What Is Economics?

What can I do with a B.S. in Economics?

• I originally started college as a Civil Engineering major but quickly switched my major to Managerial Economics (its econ with a few courses in business) after taking an introductory course. I am now in my second year of college and I'm starting to get a little worried about the job market for an Econ major. I absolutely love math and the quantitative side of Economics. I am taking extra math courses; three semesters of Calculus (my school only requires 2) and I am on my way to take at least two more upper level math courses in probability (instead of basic statistics). I am also minoring in "Economic System Design" but I'm not exactly sure what it is other than it uses quite a bit of math. Ideally I would love to double major in math and economics, but I do not have the funds or time to study both subjects since I am an international student on a very limited budget. I would like to know if my major will be relevant to future employers. I've heard that a Bachelors in Economics does not get you very far in the United States, and that you pretty much need a masters to get a good job. But at the same time I feel like I will have taken enough business and math courses to set me apart from the multitude of liberal arts majors. I definitively want to go to grad school in the future since Economics is my academic passion, but I simply cannot afford to do it right after college. I would like to have a career in the private sector, and eventually either acquire an MBA or a PhD in Economics and become an University Professor. Honestly I just want a good job that allows me to use my background in Economics. My current university (George Mason) is not very well known but it has an excellent Econ department. I am expecting to graduate with a 3.5GPA

• Answer:

  First of all I'm jealous of you getting to study Economics at George Mason. I like to listen to the Econ Talk podcast, and clearly you've got some great Econ staff there. You won't be an ECONOMIST with only a BS. But you can certainly be employable in other job titles. First it would be wise to get in the habit of checking sites like monster.com and careerbuilder.com. Not so much to find jobs that demand someone specifically with a degree in Economics ... you won't find many of those. But Imagine you are a new grad with an Econ degree, and see what kind of jobs you might find that don't require something ELSE (like a degree in finance or accounting). It would be great to do that while still in school, that way you may discover you should take some class or get some certification while you are still a student. An Econ major (especially one with some with exposure to other business studies) is probably going to be an analytical person, and so a ripe candidate for a range of "analyst" jobs. Some job titles you might see are business analyst, data analyst, marketing analyst, market research analyst, risk analyst, etc. Possibly financial analyst -- they usually seem to require a degree in finance, but some Econ majors get into that. There are also a lot of jobs in business open to generalists -- they want a college grad, and business sense helps, but the major doesn't really matter. E.g., jobs in marketing, project management, even PR/Communications if you can write and have the personality for it. And Lord knows, SALES. You can be a 1st grade dropout and get any number of sales jobs. What I DO recommend is you become as expert as you can in all Microsoft Office apps, especially Excel and Access. In an analytical career it would also be helpful to learn such things as SQL, SAS, and SAP. Any technical, computer information systems expertise helps -- might be wise to study some of that. ALSO - since you like math, look into be an actuary. I wish I'd done that 20 years ago. They are basically data analysts for the insurance industry (primarily) who can make a lot of money ... easily well into 6 figure incomes as your progress in that career.