<p>I'm a rising sophomore, and after taking an intro business class, I've found that what I really enjoy is either market research or the logistics area. I've been reading on this forum for a while, and it seems like people don't recommend anything besides finance, and nowadays accounting. Therefore, I was wondering if job prospects for people who want to get into these fields are really that bad? People tell me that marketing is the first thing to go, so it's bad, and that SCM and all is being replaced with machines, so it won't be important in the future. Is that true?</p>
<p>Also, for Logistics and all, what positions do people typically work up to (i.e. what are the highest positions)? COO? Quality Control Director? And also, my school has a very weak program for operations management (I don't go to UW btw, it wound up being too expensive), so I was wondering what business degree to double major in (I was thinking finance even though I don't really want to get into it), or would something more quant-heavy like economics or applied math be better?</p>
<p>NEVER EVER let an online forum change your decision on your future career (something you will be doing until you retire.) Use the forum for guidance. But just because no one here mentions Ops/Marketing on here does not mean they are horrible fields to get into. They are actually pretty big fields with lots of opportunities. Every company needs marketing. How can it die out? It’s one of the main functions of a company. I don’t know much about Supply Chain/Operations but a lot of the big companies depend on it to achieve efficiency. Plus it’s a relatively new field to get into so I am not sure how it can die out so soon.
It’s true that most of the people on here are only looking at Finance and Accounting but I still want to know how many of those people are genuinely interested in those two fields anyway.
You seem to be interested in Ops and Marketing. Go for it.
I have mentioned this numerous times in the past but I’ll say it again, if you are not interested in the field, you will not succeed. Choose a field you are genuinely interested in and you will succeed.</p>
<p>^I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s kind of worrisome when you keep hearing horror stories about people with a marketing degree being stuck in a sales job making 40k for the rest of their life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m by no means trying to become filthy rich, but I do want to be successful financially as well, and while 40k is honestly quite decent 1 year out, it’s not something I’d want to be stuck in for the rest of my life. Plus, although I like marketing, I dislike sales/public relations (hence why I’d want to do market research or brand management), so being stuck in that and not being payed well would absolutely suck.</p>
<p>Plus, I’ve seen a lot of people, even on this forum, get completely disrespected for being marketing/anything outside of finance/accounting and sometimes econ. It’s not very encouraging when people assume I’m dumb just because I’m supposedly not cut out for finance or accounting exclusively, if you get what I mean.</p>
<p>If your school is weak in an area you probably just need to do more footwork/networking to land an internship/job so that you can break into an industry. People can make a lot of money in any line of work.</p>
<p>Vector, my school doesn’t really offer a supply chain management degree. It offers ISOM (a combination of Information Systems and Operations Management). This seems like a somewhat worthless degree because it doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of specialization. So I was wondering, I’m already considering a minor in econ, so would finance or accounting be a better background for supply chain management?</p>
<p>Also, what kind of firms (besides Dell) make use of supply chain? I’m really worried about prospects in this industry.</p>
<p>Many firms hire supply chain management graduates. If you go to ASU’s business school’s web site and search for supply chain mangement, you will find a lot of information. I read somewhere they said that close to 100% of their graduation obtain employment offer at or shortly after graduation.</p>
<p>Generally companies that manufacture or fix products. Companies that have to distribute goods to many locations. Wal-mart is the most notable example, but obviously a supply chain is important in retail, and even more important in grocery stores (where food freshness is important). Even airlines utilize supply chains to make sure their parts are in the optimal locations to perform aircraft maintenance. You could also consider companies that make/implement supply chain software such as i2.</p>
<p>Service companies are also becoming more operationally focused, and on an aside, it seems that Bank of America puts a lot of value on operational efficiency.</p>
<p>look, an IE can do everything a SCM student can do plus anything else. as purduefrank would say, it’s business on steroids. i would major in ie if i wasn’t so gung ho on petrol, but an M.S. in IE is my for-sure back up if obama pulls some stunt… Anyway, I would advise you to look into IE, those guys will most likely make more than any engineering major in the long run if you play your cards right, even petrol “plus you’ll have the stability.” Seriously though. with a 20+% rise in employment in the next decade, and the possibilities for a fast track to management in any of the aforementioned fields you’re interested in; IE is the way to go. Not many students are aware of the potentials of what an IE degree can do for you. good luck on your choice. </p>
<p>btw: one of my teachers last year was an ex-SCM. He got out of the field, and he decided to start teaching, and he was my basketball coach. He said SCM doesen’t have the best outlook due to the computer systems gradually replacing employees. If you don’t get cut, your salary will diminish. Now however, my trig teacher was a nuclear power plant manager. she majored in IE at Virginia Tech, and she bragged about how she was on the fast track to success. she is a character; we as a class asked her why she left, and she said it was because she got no respect. she was rising through the rankings before the chemical engineers, due to mainly being a women. lol affirmative action ******** presented by jfk and his dumbass VP. anyway, so then she taught trig/geo, and she was THE WORST TEACHER I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE. I got an A just by kissing ass, and my results showed on the ACT because I did so poorly in those sections… anyway, IE will open doors SCM can’t. GL</p>
<p>One thing to be sure, Supply Chain Management and Industrial Engineering are different majors. The recruitments are different. They most likely reside in different department within a college. Do not mix them together as one and the same.</p>