A business degree can be a great investment with fantastic future career options. When supported with a solid understanding of economics, in the job market you'll find that you are an attractive candidate to a whole host of different employers. However, if you're thinking about taking a business economics degree, or are just about to graduate, you might wonder what exact career options are open to you. Here are five of the top career paths.

1. Financial Analyst

One of the most obvious career paths for someone with a background in business economics is to work as a financial analyst. Either for internal or external clients, a financial analyst uses data-driven approaches to predict what business or financial decisions will benefit the client in the long run. If you are a person with a broad understanding of both economics and business, you will perform well in this role. Quantitative skills including statistics and modeling expertise are helpful to set you apart from the crowd and to allow you to make more informed recommendations.

Pay for this type of role will vary depending on the context, with small businesses typically paying a more modest salary and large financial institutions paying very high salaries to their top analysts.

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2. Market Research Analyst

Market research is an essential step for a company to grow, investigating the needs and desires of consumers before a product or service is created, and then discovering how customers or users of the product react to it after it has been launched. Typical market research involves putting together questionnaires to be conducted over the phone or online, examining people's preferences, and then analysing this data. It may also involve organising in-person focus groups to collect more in-depth feedback from members of the public and/or potential customers.

With a background in business economics, you'll have both the marketing vision and the data analysis skills to succeed in a market research analyst role.

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3. Business Analyst

If you enjoy both working with quantitative data and analysing complex systems, then you could consider working as a business analyst. This role involves assessing and optimising systems such as the processes and methods used by a company and finding ways to make those systems more efficient or productive. This work involves a lot of strategic planning, so it is suited to someone with a long-term view of the company and an understanding of what challenges it may face in the future. In some cases, the role of a business analyst can be closely linked with the company's IT systems, including interpreting rules and regulations regarding IT and ensuring that IT systems are in compliance with laws such as data protection.

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4. Project Manager

Project managers are responsible for overseeing all aspects of a project and coordinating a team in order to achieve the project goals. This involves tasks such as setting the desired outcome for a project, planning timelines and contingencies, keeping abreast of progress on all areas of the project, and supporting teams who have fallen behind in order to keep the momentum for the entire project.

This kind of work requires an extremely high level of organisation, with the need to keep many balls in the air at the same time. It is suited to someone who focuses on concrete outcomes and who can pull dreamers and visionaries back down to earth in order to actually realise their ideas.

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5. Investment Banker

Investment banking is a high risk, high reward kind of role. It requires a strong tolerance for risk, and an ability to predict future outcomes and to position oneself to be ready for those outcomes. If you thrive in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment then you may find investment banking to be both exciting and rewarding. These jobs tend to be extremely well paid, however, they usually involve very long hours and high levels of stress. Depending on your temperament, you may find the loud, assertive, and quick-reacting environment of most investment banks to be either off-putting or highly invigorating.

With a background in business economics you have the knowledge of theoretical economics and the real-world understanding of business which makes an excellent foundation for a career in finance generally, and investment banking specifically.

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