- Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.
My name's Nayf, if you're new here, it's nice to meet you.
So in today's video, I'm going to be talking about
if it's worth studying a business degree at university.
So I'm currently a third year business management student
at the University of Warwick.
And specifically, Warwick business school
which is not only a high rank university in the UK,
but also in the world.
So I feel like I'm a pretty credible student
to make this video
and I've experienced quite a lot
throughout the course of my degree.
I've never said this on camera before,
but there has been times
where I've literally wanted to drop out of uni.
Like really badly drop out of uni
'cause I wasn't enjoying my course.
So they way I'm actually going to structure this video
is I'm gonna start off by talking about
why it's worth studying business on paper,
and then after that I'm gonna move on
to a couple pros of studying business in my opinion
and in my own experience.
And then after that,
I'm gonna talk about a couple cons of studying business
which I'm sure a quite a few of you are going to want to hear.
(intro music)
So on paper, studying business is a really broad degree.
There are some math elements,
there are some writing elements,
and not only that, it can be classified as a science
because of the behavioral science element to it.
So you'll come out of uni with a very well-rounded degree
that is not gonna limit any doors.
You can literally apply to almost
any single field you wanna go into.
Only way it'll really limit you
is that you're not specialized in anything in particular.
So for example, if you study a chemistry degree,
you might specialize in some sort of topic within chemistry
and you might get a master's in that field
so that when you graduate
you can go straight into that career path
of being highly qualified.
Whereas in business, you're kinda just a jack of all trades.
You can specialize in finance, marketing, HR, whatever.
Personally, I'm specializing in marketing.
But to be honest, you're still just a jack of all trades.
You're not that specific in anything.
Which is obviously advantageous if you don't know at all
what you wanna do when you graduate.
So when I was applying to uni,
I literally had no idea what I wanted to do after uni,
so I literally went for the broadest degree I could think of
which was business.
I wanted to do a degree
that was not going to limit me so much in the future.
But saying that, just because you have a history degree,
English degree, whatever,
you're not really limiting yourself.
The fact that you have a degree
is still better than not having a degree.
So overall, those are basically the pros
of having a business degree.
The first benefit I've noticed
is that I've got a really broad knowledge
on not just the economy, but also society.
I know a lot about companies,
I know a lot about the kind of people
that work in companies,
I know a lot about how the economy works.
I've just got a really broad knowledge
of everything in society.
Which is really useful
because it means I can hold intellectual conversations
with lots of people all around society.
Not only that, it can be a really valuable asset
when it comes to interviews and assessment centers.
I'm not saying you can't obtain this knowledge
from not doing a business degree
because obviously you can still do widely reading
and that sort of stuff.
But the fact is, it's kind of integrated within my degree,
it kind of a by-product of studying a business degree.
It's just kind of useful.
The second big benefit of studying a business degree
is that it's everywhere.
Everywhere I look around,
even like, I don't know, this candle here on my desk.
Seeing that candle, seeing how it was package,
seeing the production behind it.
I kind of understand the business concept behind it,
the way it's packaged, the way it was marketed,
the way it was even positioned on the shelf in the shop.
All those little things are an aspect of business.
That they positioned the candle at eye level
so when you're walking through the shop, you see it.
Did they position it so you could smell the aroma better?
Did they put it on the bottom shelf.
All those little things are elements
that most people would take for granted.
But I actually look at everything slightly differently now.
So literally, business is absolutely everywhere.
Society runs on businesses.
This can be really good
because it keeps me motivated on my degree.
I'm just seeing inspiration everywhere around me.
And this is obviously extremely useful
if you're into entrepreneurship
and you want to start a business yourself one day.
So another benefit of studying a business degree,
in my opinion,
is that it can be heavily focused on course work
if you want it to be.
So personally, I've picked a lot of modules
that are focused around assignments, writing coursework.
Because I don't like having
too many contact hours in uni.
I'd rather manage my own time
in a way that's flexible for myself.
And the benefits of writing assignments
is that you can literally write them
whenever's best for you.
So currently at the moment,
I only really have to go into uni three days a week.
Which is absolutely nothing if you think about it.
Some of you might actually find that a problem
because you feel like you're not getting your money's worth,
you're not getting value out of seeing your lectures enough.
But for me, I think it's really good
'cause I got way more free time to focus on other stuff,
start my own businesses, focus on YouTube,
just do a bunch of other stuff in my free time.
But if you feel like you're someone
that can't keep yourself productive,
you can't keep yourself motivated
unless you're constantly going into uni,
constantly seeing a lecture,
constantly going to classrooms,
then maybe studying a business degree
that's focused on modules that are based on assignments
probably is not best for you.
