Haslam College of Business - What can you do with a business degree?

Careers in accounting entail carefully analyzing and managing financial records to accurately report on a business’s health and help plan for its future.

• Accountant: Accountants analyze companies’ financial statements to find ways to reduce costs and ensure tax and other regulatory compliance. Licensed CPAs can work independently for many businesses or as a company employee, and many Chief Financial Officers start out as accountants.
  Median Salary*: $77,2503
• Forensic Account: Forensic accountants analyze financial documents to search for evidence of crimes. They can work for insurance companies, banks, law enforcement agencies, or federal agencies like the SEC or CIA.
  Median Salary: $84,000.

Business analytics and statistics graduates can work in any data-driven field to tackle challenges, identify trends, and create more efficient processes. Industries seeking data analytics professionals include healthcare, technology, sports, government, retail, manufacturing, and transportation.

• Business Analytics Professional: These professionals gather, summarize, and interpret data inside and outside the business to solve complex business problems, simulate business processes, and explore various scenarios.
  Median Salary: $103,500

Economics careers focus on how a society produces, distributes, and consumes goods and services and the choices people, businesses, and governments make in the process.

• Economist: Economists analyze complex issues relating to how money flows through society by combining advanced statistical methods with factors like political stability or environmental sustainability to impact policy. They often work in academia, government, or think tanks.
  Median Salary: $114,000
• Analyst: Economics analysts use strong quantitative skills to gather and interpret data to identify broad economic trends and market conditions that might impact business decisions. They often work for private companies, regional governments, or financial institutions examining taxes, employment levels, inflation, energy costs, etc.
  Median Salary: $106,750

The finance field primarily deals with money management-either at the individual, business, or institutional level. Financial careers involve investing, borrowing/lending, forecasting, budgeting, or risk management.

• Financial Advisor: Financial advisors assess a person’s financial needs and inform their decisions on investments, tax laws, and insurance. They help clients plan for short- and long-term goals, such as budgeting for education expenses and saving for retirement.
  Median Salary: $96,250
• Chief Financial Officer: The top financial position in an organization and a primary member of any corporate leadership team. They are responsible for tracking a business’s cash flow and financial planning and analyzing the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses to propose strategic directions.
  Median Salary**: $433,000

Degrees in human resources study the full experience employees have within an organization, from hiring to compensation and benefits to exiting the company. Human resource professionals oversee payroll, employee training, workplace conflicts, and equity and diversity.

• Compensation Analyst: Expert researchers in the skills and requirements for job positions and the competitive market for qualifying candidates. They inform salaries for each position and employee benefits.
  Median Salary: $67,750
• HR Business Partner: A senior business leader who works across an organization to align the HR strategy and implementation with business objectives and help reduce risks in HR policies, compliance, training, etc.. The HRBP must understand all areas of HR, as well as the business unit’s financial position, its midrange plans, its culture, and its competition.
  Median Salary**: $61,250

Careers in business management and entrepreneurship take in the full range of business functions-finance, marketing, operations, etc.-to lead organizations and develop business strategy.

• Business Manager: Business managers supervise and manage a company’s assets, operations, and employees. Their responsibilities vary by company size, but their primary objective is to evaluate, troubleshoot, and implement business strategies to optimize company productivity and efficiency.
  Median Salary: $101,750
• Director of Operations: A top management role, DOOs oversee staff management, hiring, department supervision, policies, and production, to ensure a company’s growth and profitability. They help with daily business activities and set strategic goals to help organizations remain in business.
  Median Salary**: $140,000
• Start-up Founder: An entrepreneur who uses their knowledge of business practices to turn an idea into an organization. They can found one business or specialize in founding businesses and making them profitable before selling them. Founders assume all business risks and must have a broad knowledge of management and market tactics.
  Median Salary: dependent on funding and venture’s success.

Marketing degrees examine how a company identifies new customers and analyzes pricing, communication, competitor research, and consumer behavior to retain them. Marketing careers involve a wide range of skills, from quantitative analysis to creative communication to strategy.

• Brand Strategist: Brand strategists help a company create and maintain its image. They analyze market research to make positioning recommendations for products or services and analyze trends on consumer needs to create marketing plans.
  Median Salary**: $97,650
• Digital Marketing Manager: Digital marketing managers implement, oversee, and managing digital marketing strategies, promoting a business’s products or services and brand awareness through mediums like web presence, email, online advertising, and social media.
  Median Salary**: $122,400
• Account Executive: Account executives take over from the sales team to manage, grow, and support existing customer accounts. They are communications professionals that work in any field from finance to advertising to analyze market trends and ensuring customer satisfaction.
  Median Salary**: $95,400

Supply chain management graduates ensure the flow of goods through the global economy, from procuring raw materials to delivering finished products to customers retail outlets. SCM professionals typically work for medium to large businesses, in locations all over the world.

• Vice President of Procurement: A vice president of procurement leads all a company’s activities in trade operations and compliance, inbound and outbound transportation, logistics network operations, packaging, and logistics engineering, across 6 continents with teams in 26 countries.
  Median Salary**: $228,980
• Chief Supply Chain Officer: The chief supply chain officer is the executive leader over the entire supply chain management team. They oversee the end-to-end supply chain, including sourcing, procuring, planning, manufacturing, and distributing products and services.
  Median Salary**: $203,967