What do econ majors who don't go into finance do?

I went to my dentist today and he had a new receptionist. We were talking and she graduated from the college im going to (semi-target) and also majored in economics. She graduated 2 years ago.

That got me thinking, for the number of econ graduates out there (it's one of the most popular majors at our school and probably at every other school too), there can't possible be enough finance jobs...or even big 4 jobs.

What do most econ grads do after they graduate? I mean know a lot of econ majors who have spent their summers just partying and travelling, and I know their gpa isn't great. What happens to them when they graduate?

edit: http://i.imgur.com/WkaUjEt.gif

 
Best Response

I was at a bike shop picking up some stuff to fix my bike and the salesman and I were Bsing around and he stared to ask me what I went to school for, so of course I told him finance, he then let me know that he went to a target in NYC for econ, and that he graduated 3 years ago. He told me he worked in finance before but he said it was too stressful so he quit. Well he got fired actually he later told me.

As I was walking out I asked what group did he work at / what bank. He replied with, "Oh I was a teller for Wells Fargo"

So I guess they do a lot of things. I will say he was happy as shit, I mean working a a bike shop would be fun as hell. I mean who wouldn't want to work around their hobby and BS with people all day. It just doesn't pay very well.

I think people go all over the place and sometimes our type of lives and ambition is alien or different to people. That doesn't make them bad or lazy. I just think that everyone has a role in life and society and all those things have to fulfilled. We often get stuck up with, oh XYZ is better then ABC or whatever, and those conversations are all good and fine, but you can't compare people of different ambitions and ability, honestly most people would rather shoot themselves then stare at spreadsheets all day thankfully I'm not one of them.

 
TheKing:
Finance is not the be-all, end-all for everyone just because it might be for you.
So wrong. It actually is the be-all, end-all, some people just haven't realized it yet. Imagine some poor schlub who wants to help people and spends all of his twenties and early thirties going to medical school and completing residency and wakes up at 40 and realizes he gets no satisfaction from pushing expensive and unnecessary procedures on people anymore.

He could have just gone into finance and pushed expensive and unnecessary financial wizardry on companies or investors and bypassed the illusion of helping people.

Keep your chin up, you'll get it someday.

 

They go for jobs that just require having a college degree with no specialization. For example, sales or business analyst. The problem is they will be less competitive for any corporate job that has a degree behind it. Econ vs Marketing, Econ vs Finance, Econ vs Logistics, it's basically the same story across all jobs. The only reason you should take Econ is if you're attending an Ivy school that doesn't have business as an undergrad option and you are planning on attending graduate school, either law school or B-school. I still think going to Stern, Ross, Goizueta, Haas or Wharton are the best choices if Finance and IBD are your goals.

 

What percentage of Harvard undergrads make it into IBD vs Goizueta or any of those schools I listed? The OP was asking what happens to an Econ major that doesn't break into IBD. What happens to a Harvard undergrad that doesn't make it into IBD?

I know Goizueta has a 97% placement rate, Stern 98.6%, Ross 91% so on and so forth. Now if you are trying to say that an exceptional student at Harvard can place well into IBD, no one would disagree with you. If you are an exceptional student at any of those business schools would you say they have less of a chance of making it into IBD?

 

Wow people on these boards are dumb or what.

In no sort of order:

Finance - IBD, AM, S&T, MO, BO Corp Fin @ F500 Other non-finance Project Management type at F500 Consulting Econ Consulting (NERA, CRA etc.) FINRA/SEC/FED/ Military/Intelligence Agencies Think Tanks Other government jobs Grad Schools - Hardcore Econ Phd or MPA/MPP Admissions in higher ed Teaching HS

Point being you don't have to limit yourself to any career path. Best thing about Econ is that it gives you access to a wide range of career opportunities.

Me - Econ major working as a Project Management Analyst at a major F500 company. Pretty sweet gig if you ask me. Pay is low, and hours/stress are low. Planning to apply to B-School in a few years.

 

My friends and seniors work for banks (retail and corporate, not investment), ministries, government institutions, research institutions, consulting companies, and even companies in the creative industry. Oh, and there will always be that dude/dudette who proceeds with their education and ends up as a lecturer/professor.

I'm in Indonesia FYI. Lots of difference with the US or more developed countries I believe.

Fortes fortuna adiuvat.
 

What do the majority of econ majors do? The same thing the majority of finance majors do, the same thing the majority of English majors do, the same thing the majority of most majors do. Something almost completely unrelated to their field.

