Why Choose Economics and What Can You Get Out of It?
Economics is one of the most popular degree courses that is chosen by students, despite it not being widely taught at GCSE level and has a world of potential job opportunities after University.
Nearly every University will provide a degree in either pure economics or at least a degree that contains a portion of economics within the course. The most popular economics courses include economics, econometrics, PPE (politics, philosophy and economics) and many more. Economics courses can either end in a BSc (Bachelor of Science) or BA (Bachelor of Arts). BSc’s tend to be the more prestigious degrees and will contain maths, whereas a BA will contain no mathematical element.
Where can Economics take you?
With the competition for jobs increasingly fierce, it is important that your degree will set you up for a job and give you a wide variety of job prospects. The most common career paths followed by economics graduates include becoming an Accountant, Investment Analyst, Economist or an Investment Banker. However, other less well known jobs include becoming an actuary, quantity surveyor or management consultant.
Investment Banking
One of the most commonly explored routes of both those who do economics degrees and those who do not is Investment Banking. At the forefront of banking, these are the people who try to make money with your savings and with other people’s investment.
It is a fast paced job with young people being expected to work far more than the 9-5 but the financial rewards can often be excellent. Starting salaries can be anywhere from £30000-£50000 and that does not include bonuses; however this does require immense hard work and commitment.
Actuary
An actuary is someone who deals with the financial implications of risk and it is there job to put a price on the insurance that people will have to pay. Somebody who lives in an area where the crime rates are high and people regularly get their cars stolen will have to pay much higher insurance than those who live in quieter areas.
However, there is a Stigma attached to actuaries that they are incredibly boring people who sit in an office all day looking at spreadsheets and doing calculations. This is certainly not true of all actuaries, but you must enjoy the idea of using mathematics to calculate things and working with tables and spreadsheets.
To conclude, it is not the type of economics degree that you do that matters, but where you do it. A degree from a red brick university or especially Oxford and Cambridge will carry far more weight from elsewhere. Other good universities for economics are LSE (London School of Economics, Warwick, UCL and Bristol). Be sure to have a look at their grade requirements and a look around the University if you think you might be interested in applying their.