Studying a management degree gives graduates a broad knowledge of business, finance, economics and marketing, as well as a range of practical skills and work experience, making them highly sought after by graduate employers and for graduate training schemes. Management graduates can work in a large variety of sectors, including the public, private and voluntary sectors.

With the second edition of the QS World University Rankings: Masters in Management Rankings coming soon, we thought we’d run through the main graduate career paths for management students. For each career option, we’ll include the average salary you can expect if you worked in the UK or the US, with data from PayScale. We’ve also covered careers for the similar degrees of business, business analytics and finance.

Management consultant

Average salary: $84,963 in the US, £46,904 in the UK

One of the most obvious careers paths with a management degree is management consultancy, in which you’ll help business improve their performance and evolve by resolving problems and using your business skills to offer objective, expert advice on the company’s strategy, structure, management and operations. You’ll need to carry out research and data collection in order to best understand the company and its goals, and then identify issues, present your findings and help implement changes. This role involves a large amount of responsibility and pressure, and management consultants often work with minimal supervision, so it’s important to have stamina and be self-motivated.

While a master’s degree or a PhD is not essential for becoming a management consultant, they are desirable and can mean you can enter the profession at a more senior level. There is intense competition for this role so you can demonstrate your commitment by joining the Institute of Consulting (IC) in the UK, taking part in relevant work experience, and keeping up to date with industry news.

Production manager

Average salary: $68,227 in the US, £34,618 in the UK

If you have an interest in manufacturing and want to combine this with the knowledge you acquired in your management degree, a role as a production manager could be for you, in which you’ll be responsible for the planning, coordination and technical management of manufacturing processes. Your exact responsibilities vary depending on the company size and the nature of the production system, but you’ll be involved with both human and material resources, designating both a timescale and budget for production jobs and being responsible for product standards and ensuring health and safety standards are met. Most production managers are employed by food manufacturing and processing companies.

To become a production manager, you’ll need a relevant degree as well as strong technical, organization, teamworking and project management skills. Membership with a professional body (such as The Institute of Operations Management (IOM) in the UK) is beneficial, as is work experience.

Project manager

Average salary: $71,944 in the US, £37,917 in the UK

Project managers are responsible for delivering projects on time and within budget by organizing people, resources and tasks. Also known as project coordinators and project officers, you could work in almost any sector and organization, from healthcare to construction or advertising. Your role will involve finding out the client’s goals, checking the feasibility of the project by analyzing budgets, teams and resources, negotiating with contractors and suppliers, monitoring progress and implementing changes where needed, reporting back to senior managers and the client, and evaluating the success of the project against its expectations, in order to learn from any mistakes.

If you want to be a project manager, you could find a graduate job as an assistant project manager or train for the role through a graduate scheme or apprenticeship. (In the UK you’ll likely need to train for an industry qualification such as the PRINCE2 or Agile). Of course, you’ll also need strong organizational skills as well as interpersonal and communication skills, and the ability to make decisions under pressure.

Social media manager

Average salary: $49,015 in the US, £25,247 in the UK

One of the newer management careers, if you’re an expert social media user and understand how engaging multimedia content can be used to promote businesses, you might enjoy a career as a social media manager. In this role, you’ll be responsible for developing and implementing strategies for social media marketing, including blogging, maintaining social media platforms, and creating and/or outsourcing videos. You might also be involved with other areas of marketing and communication, particularly in smaller companies. Social media is fast-paced and always changing, making your role difficult but always interesting.

To get this management job, you’ll probably need a degree (ideally in business management, marketing, media or public relations) and will likely need to find work in a junior position before working your way up. You’ll need to show employers that you have a broad knowledge of a range of social media platforms, and have great creativity, communication skills and an attention to detail.

Risk manager

Average salary: $83,651 in the US, £50,108 in the UK

Risk managers advise organizations on the potential risks to its profitability, reputation, safety, security and even existence. After identifying and assessing threats, risk managers implement plans and processes to ensure their client is prepared when something goes wrong. You might specialize in a particular area, such as enterprise risk or corporate governance. This is a highly analytical role in which you’ll need to be aware of the company’s goals, legal requirements, costs and environmental factors. You’ll also need to build relationships with clients and present your risk reporting in a suitable way to different audiences.

Although a specialized postgraduate degree in risk management isn’t essential, it would be very beneficial in your path to becoming a risk manager. You could also join a professional body, such as the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) to increase your employment prospects.

