Eno
What types of jobs are available for some with a political science and economics double major?
These are the majors that I want to study these topics in college and would like to know more about job opportunities. #business #lawyer
2 answers
Horatiu G. Stefan
Horatiu G.’s Answer
Interestingly, I have a double major in political science and economics. ;) You could go in allot of different directions with this, but here is what I did
After graduating, I joined a management consulting firm where I worked on strategy and business operations projects for 4 years. I then went back to school to get my MBA and decided that I wanted to explore opportunities on consumer products and services as the next step in my career. I was very fortunate to have offers from Samsung, Starwood, Starbucks, and Target upon graduation. I chose a corporate strategy role with Samsung and spent over 5 years in Seoul at their corporate headquarters. After returning to the US, I did some freelance consulting and decided shortly thereafter that I wanted to work in an operations role for consumer oriented startups. I now have 3 startups under my belt and am looking for my next opportunity.
Numerous friends that have has similar majors have gone to law school, others have gone on to work for investment banks, yet others have moved into the public policy and government realm. There are many options.
I would challenge you on why you are interested in a double major. I'm not convinced it game me much of a leg up in the job market, and in retrospect wish that I would have taken more classes outside my comfort zone - dance, philosophy, religion, computer science - to broaden my experience. Final point is that no matter what major you choose you focus on building your quantitative analytical skills ... math, statistics, etc. Invaluable. Food for thought.
Thank you so much for your response!
Eno
Christine Dufault, PMP
Christine’s Answer
My university didn't have a traditional Business degree so Economics was the most common major. With that degree, I was interested in a Finance or Analytics positions out of college. I got an Internal Audit job out of college and think that is a very common entry-level job for Finance/Econ type majors. It's a helpful area to get started in whether wanting to learn more about the industry that company is in or the specific company. I was able to leverage my Internal Audit experience into a position at another company based on experience in the industry. I am currently in Enterprise Risk Management, specifically Operational Risk. Many times people might think that I am an actuarial or do lots of analytics and modeling. But this is not the case. There are several types of Risk Management which involve different backgrounds: Financial, Market, Liquidity, Counterparty, Model, Operational, etc. These have varying degrees of quantitative analytics skills required and typically require some sort of basis in the underlying risk type. I've found that as I get farther from college, your major becomes less important, especially if you change careers.
My husband's route from college landed him in the DC area working for in government affairs for a non-profit and then worked on Capitol Hill in a congressional office. He ended up going back to law school after about 5 years after college with a specialty/career in mind. He was in law school with some classmates who came directly from undergrad and there was a mix of knowing exactly what kind of law or career path they wanted to go when they started. He was interested in Privacy and is currently a lobbyist working on the federal Policy/Government Affairs side.
I would echo Horatio's thoughts regarding the desire for double majoring. I would also agree to continue building quantitative/analytical skills - especially out of college, these skills are particularly useful for hiring managers to be able to bring someone in who can can contribute rather quickly.