At the foundation of every successful business is the ability to deliver what customers want. More and more, businesses rely on technology and analytics to understand what drives their customer base and what guides consumer behavior. Being able to collect and interpret data is an invaluable set of skills that’s in high demand across the business world. If working in a dynamic field while contributing to the decisions that business leaders make is of interest, you should consider pursuing a business analytics major.
What is Business Analytics?
The power of business analytics lies in its use to predict the actions of consumers and future trends. It is also uniquely useful to the development of efficient processes that increase a business’ revenue. What exactly is business analytics?
Business analytics, at its core, is a field of study designed to examine an organization’s data and performance, in order to make data-driven decisions that will improve the business. It can be broken up into four different kinds of analytics: descriptive analytics, diagnostic analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Descriptive analytics uses historical data to identify trends and patterns. Diagnostics analytics involves data mining and discovering to reveal the cause of events. Predictive analytics uses statistics to predict the likelihood of certain events taking place (this is used most often in marketing and sales). Prescriptive analytics formulates solutions to business problems by using deep learning and complex neural networks. Business analytics professionals use data mining, text mining, data aggregation, data visualization, and forecasting to do their jobs effectively.
Top Advantages of a Business Analytics Major
Working in business analytics can be both challenging and rewarding. But there are many other reasons why pursuing a business analytics degree can be advantageous.
1. You’ll Gain Versatile, In-Demand Skills
As a business analytics major, you’ll take classes such as Computer Concepts, Data Science Basic Inference and Visualization, Operations Management, and Business Forecasting in order to become well-versed in the skills needed to have a successful career. Over the course of your degree program, you will gain in-demand, data-driven decision-making skills. With these skills on your resume, you’ll be able to work in a multitude of environments within the business sector. From business analysts to market research specialists, your business analytics major will prepare you for a wide variety of job titles.
2. The Supply is Lower Than Demand
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the business and financial sectors are expected to grow faster than the national average for all occupations. The employment of financial analysts, for example, is predicted to grow by 5% by 2029. This job requires a bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics. Additionally, the BA Times projected that, in 2020, there were 922,428 job postings for data-driven decision makers and 901,743 positions for functional analysts. However, on average, these job postings stay up for over 53 days. This suggests that though there’s a high demand for these positions, there are not enough business analytics professionals to fill the need. By the time you graduate with your bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics and Intelligence, rest assured there will be plenty of positions open to you.
3. You’ll be Well-Positioned for a High-Paying Career
Due to the highly-skilled nature of this career, as well as the ever growing demand, graduates with a business analytics major can expect to earn a higher than average starting salary. Financial analysts can expect an average annual salary of $83,660. Budget analysts can earn an average of $78,970 per year. Management analysts earn an average of $87,660 per year. All of these lucrative careers require a bachelor’s degree, making a business analytics major a safe (but exciting) bet.
4. You’ll be Prepared to Pursue Graduate Level Education
After completing a bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics and Intelligence, you’ll be primed to enter a career path. However, you will also be well prepared to pursue graduate school, should you want to advance your education further. A Master’s in Analytics degree program can prepare you for a career in a management position within the field of business analytics. Graduates of a master’s program may find a position as an analytics manager, competitive intelligence manager, consulting delivery manager, competitive intelligence manager, project manager, dashboard developer, or business analyst. They may also find work as a freelance business consultant. Though graduate school isn’t for everyone, a bachelor’s degree is a basic requirement should you want to pursue higher education.
Business analytics professionals provide companies with a meaningful service that can determine their future success. There’s a high demand for these skilled workers, making a degree in business analytics a sound investment.
Are you interested in pursuing a business analytics major in Connecticut? Request more information online to learn about the Business Analytics and Intelligence program at University of Bridgeport.