Well, print journalism's been fun (kinda) and I've been expanding into online crap, er, integration between print and web, but it's really time for me to move on. Plus, I never did get a degree the first time around, so I'm thinking now would be a good time to take care of that. (Heavy bills are all paid off.) I've been batting around some ideas for the past several months, as far as majors go. I do *not* want to stay in journalism. Hell, I don't even want to stay in graphic design, which is what my original major was in. I want something completely different. Anyway, what does everyone think about economics as a major? Is the market saturated? Is it flexible enough that there's plenty of employment opportunities? Would you say it's better than/equal to/less than a regular business degree? Thanks, y'all. I've already done a bit of research online, but would like to hear some additional thoughts on it.
A common misconception about economics is that it's effectively a business or pre-business major. It isn't - there's a hell of a lot more math involved than most people realize, and a lot of people aren't prepared for that.
Any specific reason why you'd be choosing to study economics? Funny, I'm an econ major and I often wish I had studied journalism and creative writing, because of my love for writing and linguistics. I didn't really use my econ major as a tool to get work, since I started my own business, but I do think the study of economic was helpful in enabling me to think and reason in financial terms, while being broader and more interesting -but perhaps less utilitarian- than getting a BS in Finance. Some of my classmates who studied econ went on to get an MBA, or went into Law, or accounting, or got work in management. None that I stay in touch with became an economist. One scary thing about studying economics is that we realize how little most of our representatives and decision makers -as well as most pundits- know about the subject.
After struggling in third semester calculus and getting an A in introductory microeconomics, I changed my major from Mathematics to Economics and I graduated with an Economics GPA of exactly 3.6. I've forgotten what I've learned but I kept my textbooks. I have no idea if it's a good field to get a job in.
Well, my reasoning isn't the most solid at this point. It pretty much just popped into my head as I was going down the list of majors at my old college. But once I saw they offered economics as a major, it just kind of hit me. I aced my AP macro/micro econ classes in high school, I want a job that will allow me to really and truly think and hopefully be challenged every day. And maybe eventually land me more money than journalism. I also love playing with stats and analyzing data. It just seems like a field/major that would never stop being interesting. There's so much there that fascinates me. How does the math for economics compare to an actual mathematics major? More applied and less theoretical? And I, a former art major, looking to major in economics now. I'm not going to lie. Journalism doesn't pay. I first started working in a newsroom when nearly 11 years ago and I've had a front-row seat for print journalism's demise. I was able to see papers pre-Internet boom, then see it get left behind as blogs and social networks took off. And now that they've taken notice, I don't know if they'll be able to catch up. That being said, writing is easy. Getting paid to do it is hard. Getting paid decent to do it is near impossible. Maybe you can get a job as a economist and make writing a serious hobby?
For reasons I've not fully understood yet, I majored in economics. I have never worked in a job related to my field of study and have only worked as an ad consultant ( in one capacity or another). @ Bonnie, if its playing with stats and analyzing data that interests you, Economics is not a bad option. However, a better option would be getting into Market Research. More of statistical models than applied maths.