Other management careers

Other management careers you could pursue following your degree include roles in retail management, in which you’ll be responsible for the smooth day-to-day running of a store, working on the shop floor to deliver excellent customer service and meet the store’s financial goals. Or if you have an interest in finance and excellent numeracy skills to match, you could pursue a career as a forensic accountant. The skills gained from your management degree would also be useful for a role as a human resource manager, in which you’ll help employees develop their careers and look after relations, benefits and welfare. You could also work as a sales executive/consultant, promoting products and services to customers and aiming to meet sales targets. And of course, your management degree could also enable you to have the skills and knowledge to become an entrepreneur and found your own business!

---

‘What Can You Do With a Management Degree?’ is part of our ‘What Can You Do With…’ series. We have also covered art, biology, business, communications, computer science, English, engineering, fashion, finance, history, geography, law, marketing, mathematics, performing arts, philosophy, politics, psychology, sociology, chemistry, economics and physics.

This article was originally published in November 2017. It was updated in September 2018 with the latest salary figures.

Want more content like this? Register for free site membership to get regular updates and your own personal content feed.

Finance is one of the top subjects for giving students both great graduate job prospects and high earning potential – with the PayScale College Salary Report 2017-18 indicating US graduates with a bachelor’s degree in finance earn an average of $57,500 in their early career, rising to $97,100 once they have 10 or more years of experience.

If you want to study finance, there are a wide range of careers you could pursue after you graduate, with finance graduates sought after for roles in accountancy firms, investment and high street banks, insurance firms, management consultancies, the public sector and other areas.  Read on for an overview of the main careers in finance, in which we’ll include the average salary you can expect, using data from PayScale, and if you’re thinking of improving your career prospects even further by pursuing a master’s in finance, you may like to view the new QS World University Rankings: Masters in Finance Rankings 2018.

Financial analyst

Average salary: $59,026 in the US, £30,907 in the UK

The first of these careers in finance is one which allows you to combine your knowledge and interest in multiple disciplines, such as maths, accounting and economics. As a financial or investment analyst, you’ll be employed in gathering and analyzing financial data to guide the investment decisions of your employer, which could be an individual, a non-profit organization, government, or other businesses. You’ll be involved with recommending the best course of action when identifying and overcoming investment challenges, and will need to stay aware of the market trends and investment opportunities in your specialist area.

To become a financial analyst, you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree in finance, or a similar subject such as economics or statistics. You’ll also need to be a strategic thinker with a strong understanding of statistics and good presentation skills.

Financial manager

Average salary: $70,573 in the US, £38,279 in the UK

Financial managers develop and maintain the overall financial goals of their company. Your exact tasks will vary depending on your company size, with financial managers involved with strategic analysis in large companies, while those in smaller companies may be responsible for collecting and preparing accounts. In general, the role involves managing budgets, reviewing financial reports, managing employees in the finance department, analyzing market trends, developing a network of financial contacts, and analyzing the results of investments.

To become a financial manager, you’ll need a strong relevant degree, as well as strong commercial awareness, analytical and numerical skills, and personal qualities such as teamwork, leadership, decision-making and problem-solving.

Chartered accountant

Average salary: $84,267 in the US, £34,996 in the UK

As a finance graduate, you’ll also possess many of the skills needed for a career in accountancy. As a chartered accountant, you’ll be employed by a multinational organization, government body or private company to undertake financial audits, give financial advice, and manage financial systems and budgets, dealing with issues such as insolvency. You’ll probably specialize in a particular area, such as auditing, management consultancy, forensic accountancy, corporate finance or taxation.

To become a chartered accountant, you’ll need to complete a professional qualification (in the UK this is the ACA, which requires you to pass exams and take part in at least three years of training on the job). In the US, you’ll need to train to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), which involves sitting the Uniform CPA Exam.

Financial adviser

Average salary: $58,590 in the US, £35,220 in the UK

Expected to be one of the fastest-growing careers in finance over the next decade, financial advisors (also referred to as financial planners or wealth managers) provide specialist advice to their clients on how to manage their money, including how to choose investments, savings, pensions, mortgages or insurance products. Financial advisors may be independent or restricted, with independent financial advisers (IFA) researching and considering all financial products on the market.

You must follow strict industry rules in this role and have professional qualifications. In the UK, you can gain entry to this job through an apprenticeship, graduate training scheme or by progressing to it after working as a paraplanner (providing administrative support to a financial adviser). In the US, you need to pass the Series 7 exam, managed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

Actuary

Average salary: $85,292 in the US, £55,316 in the UK

Actuaries forecast, assess, manage and advise on future financial risks. They use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to assess the risk of an event occurring, and help their employer take steps to minimize the risk’s likely cost. Actuaries mainly work in investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds and corporate finance, and apply mathematical modeling techniques, statistical modelling tools and probability theories to economic markets.