Besides IBD isn't really a prestige job for econ grads. Being an economic hitman is the most prestigious job an econ grad can possibly get.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Admin assistant, trash collector, construction worker, student for life, roughneck, cruise ship attendant, maid, McDonald's assistant to the manager, etc etc.

In all seriousness, your econ degree will be fine for most business functions if you have an internship. Outside of that, no idea.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Better than business in my opinion. More quant, more interesting. Business undergrads are a dime a dozen. P.S. one of the two you can take in community college..guess which one? Supply and demand, niqka. Supply and demand. But yeah, consulting, public sector (policy, research at a think thank, politics), etc.

 

The only problem with economics that you will run into is that it's not a technical degree like business is. Honestly, it really doesn't matter what your degree (to an extent) as long as you have a strong GPA and get a decent internship.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

State Department Foreign Service Officer, CIA analyst or officer, Marketing/product management at a CPG company or data firm like Nielsen, Insurance product developement/underwriting, various consulting fields.

 
PutINweRK:

Business is a technical degree? WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. No. Econ/Finance are. There's nothing remotely technical about a general business degree.

DM means "technical" in terms of how practical or hands-on it is. When you learn Accounting, you're learning how to actually create sheets and balance books. When you learn Finance, you're learning how to run models and how a finance department and operations work. When you learn Economics, you're learning... theoretical models. Tossed in with a little bit of experimental work and statistics. Think about - if you wanted to do a pure economics path, your choices are: in-house economist or researcher. Not to downplay the prestige of economics at a research institution (it's badass and the top universities are damn hard to get in), but it's not a practical major in the same way that something like Accounting is.
Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

There's nothing less theoretical about models or material in finance compared to econ. The fact that there are only a narrow scope of jobs available to someone pursuing pure econ (which, I disagree with to some extent btw), means it's MORE technical.

Also, I wouldn't say it's less practical. That's a stretch. If your argument about it being less technical holds, it means there are many more job opportunities in many more fields..which means it isn't less practical at all.

 
PutINweRK:

I wouldn't say marketing or HR is remotely technical (or difficult, for that matter), and people with those degrees are a dime a dozen. The fact that you can move into a certain field just because you have an MBA (as the case with marketing, for instance, I've seen many people do it), leads me to believe these aren't technical fields.

Your second point regarding econ being a technical degree only if you go on to do a PhD in it. If that holds, no accountant is a viable accountant unless they become chartered, and no one in finance is technical unless they become a CFA or get a PhD in finance (even more ridiculous).

Nowhere did the OP talk about preparing for a CorpFin job, assclown.

Let us examine how well an economics degree is suited to job specificity. Economics is to economist as finance is to....oh! wait a second. Banker? Equity researcher? Entrepreneur? Yeah, that's really technical. You're a genius.

Although I agree with you that accounting is pretty damn technical.

I definitely understand what you're saying, and I'm probably not doing a good job of illustrating my views on this here. Just to touch on these points real quick:

1) You're right, he didn't say preparing for a CorpFin job, I messed up there. I definitely tailored my responses to that type of position. I accept your insult.

2) I made this a lot more confusing using my definition of a technical degree without defining it. My definition: a degree sought after by hiring parties because it demonstrates an interest in the subject matter AS WELL AS giving the student a strong basis for understanding the job function. The main difference between a "technical" business degree and, say, a degree in chemical engineering is that job functions in business vary greatly. You can't get an education focusing specifically on the job function, but you can get an education that gives you the ability to easily transition into a certain job function.

3) I disagree that HR programs aren't technical in nature. You spend your time in school learning the specifics about HR. This is why most undergraduate level HR positions look specifically for HR majors (and many will look for O/I psych and labor relations majors). Marketing I'm honestly not so sure about, but I imagine they're getting a strong foundation for understanding how the marketing world works. Glad we agree on accounting though heheh.

4) In many cases I would say that an ACC/FIN degree program is superior to an ECON major. The reason for this is, the hiring party "knows" (read: knows as well as anyone can from reading a resume) that the person has an interest in the fundamentals of a business. Having a business degree in general shows an interest in business. Having a degree in economics can show an interest in business as well, but you're likely going to need something else to add to your resume showing your interest in business versus continuing a theoretical academic or professional career in economics.

5) Personally, I believe an economics major with a 3.5 GPA is going to do just as well as a finance/accounting major with a 3.5 GPA. It may take them a few months to get caught up on the terminology and job functions, but over time they will catch up. I also appreciate the fact that it does force you to think theoretically as well as getting you a decent understanding of how people think in relation to a business.