Another benefit I could say here
is that business isn't too focused on numbers
and too many theoretical models
that you can't actually apply to the real world.
There are some theoretical models, but most of the time,
you can apply them to the real world.
Whereas if you study something like economics
that is way more maths focused,
there are a lot of theoretical models
that you might find it hard to conceptualize
and you might not actually understand
the purpose of learning these models.
But then again, this really does depend on you.
Some people do like the whole theoretical
kind of academic side of things.
Whereas personally, I'm a very practical guy.
I like to see what I'm learning in action.
I like to actually try out what I'm learning
in action, if that makes sense.
And now, let's move on to the juicy part,
what are some cons of studying a business degree
in my opinion?
So as I mentioned earlier,
I have kind of specialized my degree
towards more marketing and strategy stuff.
Which for me, I find it's a bit of an overkill
studying so many marketing modules.
For example, I've done plain marketing,
I've done marketing communications, marketing strategies,
I've done international marketing,
I've done a module called "Markets, Marketing and Strategy."
I've just done so many modules around this topic
that a lot of the models I'm learning
are just being repeated.
This is good because it can get really easy
where I've just learned the stuff before
and I just know how to smash my assignments on it.
But at the same time,
it can get a little bit boring sometimes
learning the same sort of stuff.
And it's like I'm learning the same sort of models
but I'm learning it from a different perspective.
For example, the strategic perspective,
from the international perspective.
I mean, maybe it's just how I picked my modules,
but I'm just finding it a little bit boring.
And I feel like everything I've learned,
I could have just learned in two years
instead of doing it over the course of a three year degree.
However, if I chose different modules.
For example, if I did finance.
Every bit in finance builds on each other.
So you do finance one, then you do finance two,
and finance three.
It's just all building on each other
so you're always continually learning new models
and just broadening your knowledge on the topic of finance.
So I mean, it really just depends on you
and what you find interesting.
I do not find finance interesting at all.
So the only thing I really found interesting
was marketing and strategy.
So I've just had to pick those modules
and it's just getting to a point now
where it's just a bit easy
and I just know the stuff already.
Which is not bad, it's kind of a good thing.
But then it's kind of bad at the same time
'cause I'm paying money to learn this stuff.
The second con.
And this for me was one of the cons
that actually pissed me off the most, okay?
So, imagine you're studying a business degree
and you one day would want to start a business.
Say one day you decided to start a business
and then you encountered a bunch of paperwork
and a bunch of legality behind the setting up of a business
that you never learned in your business degree.
So I actually ran into this problem last year
when I started a photography business
and I had to set up the business.
I had to contact HMRC, I had all this paperwork
and stuff that I had to do.
Which, funnily enough, my business degree
never ever taught me how to do.
For me, that was really fricking annoying
'cause I've just paid nine grand
over the course of two years
and I haven't learned a single thing on how to do this.
Maybe that's because
I should have studied accounting and finance,
you know, a different kind of business degree
that's focused more on that kind of stuff.
But still, I feel like this is something
that they should be teaching all business students.
So when I encountered that situation,
it was a bit of a pain.
I had to contact my dad's accountant actually
and my dad's accountant had to help me set it all up.
Which was a bit irritating when I should have just known
how to set that kind of basic stuff up myself at least.
And the final con, you've probably heard,
that to go into business or set up a business,
you don't need a business degree.
This is kind of true
because a lot of the world's great entrepreneurs
are actually college dropouts
or they never even went to university or college.
But you can look at it like this,
those guys and girls are great entrepreneurs,
but they also made great mistakes that they've learned from.
Some of these mistakes,
some of the businesses they've set up
have cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds
when they failed.
These businesses may have failed
because they just did not have that business knowledge
that you'd attain from getting a university education.
Maybe, maybe not.
I'm just saying that as an example.
But maybe just because I've got
a university education in business,
I won't make these big mistakes down the line
if I ever do decide to set up a business
like these great entrepreneurs have done.
So I mean, if you look at the learning curve for both,
like you pay nine grand a year for a business degree,
whereas spending hundreds of thousands of pounds
on a business that may fail
and then you learn from that.
I feel like this one's probably the better option.
By the end of the day,
you can still get a university education,
you can still start a business
and still fail and lose all money.
But I guess that all comes
with the risk of entrepreneurship.
Anyways, guys, that is my opinion on the topic.
I do not regret at all studying my business degree
and I've really thoroughly enjoyed my experience
at the University of Warwick studying business.
I hope this video has helped guide some of you
to make the right life decisions for yourself
on this topic.
I'll be back at it again with another university video
later on in the week.
Take it easy, and I'll see you then.
Peace.