Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

management or pure maths?

for degree, im not sure whether to do managment or pure maths?

in the long term, ill be doing management, but i heard from some that it doesnt matter what degree you do, and in some ways a more itnelltual subject would be better because it shows your intellegence over abililty to cram for exams.

what do the top firms prefer? degree in management/economics, or pure maths/theoretical physics route?

thnx

Reply 1

Paradiddle_man

Oh c'mon don't be so boring. Management is the way to go :p:

But seriously. Do what you're interested in. :smile:

People do jobs which are radically different to those which they study in uni all the time. I heard of a biochem person ending up as a CEO of a pharmaceutical company. My cousin took comp science but ended up designing chips which is really different apparently. He had to learn everything from scratch.

Another cousin of mine said that if you study management in uni, you'll definitely have an edge when you actually do a managerial job (she did business and graduated with a cum laude diploma).

Reply 2

stupanico

I'd choose a quantitative subject such as Maths or Economics over Business/Management as it looks better.

Reply 3

username81904

But only if you like it. Dont do it if you think it looks better because you will end up getting a job that you arnt that interested in!

Reply 4

Manning

Having spoken to various people, a management degree is by no means a guarantee that you will find a job as a manager. Many have to work themselves up

Reply 5

username81904

Thats the case with many jobs. In many cases you have to do more specific courses after you leave anyway.

Reply 6

Sasuke!

just to let you know, maths is not easy and not something you can do just because you need it, you really have to want to do it. i chose it purely becuase it would look good on my CV and boy am i regrettin git like crazy

Reply 7

SouthernFreerider

im actually really interested in maths and physics, and quite good at it too, so thats not the issue

so, now im even more undecided lol

what im trying to boil it down to, is, would an employer (given all other variables the same), choose someone with a managment degree over someone with a maths/physics one?

also, bear in mind id be fine with reading up on management after a maths degree to be good enough for the job..

(i know im probs confusing yall) lol

Reply 8

stupanico

For most jobs it REALLY won't make a difference. It is quite trivial. Unless you want a technical job such as trading exotic derivatives at an investment bank, it is unlikely that you will need a physics degree. Similarly most management jobs do not require a business degree.

Reply 9

Jenii

Maths would definitely be more respected by most employers than Management (a risky thing to say on a management forum, but I think it's true).

There's a careers forum on TSR where people will give you more and less biased advice. By asking on a management forum, people naturally are going to advocate their own subject.

Reply 10

username81904

More respected for some types of numberate jobs but not necessarily management jobs in HR for example.

Reply 11

Paradiddle_man

How about mathematics with management/business studies (joint honours)? If you're undecided I think that would be a good shot. You'll also have some variation and it may look more impressive (just saying, don't know much about this).

Reply 12

stupanico

It is true that maths is generally more respected.

Reply 13

crispy

I think with management degrees it depends on the quality of the degree, in the sense what have they taught you.

For example, I'm at Aston and their Business and Management (BAM) degree gives all students a grounding in all of the basics involved in business in the first year with the chance to specialise a bit more in your 2nd and final year.

For me this was the best choice, because like you I had a similar dilemma - Maths v BAM, and the reason I think it was the best choice is that my maths ability was way above what would be required in most areas (admittedly some jobs such as actuarial work this prob won't be the case) and not having a specific idea of what field/industry I wanted to go in to after uni I felt this more general grounding would leave more doors open than it would shut.

So to summarise, if you are interested in a specific field/industry then study a subject that is very closely related but if you don't have any definite idea then the more general nature of a business/management degree would probably be the better option.