President George W. Bush is America's first-ever chief executive to hold a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). After assuming office, he packed his cabinet and top-agency appointee positions with people who had earned advanced degrees, including MBAs. The message is clear: the country is run today by executives with business degrees. A search of popular online job boards reveals that people with MBAs and other business degrees comprise an elite, highly-sought-after cadre of applicants. Long important to finance and manufacturing, CEO-level and management business expertise has become today's common prerequisite for building a health care, technology, or federal government career.

Prognosticators throughout the land agree that health care, marketing, and finance will generate the fastest-growing jobs (with matching prime salaries) through the next decade. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook places marketing professionals, sales managers, and financial analysts second only to health care professionals in the growing economy serving baby boomers.

Fast Company, one of the nation's top business magazines, has listed personal financial advisers, sales and marketing managers, and management analysts in its index of top careers based on salary potential, job growth, innovation, and education levels.

Financial Advisors Lead MBA-level Positions

The aging population of baby boomers requiring investment management will spark plenty of opportunities for personal financial advisors to handle portfolios. If you're looking for a business degree with legs, look no further than an online MBA with a concentration in financial advising and investments. At the least, you'll need to concentrate on accounting, statistics, corporate budgeting, and economics coursework as part of your undergraduate or graduate business degree.

Fast Company projects a whopping 35% job growth rate for advisors through 2012, with salary projections well into the six figures. Better yet, the BLS projects that people who combine business degrees with Certified Financial Planner or Chartered Financial Consultant certifications will earn even more. Almost half of working financial advisors today are self-employed professionals, and the balance hires on to positions with securities and commodity brokerages, insurance carriers, banking institutions, and government.

Sales Managers with Business Degrees Rise to the Top

Fast Company reports that as global markets grow and challenge American companies, jobs for people with sales management qualifications will rise accordingly. Sales managers direct a company's overall retailing effort, coordinating training, pre-sales, sales, and support teams across a wide range of territories. The hiring trend, the BLS says, reflects a move toward recruiting MBA or other business degree recipients who have learned about the supply chain, distributors, and dealers in a network.

You'll find many online MBA degree programs dedicated to the specific range of sales management skills, from goal setting and success tracking, to personnel (HR) issues. You'll also find online certification courses that acknowledge management competence to put you in line for highly competitive positions. The BLS reports salaries in the six-figure range for sales managers in high tech, with other industries beginning in the high 90s.

Marketing Managers Will Thrive Across All Industries

Almost 200,000 marketing managers held key positions in American commerce in 2004. Fast Company reports that hiring will be brisk for all candidates who qualify with at least an undergraduate business degree -- but an MBA degree, whether earned in an online or on-campus environment, could move you to the head of the pack.

Marketing managers lead campaigns that identify market opportunities, coordinate product development and launch, perform competitive analyses, and establish prices within the industry. The BLS establishes earning ranges for these managers in the high 90s up into six figures and predicts better-than-average growth in technical, medical, and professional service industries through the next decade.

Hot Prospects for Management Analysts

Rounding out the big-four of hot business careers are the management analysts. The BLS reports that a third of all management analysts at work today are self-employed in a consulting capacity. They're in-demand business medics, called in by troubled companies to reassemble a successful organization. Companies rely upon them to trim spending, increase profitability, shore up losses, and maximize personnel efficiency.

More than 600,000 management analysts served companies in 2004. There's rapid growth predicted for this field, but competition will be fierce for the best engagements. Fast Company recommends that you earn an MBA degree if you want to run in this pack. Online and campus MBA degree programs offer concentrations that develop skills in assessing corporate finances, company structure, operations, information technology, marketing, electric commerce, accounting, and logistics.

Since management analysts often specialize in a field or industry, you may also choose to focus on business degree concentrations in a major vertical, such as finance, health care, government operations, or information technology. The Association of Management Consulting Firms reports a salary range from $65,066 for entry-level analysts, $123,305 for senior-level analysts, and $317,339 for senior consulting partners.

Of course, there are other solid business careers for the future. But these four top-growing career paths promise success in a country increasingly run like a business.

Sources:
Fast Company
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Association of Management Consulting Firms

About the Author
Gabby Hyman has created online strategies and written content for Fortune 500 companies including eToys, GoTo.com, Siebel Systems, Microsoft Encarta, Avaya, and Nissan UK.


By: Gabby Hyman
World Wide Learn Columnist