There are ways to climb up the corporate ladder when you prove yourself, but if you want to advance quickly, you will need to earn an advanced degree. Many times, you can land an entry- or mid-level position in a business climate with an undergraduate degree or a fully stacked resume. As you begin to attain professional skills and stack up years of experience, the company may offer you small promotion after small promotion, but competing for a serious jump in title can be difficult without a master’s degree. The idea of returning to school after you have started your career may not be what you envisioned, but earning your advanced degree in business can vault you to the next level quickly. Here are four advanced programs majoring in business to consider.
The Master in Management (MIM)
If you want to earn your degree quickly and your goal is to pursue a leadership role, a Master in Management is a one-year graduate program that will prepare you for positions in general management. The MIM program is specifically for recent graduates or graduates with very little professional experience who want to learn skills that will help them outperform their co-workers. The curriculum that you will study will cover a broad range of general management topics instead of in-depth knowledge so that you are prepared to look at the big picture instead of specializing in a single technical skill.
Master’s Degree in Organizational Development
If you would like to focus on mastering content in a specific field instead of being a generalist, the Master of Science in Organizational Development will make you an expert at organizational leadership, but the degree can still be adapted to other fields. When you pursue an organizational development master’s, you will study organizational behavior, conflict resolution, negotiations, social change, training, and human resource management. The curriculum can be applied to virtually all industries and will prepare you for upper-level management roles in as little as two years.
Master’s Degree in Operation Management
If you would like to work in production or supply chain management, studying for your Master’s Degree in Operations Management will prepare you to race up the ladder for supervisory and then management positions in operations, production, and supply chain management. When you study for this degree, you will take classes to master subject areas that include services operations, transportation, logistics, pricing, supply chain, and manufacturing.
Master’s Degree in Applied Economics
Corporations are always concerned with economic trends and how they can affect revenues and expenditures. If you would like to work in finance as an economist, you can skip past the entry-level finance positions in private businesses or government agencies by earning your master’s degree. As an applied economics major, you will study the following: corporate finance, microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, modeling, and price theory.
Before you earn any type of advanced business degree, you should research how a master’s degree can help you advance and what the outlook is in the field. After doing this, decide which program will prepare you to master relevant skills needed for the profession and apply.