# What can I do with a business degree? Jobs, schemes and pay

**What can I do with a degree in business or management?** A business degree leads to roles such as business analyst, marketing executive, HR officer, management consultant, project manager and accountant, often through a graduate scheme or a professional qualification from CIPD, CIM, CMI, ACCA or CIMA. In the UK's latest survey, fifteen months after graduating, 62.4% of business and management graduates worked full time and 2.9% were in further study.

Published 2026-09-26 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/what-can-i-do-with-a-degree-in-business

A business degree prepares you for work in almost any organisation: analysis, marketing, sales, HR, finance, operations and management, in the private, public and voluntary sectors. Most graduates go straight into work, and many add a professional qualification from CIPD, CIM, CMI, ACCA or CIMA while they work. This guide, published by EdCitation, takes every figure from an official survey and every requirement from the body that sets it, read on 27 September 2026. Nothing here promises a job or a salary.

The degree runs on referenced reports, in Harvard or APA 7. EdCitation's free [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) searches about 300 million published works, and [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) builds each reference from the publisher's record. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's work or application: the report, the CV and the scheme application are entirely yours, which is what an employer wants to read.

## What can you do with a business degree?

You can enter any graduate job that needs commercial judgement, numbers and people skills. Prospects, the UK graduate careers service, lists sixteen jobs directly related to a business management degree, among them business analyst, data analyst, management consultant, project manager, supply chain manager, chartered management accountant and the Civil Service Fast Stream, and fifteen more where it is useful, from marketing executive and HR officer to retail and health service manager (Graduate Futures Institute, 2026).

Prospects adds that many employers accept graduates "with any degree subject". The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2023), which sets the academic standard for UK business and management degrees, names preparation for "a wide range of careers" as one of the degree's purposes. HR and marketing also draw many psychology graduates, whose options are set out in [what can I do with a psychology degree](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/what-can-i-do-with-a-degree-in-psychology).

## What do business and management graduates do after graduating in the UK?

Most are in work fifteen months later, and very few go straight into further study. The figures come from HESA's Graduate Outcomes survey, as analysed in *What do graduates do? 2025/26*, published by Prospects and AGCAS in November 2025. Its business and management figures rest on 8,825 replies from UK first-degree graduates of 2022/23 (Prospects & AGCAS, 2025).

### Where business and management graduates were 15 months on

| Outcome | Share of business and management graduates |
| --- | --- |
| Working full time | 62.4% |
| Working and studying | 10.4% |
| Working part time | 9.7% |
| Other | 8.3% |
| Unemployed, including those due to start work | 6.3% |
| Further study | 2.9% |

### Which business management degree jobs graduates actually held

Of the 6,230 working in the UK, the largest group were business, HR and finance professionals (23.2%), followed by marketing, PR and sales professionals (16.4%), clerical and secretarial work (13.2%), managers (12.2%) and retail, catering and bar work (10.4%). The most common professional jobs, in order, were advertising and marketing associate professional, business sales executive, HR officer, chartered and certified accountant, finance and investment analyst, and management consultant or business analyst (Prospects & AGCAS, 2025).

Of the 1,175 studying, most while working, 39.8% were on a Masters and 38.8% on a professional qualification. Business graduates mostly qualify while they work.

### Prospects' page and the report differ slightly

Prospects' business management page, dated March 2026, gives 72.3% employed, 10.6% working and studying, 2.8% in further study and 7.3% unemployed, with advertising and marketing associate professional (5%) the most common job (Graduate Futures Institute, 2026). Because that page names no graduating year, the table above uses the report; both tell the same broad story.

## Which graduate schemes are open to business graduates, and how competitive are they?

Graduate schemes are structured training programmes, run mostly by large employers, and competition is at a record. Prospects says large employers' schemes "frequently focus on commercial roles" (Graduate Futures Institute, 2026).

The Institute of Student Employers (2025) surveyed 155 of its members, larger employers who between them made over 31,000 student hires from more than 1.8 million applications in 2024 to 2025. Among them:

- **Hiring fell.** Graduate hiring was down 8% on the year, while apprentice hiring rose 8%.
- **Competition held.** Employers received 140 applications per graduate vacancy, the same as the year before; in retail, FMCG and tourism it was 290.
- **Pay held.** The median graduate starting salary reported was £33,000, up 2%.

