Ryan
What is a good entry level job to start building work experience while on a Business Administration track?
I see myself as having the skills to be a strong leader in my professional future, but I want to start building the workplace experience to match and further develop those skills. What entry-level positions would give me relevant work experience that would be valued after completion of my degree? #business #career
9 answers
Lisa Black
Lisa’s Answer
Hi Ryan, I knew early on that I wanted to study business too. It's great when you hear a calling. If you are in a big city that would have headquarters of large corporations, there are paid summer internships available to help you learn the business and gain experience, plus it gets your foot in the door for future opportunities. If you live in a smaller town or have a specialized interest in one area, it would be beneficial to apply at a business in that field. For example, if you want to go into accounting, data entry at an accounting firm would be a nice addition on your resume. If you want to manage a restaurant, experience as a delivery person, wait staff, etc. would be beneficial.
Carl Cuttone, MBA
Carl’s Answer
A Pro- you can choose whatever industry interests you because all company's are essentially a business. I too have a business degree and the biggest mistake I made was I was just happy to find a job out of college. Luckily, I eventually found my way to post secondary education which is where I find joy in coming to work everyday. My suggestion is you figure out what industries interest you and then target good company's within those industries.
A Con- you will most likely leave college without a "specialization". A specialization would be a Nursing Degree, as an example, where you would know exactly the type of environment you will be working at. In Business there are many subcategories which you could think of as specializations. Those are HR, Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Management, etc. The best move I made when I left college was I entered a management training program for a major corporation. The positive was I was put in a structured training program that exposed me to every department within my organization. They had me in each department for a 3 month period. This provided me with the opportunity to practice the skills I learned in college in the real world and gave me a direction as to the department I wanted to work in a business setting.
My suggestion is you find a corporation in an industry you enjoy that has a good management training program for recent graduates. The worst thing you could do is to accept a job that offers little training and is in an industry you have no interest in.
Liuv Suarez
Liuv’s Answer
Sammy Yang
Sammy’s Answer
I would say any job would be a good start as long as you are focusing on developing your hard and soft skills. Hard skill means you know the product well, and soft skill means you know the people well. It may sound easy, it does take a lot of effort.
Sammy recommends the following next steps:
martina craven
martina’s Answer
Simeon Snow
Simeon’s Answer
Amy Kindall
Amy’s Answer
Look for roles whose tasks are broad and "spinable.".
Let's say i run a nail salon where we specialize in Mommy & Me pawdicures for women and their dogs. I need someone to answer phones, set appointments, greet clients and manage the website.
I have two candidates -
A is a college student, Business. Good grades. Spent two years doing data entry at an medical insurance office.
B is a college student. Business. Average student. Only work history is delivering pizzas for the last six months.
I hire B because she convinced me she was versitile, mentally ahile, had customer service skills and was used to keeping busy, keeping people happy and anticipating problems.
Dont worry about what job you shoukd GET. ANY job will get you any OTHER job if you show you learned things at Job 1 that apply to Job 2.
Keri Dunkelberger
Keri’s Answer
You kind of have to go with your gut a little on this, as there is likely a field of business that you are curious about or that draws you to wanting to learn more about it. With a degree in Business Administration, you will be able to apply much of what you learned at most Corporate jobs, the question is, which field interests you most?
Consider looking at people in your community that you look up to, or who work for a company that models the values you think are important. You could go into Sales, Project Management, Recruiting...the options are pretty limitless - so the big factor is, what drives you? The further along we go with innovating products, remote working and learning scenarios, the more avenues for different and unique careers become available.
I hope this helps, or gives you more direction on next steps! :)
Diel Lockley
Diel’s Answer
Hi Ryan, Its great that you have already decided that you would like to be a business professional. There are so many different opportunities in the business world. I too knew early on that I wanted to work on Corporate America. I have been very fortunate to secure a job within the field I chose. Id like to suggest and challenge you to seek out companies that you are interested in work at and find out if they offer 'job shadowing" programs that may allow you the opportunity to shadow some of their existing employees to see exactly what some of their business professionals do on a day to day basis. This will give you an opportunity to explore different companies and different jobs by observations.