Prospective Business Student --Business Administration, Marketing, Accounting or something else all together?

[L210]

I'm with those who say to get a degree or concentration in something more specialized: accounting, human resources, finance, operations management, etc. I, personally, wouldn't do a concentration in marketing because many of the entry-level jobs are in sales. I hate sales. According to a Payscale study, business administration/management majors are the most underemployed. It's the most popular major in the country, and there aren't enough jobs for all of the graduates. Business administration and business management degrees are also very general. Most of the major courses are intro-level spanning over several different subjects: management, human resources, accounting, finance, marketing, business information systems, etc.
Business Administration Major Underemployment Stats

[dazeddude8]

my feeling on business admin is it just seems to broad to be applicable. Now I cant say for sure, I am not an employer looking to hire but filling a niche seems to be what gets people the job

[randomlikeme]

Originally Posted by L210

According to a Payscale study, business administration/management majors are the most underemployed. It's the most popular major in the country, and there aren't enough jobs for all of the graduates.

I think this is just as much because you don't generally go to college, get a degree in management, and then become "manager" (or on arrested development, "Mr. Manager"). You generally work in your field for a while and then get promoted into a managerial role and you don't need a management degree to do that.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by thatguydownsouth

Let me guess, you have (one) friend with a generic business degree that is successful and therefore it must be a good degree. Whereas I know LOTS of people with generic business degrees who couldnt find work, but they clearly must have personality flaws. I think not. There are many articles out there proving a B.B.A. is a bad idea....but clearly my friends have personality flaws. Nice try.

Nope. Unlike you, I don't rely on anecdotes to make decisions or prove a point. Whether a BBA is a "good" idea or not depends on lots of things like your objectives, interests, aptitude, work ethic, etc. Of course a BBA alone will guarantee you nothing, and if you don't have a good work ethic and other soft skills like the ability to communicate effectively and work with others you probably won't fare well with a BBA or any degree for that matter. However, simply saying that attaining a degree is a "bad" idea is a pretty obtuse statement. The OP sounds like a pretty thoughtful person who is doing research to understand his options. That alone tells me that he is already smarter than most people who expect to get a degree and be handed a job.