Writing in the *What do graduates do?* report, the ISE's head of insights notes that many graduates are hired into less structured roles, and that employers forecast a further 7% fall in graduate hiring for 2025/26 (Prospects & AGCAS, 2025). A scheme's median salary is not an offer. The ISE also found that 79% of employers are redesigning or reviewing their recruitment in response to AI, which is one more reason to write your own application.

## What business degree careers are open in the US?

In the US, most business and financial occupations need a bachelor's degree, and the group pays well above the national median. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects faster-than-average employment growth in business and financial occupations from 2025 to 2035, with about 886,600 openings a year, and gives the group's median annual wage in May 2025 as $82,660, against $50,980 for all occupations (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026a).

For named occupations, the May 2025 medians were $101,860 for management analysts, $102,320 for project management specialists, $78,760 for market research analysts and $75,940 for HR specialists (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026b, 2026c, 2026d, 2026e). These describe each job, whoever holds it, not business graduates as such; a median means half of those in the job are paid below it.

## Which jobs with a business degree need further study or a professional qualification?

Most jobs with a business degree need no further degree to start, but many reward a professional qualification taken while you work, and a few prefer a master's.

| Role | Further study or qualification | Where the description comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business analyst, management consultant, project manager (UK) | None to start; listed as directly related to the degree | Prospects |
| Management analyst (US) | A bachelor's, often in business; some employers prefer an MBA; certification not required | BLS, Management analysts |
| Market research analyst (US) | A bachelor's in market research or a related business, communications or social science field; some employers require or prefer a master's | BLS, Market research analysts |
| HR specialist (US) | A bachelor's in HR, business or a related field; certification by exam is available | BLS, Human resources specialists |
| HR officer or people professional (UK) | CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma, typically 12 to 16 months, leading to Associate Membership | CIPD |
| Marketing executive (UK) | CIM Level 4 Certificate; graduates of CIM Accredited Degrees may take one module instead of three | CIM |
| Manager (UK) | Chartered Manager status from CMI: a management degree plus three years managing | CMI |
| Chartered accountant or management accountant | ACCA, ICAEW's ACA, ICAS or CIMA, with about three years of supervised work | [How to become an accountant](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-become-an-accountant) |
| Your reports and dissertation | Harvard or APA 7 throughout | [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) and [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) on EdCitation, free |

### CIPD for HR

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2022) describes its Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management as for HR professionals who want to develop their skills and "drive change" in their organisation. It typically takes 12 to 16 months and leads to Associate Membership (Assoc CIPD).

### CIM for marketing

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (n.d.-b) aims its Level 4 Certificate in Professional and Digital Marketing at early-career roles such as marketing assistant, social media coordinator and sales executive, and asks for a year's marketing experience or a Level 3 qualification first. If your degree came from a CIM Accredited Degree university, exemptions cut the assessments for a CIM qualification from three to one, and you have up to five years after graduating to finish (Chartered Institute of Marketing, n.d.-a).

### CMI for management

The Chartered Management Institute (n.d.) awards Chartered Manager status. Its full assessment route asks for a management, business or leadership degree plus three years in a management role, or five years' management experience; a CMI diploma or a management apprenticeship are the other routes.

### ACCA and CIMA for finance

ACCA (n.d.) can award exemptions from its Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills exams for a relevant degree, but never from the Strategic Professional exams. CIMA's route leads to the Chartered Global Management Accountant designation across three levels, Operational, Management and Strategic, with at least three years of verified practical experience (AICPA & CIMA, n.d.). The full comparison of ACCA, ACA, ICAS, CIMA and the US CPA is in [how to become an accountant](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-become-an-accountant).

## Is a business degree worth it?

By the measures the surveys use, yes for most graduates: high rates of work, a wide choice of jobs and average pay at or a little above the graduate median. It is not a guarantee.

