There’s no better combination for a lucrative career than skills in both business and STEM. Companies with technical product offerings, such as biotechnology, information systems, or consumer-grade technology, need employees who can combine a deep knowledge of their core product with an understanding of how to sell it. Read on to learn about how to double your skillset and the positions where dual-skilled candidates are in the highest demand.
Tech-First: Improve Your Business Skills Efficiently
If you’re already an expert in one or more technical fields, one of the best ways to increase your earning potential and make yourself a candidate for more jobs is to pursue a business degree. Depending on your position, your employer may offer reimbursement or other financial support for an MBA or a related degree if you obtain it while you work.
It can be difficult to balance the demands of both your existing career and a secondary degree, so investigate online business degree options that will allow you to manage both on your own schedule. Ideally, the program shouldn’t take you more than one to three years, so you can start applying what you’ve learned quickly.
Business-First: Choose a Technical Area of Focus
Management and business veterans can advance their own careers with other degree options in areas like medicine, software development, and digital marketing. If you have less-than-fond memories of math and science courses from college, don’t worry! Many of the most in-demand technical fields will ask you to learn more about computer programming and design principles than vector calculus. Here, too, online degrees are a great choice for busy professionals; many of the first digital colleges began with mostly computer-focused courses like web design and information technology.
There are hundreds of options for technically minded business people, so consider what skillset would be best for your current industry or the one to which you intend to transition. If you’re not sure where to start, consider information technology and systems analysis. In the world of modern commerce, no business can function without robust IT systems, and there are career opportunities for this specialty in almost every industry.
Success Stories: Positions for Dual-Skilled Candidates
While systems engineering is one of the most popular choices for people with both business and computer skills, there’s no shortage of other choices if that path doesn’t appeal to you. The burgeoning field of UX design, for instance, demands aesthetic knowledge, marketing abilities, and front-end programming expertise. Data science and analysis are also in high demand, as companies strive to organize their forecasting and decision making around data-driven, empirically supported models, which is propelling massive growth in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Whatever industry is most relevant to your career, there’s a highly-paid position that benefits from the unique perspective someone with both business and technical skills can offer.
In highly technical industries, it can often feel as if C-suite executives and information experts are talking past each other. Innovation is most achievable when everyone in your company can work together, and you can take an active role in making that happen by broadening your own skillset.