Here are ten college degrees that will either get you a very safe job, a very highly paid job, or a job wherever you please. Those are the three selling points of a useful degree. The ability to pick a company, work for it and build a career is a very handy talent to have, as is finding a job where your department will be the last one to be shut down. Furthermore, the qualifications that get you a highly paid job may set you up very nicely in the future, so that you don’t have to pinch pennies into your old age.
1. An accounting degree
Accountants are people who senior managers and business leaders trust because they have to. Most business leaders and managers do not have the time to go through all of their accounts themselves, so must trust the work and expertise of a person with an accounting degree. That is why many accountants are paid highly, and why managers and business owners are often very aggressive in their retention of them.
2. A marketing degree
This is something that will put you one step ahead of most modern business executives. Many people enter a large corporate business with some form of business education, but if you have a degree in marketing then you get to work in the most interesting department in the whole company. As the senior executives worry about the falling stock price, you are getting paid for the jingles you wrote whilst in the bath!
3. A business administration degree
This is not the most glamorous degree and it will not get you a job working with the famous or the beautiful, but it will get you a very safe job in many, many companies. You can basically pick the company you want to work for, and choose the field that you feel suits you the best. The business administration staff are the unsung and forgotten heroes that make up the backbone of any business.
4. An information science degree
This is a degree that is going to make you the shining star of whichever business concern you join. The ability to build a website, or build and maintain a computer system is a skill that is in high demand.
5. A computer engineering degree
Almost any qualification that has something to do with computers is a good thing in this day and age. But, a computer engineering degree is going to place you above your competitors because most middle to larger companies need to have at least one computer engineer on staff. They do things such as building or maintaining networks, computer systems and computer software. Many companies are also looking for computer engineers to help design new software, so your degree will be in high demand.
6. An education degree
This is usually made up of a degree in one subject, and then a further qualification so that you can be a teacher. The job is not the most glamorous in the country, but it is certainly a job that is in high demand. British sociologists have also proven that people with education qualifications are also more likely to be placed in a higher management position within ten years of getting their qualification.
7. A criminal justice degree
This may not buy you a very good position in the business world, but it will certainly get you a very high-paying job in the legal world. There are even big companies that set up their own legal department, where a criminal justice degree is going to buy you a lucrative—and very safe—job. This is a degree that allows you to both find a high-paying job and gain the respect of your peers.
8. A computer science degree
Computer science education is highly oriented towards the world of business, so you can easily meet the labor market’s requirements with this type of degree. In this profession, you will adjust old software to modified requirements and develop new software that will improve the work of the company that has hired you. This is a challenging job description that will inspire you to do the best you can in order to contribute to the success of your company’s projects. Needless to say, computer science graduates are always needed in the job market, and many business owners are willing to pay good money for their work. As you increase your professional experience, you will be able to advance your career and start co-ordinating these types of projects.
9. A journalism degree
This is probably not going to land you a job in very many big business corporations, but it is certainly going to get you a lot of work from both large and small information dissemination companies (and there are more than you think). A journalism degree is useful because it has a funny knack of allowing you to get both contract and freelance work whenever you want it. Many journalists work beyond their retirement age simply because they can.
10. A finance degree
Ironically, since the global economic downturn, a finance degree has become more valuable. Even though people (rightly) blame the financial institutions for the global financial crisis, a finance degree is now more valuable because people are more careful with their money and their lending. Companies are making sure they employ educated professionals in their finance department because they cannot afford to play fast and loose with their (or other people’s) money any more. So, this is a very valuable degree—for the near future at least.