### What the UK survey says about business graduate salary

The *What do graduates do?* report's overview of business and administrative studies, a group covering economics, finance and accountancy, business and management, hospitality and marketing, found average salaries ranging from £26,545 to £36,100 by subject and gender for UK graduates in work, and placed business graduates "at or slightly above the graduate median" (Prospects & AGCAS, 2025). It prints no salary for business and management alone, so we give none. These are survey averages fifteen months on, not an offer.

### What the research adds

Skills are not the whole story. Wilton (2011), surveying the careers of recent UK business and management graduates, found the link between employability and employment "far from straightforward": graduates from groups that are traditionally disadvantaged in the labour market still faced obstacles, whatever employability skills they had built at university. Placements, societies and part-time work all count, not the certificate alone.

## Which skills does a business degree give you?

A business degree gives you people management, problem-solving, research, commercial acumen, numeracy and leadership. The QAA benchmark lists them in paragraph 3.10:

1. **People management.** Communication, team building, motivating others, and equality, diversity and inclusion.
2. **Problem-solving and critical analysis.** Finding the cause of a problem and choosing a sustainable solution.
3. **Research.** Analysing and evaluating data, sources and methods, with strong digital literacy, for evidence-based decisions.
4. **Commercial acumen.** Knowing what drives a business's success and failure, and why customers stay.
5. **Innovation, creativity and enterprise.** Generating and developing ideas, and delivering them.
6. **Numeracy.** Using data to evaluate, estimate and model business problems.
7. **Networking and leadership.** Listening, negotiating, persuading and presenting, and working across organisations.

The seven headings condense the benchmark's own wording (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 2023). An employer will want proof of each: the market analysis in your dissertation, the placement, the society you ran. The [graduate CV guide](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-write-a-cv-for-a-graduate-job) sets out the layout, [how to write a cover letter](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-write-a-cover-letter) matches that evidence to an advert, and [how to prepare for a graduate interview](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/how-to-prepare-for-a-graduate-interview) covers the next stage.

## How can EdCitation help with business reports and your dissertation?

EdCitation is the right tool for the research skill the benchmark puts third: evidence you can trust. It looks every source up in the publisher's record and never writes a reference, so a business report built with it cites only works that exist, which no chatbot can promise.

### Which style will your business course use?

Harvard at the UK school we read, and APA at the US one. The University of Essex Library (2026) states that Harvard is the referencing style for Essex Business School, pointing students to Cite Them Right. Southern Connecticut State University Library (2026) says there is no official style for business sources but that "most Business fields follow APA style". Your module handbook decides. [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) gives APA 7 and Harvard (Cite Them Right) among its six styles; [citing sources in a business report](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/citing-sources-in-a-business-report) covers annual reports and market data.

### A business search, run on 27 September 2026

We searched [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) for "business graduates employability skills", sorted by most cited. It answered from OpenAlex, with a total of 66,646 records. The second result was Wilton's 2011 article in *Work Employment and Society*, cited 224 times. Given its DOI, [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/harvard) found no retraction and returned, in Harvard:

Wilton, N. (2011) ‘Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The case of business and management graduates’, *Work, Employment and Society*, 25(1), pp. 85–100. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017010389244.

### Which tools are free, and which are in Pro

Find sources, Cite a source (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver) and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) are free with no account; Verify references never shows a reference it could not check as not found. [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check), also free, reads an assignment brief into a checklist of word limits, headings, sources and style. [References from a file](https://edcitation.com/tools/references-from-a-file), in Pro at $8 a month, matches every in-text citation to the list. None of these tools writes a sentence: EdCitation finds and formats the evidence, and the analysis, the recommendations and every application stay yours.

## Quick questions

### What jobs can I get with a business degree?

Business analyst, marketing executive, HR officer, management consultant, project manager and accountant are among those Prospects lists. In the UK survey the most common professional job was advertising and marketing associate professional.

### How much do business graduates earn?

In the UK, average salaries across the business subjects ran from £26,545 to £36,100 fifteen months after graduating, a survey average rather than an offer. Larger employers in the ISE survey reported a median graduate starting salary of £33,000.

### Do I need a Masters after a business degree?

Usually not to start. Only 2.9% of UK business and management graduates were in further study alone fifteen months on; most who study do so alongside work, often for a professional qualification.

