Career Opportunities with a Management Degree

Management degrees are usually fairly broad based, even if you specialised in particular industry such as Hospitality Management, so you’ll gain a variety of skills that will be useful in any future career.

The skills gained during a Management degree allow you to build commercial awareness and start contributing to your chosen employer quickly and effectively. This makes you a highly desirable candidate to any employer, regardless of the sector or industry.

There are a wide range of different career choices available to Management graduates, spread across all industries. The majority of management careers generally encompass multiple roles – you might find yourself managing finances, staff, branding, sales and marketing and making top-level strategic decisions all in one day.

Here’s more about the career opportunities with a Management degree.

What skills will I gain during my Management degree?

Studying for a business and management studies degree allows you to develop a broad understanding of business organisations.

There are many transferrable skills that aren’t industry specific that would make you a valuable employee regardless of the career you entered into.

These skills include:

An understanding of organisational behaviour and structure
Analytical and critical thinking
A creative approach to problem solving
Decision-making abilities
Persuasive written and oral communication
Numeracy
The ability to research, interpret and use business and financial data
Self-reliance, initiative and the ability to manage time, projects and resources
Appreciation of the causes and effects of economic and other external changes

Depending on the modules you took at university you might also have more in-depth knowledge in areas such as markets, customers, finance, operations, communication and information technology, and business policy and strategy.

Business issues are often addressed at a European and international level and you’ll have the skills and knowledge to understand how businesses differ at an international level.

Jobs directly related to your Management degree

The list of jobs directly related to a Management degree are as long as your arm, so it would be impossible to list them all.

However, here are some of the more common career paths taken by Management graduates:

Management Consulting

Management Consultants provide independent advice to help companies, organizations and businesses improve their performance, solve issues, create value and maximize growth.

As a professional in this role, you will use your business and management skills to help companies make improvements to internal structure and operations. This could be everything from how a company organizes its teams to how a supply chain is set up or how financial performance is reported.

Management consultants may provide general management advice or specialize in a particular area, such as business strategy, marketing, human resources, IT, e-business or supply-chain management.

If you’re interested in a management consulting career, many management degrees offer modules focusing on developing consultancy skills, as well as opportunities to complete consultancy work placements and projects, so research the universities that offer these modules before applying.

Project Management

Project Managers plan, manage, coordinate and deliver a set project on time and within budget. This could be anything from a relocation or special event to the implementation of a new company structure or software system.

You’ll need to be a very strong communicator and have excellent time management and organisational skills. You’ll need to be able to provide clear and regular updates to all stakeholders, provide independent advice, organize the various individuals working on the project and respond rapidly to any problems or delays.

Daily tasks may include undertaking risk assessments, recruiting and monitoring specialists and sub-contractors, and monitoring and managing accounting, costing and billing.

Other common roles for Management graduates include:

Jobs not directly related to your Management degree

If none of the more common roles appeal to you, don’t panic, there are plenty of opportunities out there.

Jobs where your degree will be useful, but not essential to you getting the role, include:

Whether you want to work in the public, private, or voluntary sectors there will be a role where you can put the skills, knowledge, and attributes you’ve gained during your degree to good use.