I'm not a big fan of being insulted. That said, you brought up some great points which I do appreciate. In the interest of keeping this thread on track, here's where I believe the different degrees will be most successful for getting a job, not necessarily actually doing the job:

Accounting: CorpFin, public accounting, Wall Street, and any business position. You should come out of your program with a strong, basic understanding of the fundamentals of a business and how it works.

Finance: CorpFin, wealth management, Wall Street, and most business positions. You get a solid, basic understanding of the fundamentals of a business and what they need to run going into the future. This is more dependent on the track you take, whether it's more markets-focused or focused on the internal workings of a corporation. However, even if you did focus on markets in your structured education, just the "Finance" descriptor on your degree will open doors.

Economics: Business analyst, most business positions. Economics majors are perfectly suited to be business analysts because of the mathematical training they have and their understanding of bringing parts to a whole and breaking a whole into parts. I believe they're better suited for these positions than any business major, all else being equal. The issue they run into is, "why didn't you get a degree in business?" There are many companies that love econ majors for CorpFin positions (for example), but the difference here is that all companies love ACC/FIN majors for CorpFin positions.

I doubt I covered everything in this post. What it comes down to is the business degree teaches you the terminology and the basics of business. It gives you a strong foundation for a professional career because you're being taught to think like a businessperson using mainly real world-applicable examples. I understand that you get applicable work in econ, but it's just not the same. This wasn't meant to be insulting to economics majors, but to give an idea of how they will have to fight a slightly more difficult battle getting a position than finance/accounting majors.

Lastly, this is a very general explanation. Of course an economics major with a 3.5+ GPA from an Ivy who would've been able to get the job (whatever it may be) as a Finance major will probably be able to make it happen as an econ major. But in general, if you're interested in business, the smart move is to go for a business degree.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

See? Insulting has its usefulness. You just wrote a great post because of it.

1) No prob.

2) Don't want to get into semantics too much, but I had just interpreted "technical" as being narrow in scope with respect to jobs, and subsequently having some barriers to entry (i.e. more math oriented, specialized, etc.). Either way, good point. You can demonstrate your interest in other ways, though, but I guess a degree is the best way. My point (though biased because I stud(ied) econ), is that an econ major gives you a broader platform for jobs. There's no reason why an econ major can't write the CFA, do a little networking, get a little experience and break in to the exact same positions as a finance major (which, by my definition, doesn't make finance all that technical in terms of JOBS, even though the MATERIAL is really technical). The same can't necessarily be said for a finance major (as far as I know, there's no "chartered economic analyst" position, or something similar). Also is the fact that you just need a business-oriented degree to become a chartered accountant at least in Canada (doesn't even have to be accounting, necessarily), apprentice for a bit and pass a tough test. Not sure if the US has the same requirements.

3) Well yeah, I guess it's technical. But you can basically get into HR if you're somewhat remedial. I guess I've just been reading too many posts on here to ever attach some sort of prestige to HR. I guess that makes me an asshole (but maybe a correct asshole).

4) See basically my answer in 2). Of course a person with an econ major is disadvantaged if applying for a purely accounting-related job versus someone that actually majored in accounting. However, you can just become a CA in a few years if that's what you want to do.

5) Well said. The thing I appreciate the most from econ is the analytical logic you develop which is just generally useful in life. It's overly theoretical at times, but so is finance to a degree (EMH, for instance). Not privileging one over the other. All of them have important functions. I'm just lashing out because of all the bs I see on this site claiming that finance is a golden ticket to wall street where I see it as fundamentally overvalued and over-supplied. Also, with regards to your job descriptions by major, I would definitely add Wall Street to econ. Many Ivies don't even have undergrad business degrees and just have BSc in econ or finance. So in their case, the answer would be: 1) my school is better than yours (having friends/acquaintances that went to Ivies, I can say I'm not overly impressed) 2) we don't have business degrees because no one cares about them (debatable, but still).

 

Is it worth adding economics/finance as an additional major or minor? I want to do so, but I'm worried that the course load required on top of my additional major might cause my GPA to drop this semester...

 

What's your major currently? If it's accounting, then I wouldn't do anything to drop your GPA.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

If you're worried, get a minor.

Econ is "close enough" to Bus Admin and finance for practical purposes. A bunch of unis cross list econ and finance courses... Some econ programs even require accounting.

I did quantitative economics and minored in statistics and accounting. Not once did someone question the legitimacy of my degree. The main comments I got were "that's a perfect combination for what we need", "that sounds intimidating" and "wow you must be really smart". I learned almost nothing in class.

 

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