The Economy

That's how I feel about my journalism degree.

 

No one put a gun to their heads and told them to do a folk studies program in Kentucky. Next up: People who get ragey about Amish folks in buggies need a boot to the head.

Anthropology major, folk studies minor. I graduated with extensive working knowledge of rootwork, Africanist syncretic cultural survival, and a dozen other things that made me a good candidate for social work and mental health care.

 

People complain about Amish buggies? On the list of traffic nuisances, they're at the very bottom.

 

That's pretty much it, a smattering of this-and-that ... accounting, finance, econ, stats, information systems, operations management, b-law ... with one or two "advanced" courses in a particular specialty. In some of these there's actually some inherent value, but to really get the benefits of exposure to, say, general management, it is way, way, way better to actually have some experience in it. "Channel power," for example ... your generic 20YO business student just can't grasp how important that is. Your 25YO who's been out a while trying to make a go of it ... she/he gets it. Right now, I'm lecturing on "functional silos" ... try as I might, ain't one in a hundred of my students who's gonna get anything from that other than a point to possibly regurgitate on an exam coming soon to a classroom near them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with taking courses in these areas, mind you. But pursuing an actual major comprising these courses ... nah.

 

Allen County, Kentucky has a pretty robust Amish/Beachy Amish/Mennonite community. (The last two are allowed cars and electricity, but they still believe in modest clothing and avoiding secular media.) Very early before eight and between ten and three is when they are more likely to be on the road. They usually stick to state highways and backroads. There's always someone who thinks that roads are their personal shortcuts. Honey, no. It's their place, you're just visiting.

And now back to topic. I have often wondered if people who do JDs and MBAs end up with very compartmentalized knowledge bases.

 

Oh shit. I fear "Channel power" will make as much sense to me as Blockchain.

 

Think of how the shelf space at your local grocer is divvied up between competing brands.

 

I was about to say, I understood most everything thrown my way in B-School and found it useful. But those semesters bookended my 30th birthday, by which point I was trying highly advanced magic spells such as “attending class” and “completing assignments.”

 

JDs don't learn a lot of facts. For the most part, there are no formal concentrations. A student could focus on business law, tax, IP, etc, but there are no requirements and the choice of courses is not reflected in the degree.

It is mostly background and the focus and factual knowledge comes from the job.

 

When I was in college close to 40 years ago in order to be accredited a business major had to take the following:

Intro to Financial Accounting
Intro to Cost Accounting
Intro to Finance
Intro to Marketing
An Intro to Computer Course
Into to Statistics
Business Law
Production Management
Organizational Behavior
Some Kind of Business and Society Course
And a capstone course that was a big picture strategic management course (I forgot the name)

And there will generally be a requirement to take a calculus course ad a micro and macroeconomics course.

Along with this coursework a student must pick a major such as Finance or Marketing.

I don't think much has changed since I went to school though if it has please correct me. And the above curriculum was also basically the first year of my MBA program. I did think an MBA was a waste of time and money because the material was basically the same as in my undergraduate program.

But I found myself using principals I had learned in my business coursework throughout my career. For example, I found myself running an accounting back office for a while. Applying production management principals helped me in that job.

The a student has to take additional area such as marketing, finance or accounting. The accounting requirements can be different because to take the CPA exam you need additional hours.

I was an accounting/finance major as an undergrad and do not think that studying business was a waste of time. I think I learned principals that I applied through out an admittedly undistinguished career. I also went back for an MBA at a top 25 or so program and thought that was a waste of time because it was duplicative.

 

I'd suggest that you were probably an outlier as regards being able to take in and then apply the stuff you were exposed to. In my experience undergrads along the accounting (and perhaps finance) track are much more likely to be like you.

Your experience with the MBA is absolutely not surprising. Mine -- not at any great shakes of a school -- was very good, but that's because it served what you might call the "old school" MBA market ... people who had little to no formal business training but, based on how they'd progressed through the ranks, needed some. Think engineers or scientists, that type. That was who the MBA was originally intended for. Trouble is they're not that big a market, and an MBA program can be a big money-maker.

 

Now we know why the woman in the Peleton ad was crying:

Peloton to pause production of its Bikes, treadmills as demand wanes (cnbc.com)