By Charlene Lattea, WVU Online | Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Discover the top 11 minors that complement your business major at WVU Online and unlock endless opportunities for career growth and success.
Get a business degree, and you’re set for success in life, right?
The truth is, there’s no guarantee. Today’s job market is very competitive, and even with a business degree, you may need something extra to beat the competition.
One way to get ahead is to choose the right minor to go with your business degree.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of having a customized minor, how to choose the correct minor and the many types of minors you can choose from. There really is no limit to what kind of minor you can choose. It could be anything!
Business is a top degree choice for college students today because there is a demand for it. Nearly every industry needs professionals with strong business and management skills.
It is versatile, and you will have a wide variety of skills that will help you excel in a multitude of careers.
So, you may ask, if your business major is already providing you with lots of great skills, why do you need a minor?
Picking the right minor can set you apart from the competition. Plus, it allows you to specialize and tailor your education to fit more closely with your career goals.
For example, if you are interested in technology, you may want to add a minor in computer science. Or, if you want to work in international business, you could minor in a foreign language.
Having the right minor will help you define what you want in your career, and it will shape your personal and professional development. But how do you go about choosing the right minor? That’s what we'll explore next.
When choosing your minor as a business major, your first consideration should be the career you’re interested in pursuing. Someone who wants to get into the music business, for example, will have a much different minor than someone who wants to start a SaaS company.
But what if you aren’t sure what you want to do yet? Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help narrow down your options.
You can, but you certainly do not have to!
A business-related minor might be a good idea if you are excited to join a specific area of business, but there are other disciplines that are indirectly related to business that can be just as beneficial.
Sometimes having a major in business with a business-related minor will keep you from exploring many of the exciting opportunities available to you with a more versatile degree combination.
Your main consideration should be whether or not the minor will support your overall career goals, whether it is business-related or not.
To do that, you need to know what your options are, and we’ll discuss that in the next section of this article.
Here’s a list of minors that would work well with a business major, whether they are business-related minors or not. Which of these appeals to you the most?
With the importance of "going green," the world has undergone a revolutionary change. As a business professional, you will be involved in developing policies that align with environmental sustainability.
With a minor in environmental science, you will learn to formulate strategies that will put you ahead of the competition. Students in this minor study resources and energy, environmental protection, natural resources, environmental and resource economics, and applied demand analysis, as well as law and policy making.
With this minor, you will learn about computer programming, statistics, and how to use business intelligence tools to predict the future of an organization and make managerial decisions.
Data Analytics is a great minor for those who would like to become a business advisor or manager. Students typically take courses in business intelligence, artificial intelligence, decision analysis, business simulation modeling, data mining, machine learning, accounting analysis, data visualization, econometrics, and database management systems.
You can also pursue a more specialized minor in this field, such as Healthcare Data Analytics.
Advertising is an important skill for any successful business professional. This minor will teach you how to create informative and enticing ads for a variety of media, both print and digital.
You’ll also learn how to create a marketing campaign to promote products and services, how to deal with clients, how to make your product or company stand out and appeal to the general public, and how to attract customers or clients.
Students typically take courses in media and society, principles of advertising, design concepts, research methods, and advertising strategies.
A business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It plays a major role in a community and in the world.
A political science minor will give you the knowledge you need to understand how politics influence people and how institutions operate. You will need to know how people both exercise and resist power and who governs various institutions, communities, and nations.
Students pursuing this minor study topics such as law and the legal system, state and local governments, policy analysis, public administration, comparative politics, and international relations.
The hospitality and tourism minor is designed to meet the needs of the industry that drives the global economy. It is important to gain real-world experience in restaurant and hotel management, whether it is through learning labs, or in actual practice, which this minor provides.
It will give you the experience of working in hotels, resorts, and restaurants as well as cruise ships and other recreation resource management.
Students pursuing this minor study event planning, finances, statistics, leadership, innovation and technology, restaurant management, hotel operations, and other business operations.
All businesses need to collect and store data, create websites, and perform electronic functions related to product purchase and service delivery, which makes computer technology an important part of any industry.
With this minor, you will study systems used for creating, collecting, processing, storing, and distributing data.
Some computer science minors may emphasize computer programming and related skills, while others emphasize applications such as programming languages, spreadsheets, and databases.
Students typically take courses in computer systems, file, and data structures, principles of programming languages, algorithms, and software engineering.
Entrepreneurs are the leaders of the company, and they come up with new ideas and processes that take the business to a higher level.
With an entrepreneurship minor, you will take courses such as sales, merchandising, finance, accounting, business law, marketing, computational thinking, marketing, and retail operations.
You will learn how to start and maintain a business and how to launch a product, focusing on creativity and innovation, business analysis and planning, consulting, opportunity identification, opportunity commercialization, risk management, contracts, organizational communication, persuasion, and more.
With a sociology minor, you learn about human societies and how they work, gaining an understanding of social processes that operate in communities, businesses, and the groups you will encounter on a daily basis in the business world.
You will examine social problems and analyze solutions, which can also translate to business problems.
Students typically take courses in social movements, social problems, families and society, race and ethnic relations, complex organizations, sociology of work and workplaces, and sociology of business. They study how class, status, and power operate in society.
We now live in a global society and, as a business professional, you will be offering products and services to a worldwide market.
To be the most successful, you will conduct business in several different countries. A minor in international business will help you build networks, form partnerships, and expand your business overseas.
Knowledge of at least one foreign language is also necessary. Students pursuing this minor study global business communication, international finance, global strategic issues, and export management. They often study abroad or complete international internships.
Engineering involves the designing, building, and maintenance of structures, machines, systems, and devices.
An engineering minor is valuable to business majors who have an interest in engineering-related topics or who plan to seek employment where interaction with engineers is anticipated.
Students completing this minor will study topics such as engineering concepts, engineering problem-solving, sustainable design and development, energy efficiency, technical writing, and more.
They will demonstrate knowledge in areas in which engineering processes impact society, including energy, manufacturing processes, the design process, ethics, critical thinking, decision-making, and economics.
The music business minor provides a strategic core of courses for students interested in entering the music industry. The curriculum is designed to equip them with the fundamental analytical and creative knowledge and skills necessary for commercial practice in the music industry.
Most music business minors will cover all the fundamental, interrelated, and interdependent segments of the music industry through a methodical study of its foundations, commerce, management, and operations.
Students will typically study intellectual property, product development and placement, the live music industry, the recording industry, and music publishing.
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After reading this article, if you are unsure about your goals, or how to identify
your interests and skills, be sure to reach out to one of our WVU Online admissions
coaches. They are trained to help you look at your individual situation and make
the right choice for your future.
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