Actuaries need to have effective communication skills in order to present complex information to non-specialists. You’ll also need a strong background in mathematics, statistics, and business, and will need to qualify to become an actuary by becoming a student member of a professional actuarial body – in the UK this is the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), while in the US you can get certified through the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) or the Society of Actuaries (SOA). 

Other careers in finance

Other careers you can pursue with a finance degree include roles within financial trading, which involves buying and selling financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, assets and shares for investors such as individuals or banks. You may also find the fast-paced, challenging role of a stockbroker interesting, in which you’ll manage and support clients in making informed decisions to invest in the best shares to buy or sell to get the most return on their money. You could also work within commercial banking as a teller, sales associate, trust officer, loan officer, or branch manager. Or, if you have an overlapping interest in law, a role as a licensed conveyancer may suit you, in which you’ll work as a specialist in property law to deal with legal, administrative and financial aspects of property transactions. Finance graduates could also pursue roles in the hedge fund, taxation, management consultancy and data science sectors.

---

‘What Can You Do With a Finance Degree?’ is part of our ‘What Can You Do With…’ series. We have also covered art, biology, business, communications, computer science, English, engineering, fashion, history, geography, law, marketing, mathematics, performing arts, philosophy, politics, psychology, sociology, chemistry, economics and physics.

This article was originally published in November 2017. It was updated in September 2018 with the latest salary figures.

Want more content like this? Register for free site membership to get regular updates and your own personal content feed.

Here at QS, we currently rank a grand total of 1,000 universities in the QS World University Rankings® - including over 150 in the US alone. But how many universities are there altogether around the world? We asked people at Summer in the City for their best guesses, and got some interesting answers.

Was your guess close to the total? Find out in the video above, and subscribe to our channel for more.

It's been six years already since the Harvard Business Review declared business analytics the "sexiest job of the 21st century", and the glamour of the job hasn't shown any signs of waning.

Most organizations, from Fortune 100 companies to nonprofits and government organizations, have become heavily reliant on big data. Even the smallest businesses today have access to a broad range of information about things like user experience, web traffic or client satisfaction, and from tweaking your business model to adapting your marketing strategy, this data must be leveraged in a number of ways. 

New opportunities for graduates with business analytics skills 

To prepare for the future, many business schools are developing new master's programs in business analytics designed to keep up with the changing economy. These degrees can open doors for graduates, particularly in light of the widening talent gap created by the new challenges presented by big data. According to a report by Marketing Week entitled ‘The Future Marketing Organisation’, 24 percent of marketers rank data skills as their biggest perceived skills gap.

But whether you end up working in business analytics or not, these degrees can give you the skills and credentials you will need for a number of senior managerial roles in a company, like fact-based decision making, quantitative analysis or predictive analysis - skills which we know will be vital for many jobs of the future.

Indeed, by 2020, 35 percent of the skills that are important in today's economy will have changed. Some jobs will have completely disappeared, while new ones will be created, and the way we work will not be the same. In fact, according to a report by the World Economic Forum, complex problem-solving, critical thinking, judgment and decision making will become three of the top skills we need.

High-paying jobs with a business analytics degree

The obvious choice for a graduate with a degree in business analytics would be to work as a data scientist or a management analyst.

You would typically be collecting and interpreting big data through quantitative analysis in order to predict, evaluate and inform decisions in a number of business areas, including human resources, customer service, marketing, operations and finance.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 115,200 new management analyst jobs will be created between 2016 and 2026. Management analysts will have an estimated job growth of 14 percent until 2026 and had cushy median salaries of US$82,450 in 2017.

Of course, your skillset would be highly valued in a number of other professions, not just data science or management analysis. After all, companies are always scrambling to hire new recruits with data literacy skills, and rewarding career opportunities can be found in areas such as market research, supply chain management, project management or consultancy.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, these jobs typically come with high job growth and pay. For example, logisticians, a job which involves analyzing and coordinating a company's supply chain from supplier to consumer, made median salaries of US$74,590 in 2017. They have a fast job outlook, with an employment growth of seven percent until 2026.

Another potential career path is working as a market research analyst. This role tends to earn slightly less, with median salaries of US$63,230 in 2017, but is still an area with excellent prospects. It involves studying market conditions to find out what products people want and at what price, and has an employment growth of 23 percent until 2026.

This article was originally published in November 2017. It was updated in September 2018.

Want more content like this? Register for free site membership to get regular updates and your own personal content feed.