing everyday in a cubicle. Just wanted to hear some experiences and advice from some real world people. Thank you!</p>
<p>My background is a double-major in Accounting and Information Systems. </p>
<p>On a personal level, I think that consulting and advisory services with professional services firms like Deloitte, Protiviti, Accenture, Booz Allen, etc. sound like what you describe here. Upward mobility is definitely huge since these big firms have pretty decent turnover due to both the tough nature of the work as well as the fact that the skills that you develop here transfer easily to other fields (meaning that even if you work here and do reasonably well, it’s fairly easy to move if you decide that you don’t like your job). </p>
<p>In terms of sameness though, you will be hard pressed to find a job with even more varied experiences. A lot of people get the idea that accounting and professional services is just sitting in a cubicle, but in all honesty at work I spend maybe 1 day a week at the office. The rest of them are spent at client sites, and the sheer number of different clients and projects that are out there means that you’re pretty much never doing the same thing over and over. The learning curve is steep, but you get exposed to so many different things that it’s hard to get bored. </p>
<p>There are probably other fields like that, but that was my experience and it’s definitely a field that I recommend to anyone who likes the idea of working in business but hates the idea of being stuck in a Dilbert-esque cubicle farm doing the same thing over and over. </p>
<p>Looking at the majors listed for Ohio:</p>
<p>They actually all look pretty good. Accounting and Information Systems are always solid choices for consulting. Economics and Finance also do pretty well. The only ones that I am unsure about are the Insurance and Real Estate ones; the only reason I have hesitation is because they are industry-focus and in my experience when you come into the consulting world you get nearly all of your industry knowledge on the job. You don’t necessarily NEED to come in already knowing about how these things work. That being said though, if you do already know that you want to work in a specific industry I think it would be an amazing differentiator to actually take college courses where you learn about that industry. </p>
<p>(Whoo that was a long post!)</p>
<p>Logistics and supply chain management are really cutting edge right now… and OSU is excellent at that. Operations management and supply chain management are closely related, and the two probably give you the widest view of an organization. If you were really interested in finance, marketing, or economics then you probably would already know that by now. Plus a little of each of those goes a long way.</p>
<p>Personally, I am in supply chain management and consider it a great way to move forward in a business career. For whatever reason, SCM is a kind of hidden field which everybody in business knows is crucially important, but it rarely makes the news. Not as “flashy” as marketing or finance. Thus less competition to get a job.</p>
<p>That was super helpful! Information systems seems like a really good choice but how hard is the computer work? Im not super talented when it comes to computer work but I am taking a class on excel and databases. Are these like super super hard for someone who isn’t super into computers? @DmitriR</p>
<p>Yeah I have done so much research and SCM comes up all the time! Would double majoring in logistics and operations management be a very good combination? What kind of careers come out of these? Thanks for the awesome response @NROTCgrad</p>
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Logistics and operations management would definitely be a good combination. Frankly, after looking at the OSU/Fisher link you provided, I personally would be inclined to combine one of those with International Business. Global trade is here to stay, for one thing, and global logistics is very important. But this does depend on the kind of business you expect to go into. Which leads to your second question…</p>
<p>Logistics can take you to almost any retailer or manufacturing firm; any company which actually needs to physically move products. Amazon and Walmart both are huge on logistics, for example. So are UPS and FedEx. Not so much Microsoft and Bank of America. Operations management has more broad application, and Microsoft probably does have ops management, but that is out of my area.</p>
<p>If you are undecided, or unclear, then ops management would be a good choice. Combine with as much international business as you can, perhaps double major.</p>
<p>The difference between logistics and supply chain management is that SCM is the larger discipline. In other words, logistics is part of SCM. Supply chain management covers all physical material from raw material (crude oil, ire ore, etc…) to the end product delivery to customer (and back again, for recycling). SCM is about having the right item, at the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities. The goal is to either have an efficient (low cost) supply chain, or to have a responsive/flexible supply chain (innovative, for new products like iPhone). Logistics is the actual transportation, storage and distribution of those materials and products.</p>
<p>Logistics is definitely great as a differentiator especially if you are working with industry as NROTCGrad points out.</p>
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<p>As far as information systems goes, one thing that I would say is that it’s not really geared towards people who want to be software developers for the most part. Most programs will have a database, server admin, and programming component but it’s not going to be the same depth and intensity as computer science. What they want to teach you is not to do the work of a software developer but to teach you how to understand these things so that you can communicate and work with more technical people. I can tell you one thing – no one expects you to be good at everything, but you have to have that minimum level of knowledge when you’re at work.</p>
<p>As far as classes go, you don’t have to be ‘super’ into computers but it helps to be comfortable enough with them to be able to play around with one for a little bit and ask for help with the things that you don’t really understand. You’re not expected to be a computer genius or anything, just curious and willing to learn and ask questions. (Same with most majors, actually).</p>