### Are graduate schemes worth applying for with a business degree?

They are one good route among several. ISE employers received 140 applications per graduate vacancy in 2024 to 2025, and many graduates start in less structured roles instead.

### Can EdCitation write my business report or scheme application?

No. EdCitation finds sources with [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/) and formats each reference with [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite); every word of the report and the application is yours.

## References

- ACCA. (n.d.). *Exemption information for ACCA students*. [https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/student/getting-started/exemptions.html](https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/student/getting-started/exemptions.html)
- AICPA & CIMA. (n.d.). *Your journey to the CGMA qualification*. [https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/landing/cgma-designation](https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/landing/cgma-designation)
- Chartered Institute of Marketing. (n.d.-a). *CIM accredited degree*. [https://www.cim.co.uk/learn-develop/qualifications/cim-accredited-degree/](https://www.cim.co.uk/learn-develop/qualifications/cim-accredited-degree/)
- Chartered Institute of Marketing. (n.d.-b). *Level 4 Certificate in Professional & Digital Marketing*. [https://www.cim.co.uk/learn-develop/qualifications/cim-certificate-in-professional-digital-marketing-level-4/](https://www.cim.co.uk/learn-develop/qualifications/cim-certificate-in-professional-digital-marketing-level-4/)
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2022, December 19). *CIPD Associate Diploma in People Management (Level 5)*. [https://www.cipd.org/uk/learning/qualifications/associate/associate-diploma-in-people-management/](https://www.cipd.org/uk/learning/qualifications/associate/associate-diploma-in-people-management/)
- Chartered Management Institute. (n.d.). *Routes to Chartered Manager*. [https://www.managers.org.uk/membership/chartered-manager/routes-to-chartered-manager-status/](https://www.managers.org.uk/membership/chartered-manager/routes-to-chartered-manager-status/)
- Graduate Futures Institute. (2026, March). *Business management* [What can I do with my degree?]. Prospects. [https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/business-management](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/business-management)
- Institute of Student Employers. (2025, October 15). *Apprenticeships rise as graduate vacancies drop 8%*. [https://ise.org.uk/knowledge/insights/492/apprenticeships_rise_as_graduate_vacancies_drop_8/](https://ise.org.uk/knowledge/insights/492/apprenticeships_rise_as_graduate_vacancies_drop_8/)
- Prospects & AGCAS. (2025, November). *What do graduates do? 2025/26*. Jisc. [https://graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io/graduatemarkettrends/aSRpF2GnmrmGqMHq_what-do-graduates-do-2025-26.pdf](https://graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io/graduatemarkettrends/aSRpF2GnmrmGqMHq_what-do-graduates-do-2025-26.pdf)
- Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. (2023). *Subject Benchmark Statement: Business and management*. [https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/sbs/sbs-business-and-management-23.pdf](https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/sbs/sbs-business-and-management-23.pdf)
- Southern Connecticut State University Library. (2026, June 15). *Business research: Citing your sources*. [https://libguides.southernct.edu/business/citing](https://libguides.southernct.edu/business/citing)
- University of Essex Library. (2026, September 21). *Referencing*. Business, management, accounting, finance. [https://library.essex.ac.uk/c.php?g=668196&p=5246283](https://library.essex.ac.uk/c.php?g=668196&p=5246283)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026a, August 27). *Business and financial occupations*. Occupational Outlook Handbook. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/home.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/home.htm)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026b, August 27). *Human resources specialists*. Occupational Outlook Handbook. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/human-resources-specialists.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/human-resources-specialists.htm)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026c, August 27). *Management analysts*. Occupational Outlook Handbook. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026d, August 27). *Market research analysts*. Occupational Outlook Handbook. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/market-research-analysts.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/market-research-analysts.htm)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026e, August 27). *Project management specialists*. Occupational Outlook Handbook. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/project-management-specialists.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/project-management-specialists.htm)
- Wilton, N. (2011). Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The case of business and management graduates. *Work, Employment and Society*, *25*(1), 85–100. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017010389244](https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017010389244)