Exciting Prospects for UG Business and Data Science majors: Dean, SP Jain School of Global Management

Dr. Vaidyanathan “Vaidy” Jayaraman is the Dean of Undergraduate Programs and a Distinguished Professor at SP Jain School of Global Management. He oversees the undergraduate programs across the School's campuses in Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney. Sharing his thoughts on prospects for UG Business and Data Science majors

It is an exciting time to graduate with an UG degree in data sciences and management. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook 2023 report, employers plan to hire 14.7% more new college graduates from the Class of 2023 than they did from the Class of 2022. The report also indicated that more than half of responding employers plan to increase their hiring while only less than 6% expect to cut back. The most encouraging part of the report is nearly half of the employers who took part in the Job Outlook 2023 survey rated the job market for Class of 2023 graduates as very good to excellent. According to NACE, about half of the graduating students indicated their preference to work in a hybrid setting, where they can work from home a few days per week while only 11% wanted to work remotely because they felt that working from home, and not having to commute through traffic was more conducive to a healthy work-life balance.

An undergraduate degree in business administration is a wonderful pathway to many exciting career opportunities. The benefits of possessing an UG degree is to become a better leader, a potential for promotion in a shorter amount of time, a good understanding of increasing the team’s job performance and perhaps an easier transition into a new career.

In this article, I will describe three such jobs that could be a game changer.

1. Business analyst/Consultant

A Business consultant is anyone who is equipped with skills and knowledge in several areas such as finance, management and strategy and should arrive at an action plan to improve and optimize an organization’s productivity and performance. They advise managers on how to make the organizations more productive, efficient, and profitable through cost reduction and increased revenue generation. This role is a great fit for anyone who likes to think “outside the box” and can look at the big picture on what it takes to succeed in the marketplace. They can work within a single department or across the company to figure out how different roles work together in a seamless fashion. However, if an individual enjoys thinking analytically, a keen eye for detail, a great story teller and appreciates solving complex problems for the organization, they would be suited for a business analyst role. In this role, they use data to identify redundant processes, bottlenecks in the operation and propose recommendations on how to make the company’s operation more efficient. In many organizations, this could be a contract position where they tend to focus on a specific area of expertise.

Job titles – Business consultant, Business analyst, Business development executive, Business development assistant director.

2. Project manager

An undergraduate student is typically suited for managing a small to medium-sized project. They need to plan, oversee, and execute all the critical requirements of a project that can also include monitoring and presenting their recommendations to senior management for the project. A project manager should ensure that the project stays on schedule and even manage a team of employees by employing tools such as a Gantt chart and PERT/CPM, all of which would have been covered in their project management coursework. They are typically in charge of supervising teams, schedule meetings and troubleshooting. The person who is well suited for the job is organized, willing to take on a leadership role and has abundant amount of passion to oversee a project from the idea generation to execution and beyond.

Job titles - Project manager, Assistant or Associate project manager, Marketing manager, Operations manager, project coordinator, Officer

3. Entrepreneur

Most Gen-Z students armed with an undergraduate degree dream of owning their own business. For them to own a business, entrepreneurs need to update their skills and need to have a good grasp of business management fundamentals including operations, finance, and marketing. Any UG student who considers themselves as an innovator or an idea generator and who does not want to be constrained by limiting forces of a corporate structure but has access to financing and wants to be their own boss can choose to be an entrepreneur.

Job titles - Founder or a co-founder, business owner, a serial entrepreneur, President.

The National Skills Commission (NSC) employment projections provide a guide to the likely direction of the job market over a five-year period between 2021-2026. The projections highlight the ever-growing importance of education and training. It indicates that nine-in-ten jobs over this five-year period will require post-school education and projected employment growth in Skill Level 1 occupations (usually requires a bachelor’s degree) accounts for over half of the projected total employment growth. Though some of the projections had to be modified because of the pandemic, the importance of possessing an UG degree cannot be compromised in the grand scheme of things.

At the end of day, students should take the responsibility to gain enough experience while they are still studying at the university by taking part in extracurricular activities or gaining membership in on-campus clubs and committees. It would also be a good idea to work part time in an area that is related to their chosen career. The NACE annual report indicated that many respondents emphasized the importance of gaining real-world experience through internships, part time jobs and volunteering. Employers emphasized that having some prior experience is extremely critical regardless of the role that you are seeking – some even noted that having some work experience might give students a competitive edge as it is bound to reduce the on-the-job training time and the associated training costs.

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