After the 2008 economic collapse and nearly decade long Great Recession that has only started to ease in the United States, the question arises – is finance still a good career path? In fact, finance is a good degree offering many career opportunities. Here are three reasons why finance is still a great degree.
Finance Pays Well Anywhere You Want to Work
People pay other people good money to manage their money. Part-time bookkeepers earn as much as many full-time retail employees. Those with degrees in finance receive decent pay to handle a business’s operations, and they don’t just work in accounting, billing, shipping and receiving. Successful fund managers are extremely well paid. Chief financial officers are as essential if not more important to the business’ success than the CEO, and they are well compensated for it. Financial economics majors frequently work in the import/export business helping firms plan for possible currency fluctuations and changes in the market. However, if you pursue this career path you are largely restricted to the for-profit sector.
Finance jobs are also among the better paying positions at non-profits since there are many people with liberal arts degrees or little education called to work for a non-profit, but relatively few skilled at handling the finances. Whether you have an online master of financial economics or an accounting degree, you’ll be comfortable handling cash flow or financial investments and enjoy one of the few jobs in the non-profit world that allows you to have a good living while helping others. Do you want to work for a university to earn free college tuition for your children? Colleges hire many people to handle billing, payments, scholarships, endowments, and their supply chain.
It Isn’t an MBA
There are so many MBAs the degree is decreasing in value, and its reputation is tarnished by MBAs from Ivy League schools, who crashed an economy by building financial models that assumed property values in aggregate couldn’t go down the way they did in the Great Depression and other financial crunches.
In a professional world awash with MBAs, some seek to differentiate themselves by getting an even more specialized MBA, whether in healthcare, international business, IT management, or supply chain. You can stand out even more from the pack by earning a master of financial economics from Ohio University, providing valuable skills to companies that need help managing the money. And unlike MBAs that generally seek to train managers, you can work as the manager of a finance or accounts receivable department or provide specialized financial expertise no one else – including MBAs – can match.
The Opportunity to Run Your Own Business
The lack of understanding of how to properly handle money causes many small businesses and startups to fail. As a finance or economics major, you are uniquely qualified to avoid making these mistakes. And you have the skills to enter these small businesses and literally profit from them if the business succeeds. You’ll have no problem finding another job if the business fails for other reasons. Then there’s the fact that by learning about finance, you’ll be an educated investor and able to manage your own portfolio. You may be able to leverage your knowledge to become a venture capitalist, or you can simply track the expenses at a small partnership in exchange for an equity stake.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are still many reasons why finance degrees are still a good choice. Finance majors are well paid no matter where they work and they can find employment with almost any organization, including non-profits. A financial economics master’s degree allows those who work in finance to stand out from the crowd of MBAs and prove they have useful expertise. Finance majors are properly positioned to rise to the top of the corporate ladder, successfully run their own businesses, or become major investors.
