What Can You Do With a Business Administration Degree?

A degree may open the door to a variety of opportunities and diverse career paths. The degree programs offered at AIU will not necessarily lead to the featured careers. This collection of articles is intended to help inform and guide you through the process of determining which level of degree and types of certifications align with your desired career path.

If you’re considering what there is to do with a business administration degree, you may be interested to know that, at the bachelor’s level, business degrees have become one of the most popular and highly sought-after degrees for today’s college graduates. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that in 2018–19 (the most recent year for which data is available) more students graduated with a bachelor’s in business than in any other field.¹ But what can you do with a business administration degree? What potential career paths in business might you choose to pursue?

Because they are in demand, deciding what to do with a business administration degree could be an exciting endeavor. But before we review potential career paths that usually require a bachelor’s degree (per BLS data), such as an online business administration degree, we’ll explore what business administration is and the types of business courses you might expect to encounter in a BBA degree program.

What Is Business Administration?

Business administration refers to the fundamentals of business practices and principles. A BBA degree program should be designed to give students an opportunity to build and hone foundational business administration skills, which generally include quantitative, analytical, interpersonal, and business management and leadership skills. Typical bachelor’s-level business courses will include coverage of topics in accounting, marketing, finance, business ethics and management. Further, sometimes business programs offer the option to concentrate or specialize in a particular business area (e.g., fashion marketing, human resource management, healthcare management, hospitality management, etc.), in which case the concentration or specialization chosen will determine the set of elective business courses a student will take.

Schools may offer multiple types of business degree program attendance options, giving students more flexibility to select a pace and attendance format combination that works best for them. Full-time, part-time, in-person, online and hybrid options can make it more convenient and feasible to pursue a business program without putting your current life on pause.

Financial Analyst

If you’re researching what to do with a business degree and you have an interest in the stock market and finance, then pursuing a position as a financial analyst may be a good choice for you. Financial analysts monitor stock prices and fluctuations in financial markets, as well as study economic and business trends, in order to make recommendations about investments.

Some of their duties may include recommending individual investments or investment portfolios, evaluating current and historical financial data, studying economic and business trends and determining the value of a company through examination of its financial statements. Sometimes financial analysts may work under more specific job titles like fund manager, portfolio manager, ratings analyst or financial risk specialist.²

Job Outlook: The BLS projects 6% growth in employment of financial analysts through 2030.²

Management Analyst

What else can you potentially do with a business administration degree? While researching what to do with a business degree, you’ll almost certainly find information about management analysts. Sometimes called business analysts or management consultants, management analysts advise businesses on how to make their operations more productive and efficient.

Some of their typical duties include gathering and organizing information about the problem or procedure in question, interviewing personnel and conducting onsite observations to determine needed resources, analyzing financial data, recommending changes and conferring with managers to ensure that the recommended changes are working.³

Job Outlook: The BLS projects 14% growth in employment of management analysts through 2030.³

Human Resources Specialist

What can you do with a business administration degree if you’re interested in employee relations or company policy? You might consider pursuing a human resources specialist role.

Human resources specialists are responsible for various aspects of an organization’s recruitment and hiring process and may also handle compensation and benefits, training and employee relations. Some HR specialists may be generalists who are involved in all types of HR functions, while others, like recruitment specialists (also known as recruiters or talent acquisition specialists), may focus specifically on hiring functions. Others may even specialize in retirement matters or employee training.

An HR specialist’s duties may include consulting with employers to identify hiring needs, interviewing job applicants, checking references and conducting background checks, hiring or referring qualified applicants and running or assisting with employee orientation. They also need to ensure that HR functions are in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.⁴

Job Outlook: Employment of HR specialists is projected to grow 10% through 2030.⁴

Earn a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree

Choosing to pursue a Bachelor of Business Administration degree program could be among the most significant steps you take on the path toward pursuing a career path in the business world. AIU’s BBA program offers 12 specializations and a general business degree track, making it possible to select a program that aligns with your academic interests:

Looking for more information on what to do with a business degree? Contact us today.

¹ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, "Table 322.10. Bachelor’s degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970–71 through 2018–19," https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_322.10.asp?current=yes (visited 12/30/2021). This data represents national figures and is not based on school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.
² Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Financial Analysts," https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/financial-analysts.htm (visited 1/11/2022). This data represents national figures and is not based on school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.
³ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Management Analysts," https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm (visited 1/11/2022). This data represents national figures and is not based on school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.
⁴ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Human Resources Specialists," https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/human-resources-specialists.htm (visited 1/11/2022). This data represents national figures and is not based on school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.

AIU cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. Not all programs are available to residents of all states.
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