Dive in To Resolve the Dilemma to Choose Between Marketing and Finance!

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If you are here reading this post, chances are that you are either in the ultimate dilemma to choose between MBA finance course and MBA marketing course! Well, I know that this is one of the most complicated decisions to make for a budding businessman. But, while I was in college I had faced a similar dilemma, it definitely took me a while to explore both the factions and finally I could decide for myself.

Keep scrolling down and move further to clarify all your queries. I am sure by the end of this post, you will be quite confident about the choice that you’ll make. So, let us begin shall we? Well, first and foremost finance and marketing are two domains of business studies. But there is quite a lot of difference in marketing as well as finance.

Specialisation matters!

Before you decide on to choosing any specific function of the MBA course you must ask these crucial 4 questions to yourself and then decide finally:

  1. What are the subjects in your academic background that have worked quite well in terms of enhancing your academic performance?
  2. What kind of return on investment are you expecting after completing your MBA degree?
  3. What are your key areas of interest while pursuing your MBA course?
  4. If you have a work experience then try to connect it with the job role that was assigned to you and then decide whether you want to go for a finance degree or a marketing one.

Your area of interest could be people management, analytical skills, specific passion for statistics, and focused interest on sales or maybe grievance handling. little in this post you will be able to differentiate what are the skills which are necessary for excelling in finance and the ones which are necessary for marketing faction of the MBA course.

The idea of return on investment must be very clear to you. 10 only after you have a clear idea about the above-mentioned questions will you be able to gorge which particular specialisation course you want to uptake.

Explore it!

The marketing department is solely responsible for generating revenue. Whereas the finance department focuses more on transport increase revenues into different types of activities so that maximum growth of the wealth can be insured. If I tell you about a comparative study for the hard skills that are necessary for studying finance as well as marketing, then you might find it easy to choose between the two, right?

So, the skills which are necessary for marketing include understanding of demand and supply, skills in market research, checking feedback, branding, skills for advertisements as well as promotions, and most importantly focusing on customer needs or wants. But in case of finance, the skills which are important include risk management, critical skills, analytical skills, knowledge of various statistical tools, capital budgeting, expertise in Excel, as well as financial analysis.

Now that you have a rough idea about the skills which are necessary for finance and marketing, it might be a tad bit easier to choose the subject which attracts your interest. Now that you have a good idea about the articles we can shift focus the soft skills with play a major role for studying finance or marketing. Marketing requires soft skills like excellent presentation skills, ability to understand client requirement, communication skills, as well as taking ownership of their activity. Dada and finance acquires the ability to work under pressure and to dedicate extended time period for around 85 hours per week. Apart from these both the fields require excellent writing as well as negotiation skills.

Work life balance

Well both the marketing and finance department require lot of hard work just like any other job. But, seems you will be handling money matters you must be very careful while selecting the course because that is going to reflect your career path. The career path for finance includes professions like accountant, broker, investment banker, tax planner, estate planner, consultant, general Manager, and Chief financial officer.

Not coming to the marketing arena the professions that are more popular and relevant to it include sales associate, customer relationship executive, market research analyst, corporate sales head, product manager, brand manager, digital marketing head, and Chief marketing officer. In case you already have either of the specific career paths in your mind it is going to be crystal clear for you about the course that you want to uptake between finance and marketing. But in case you are still not sure you can always keep exploring the various aspects of both the courses.

The key components about MBA in finance:

  • MBA in finance is quite a popular choice among students who love studying financial management. The curriculum of finance course include various chapters and topics which teach the students about enhancing their skills for managing and distributing funds in a specific business setting.
  • The popular subjects that you will be studying in your finance course are financial risk management, security analysis, portfolio management, corporate finance, security analysis, and most importantly derivatives management.
  • When you update a course in finance you will be able to enhance your knowledge in fields like data analysis, financial accounting as well as financial management as a whole. The main purpose to study finance is to understand the risks and analyse the set of problems to get a clear solution.
  • If you feel that number crunching is your forte and you can critically enhance analytical skills then finance could be the ideal choice for your career.

The key components of MBA in marketing:

  • To start with MBA in marketing is mostly about marketing and sale of products as well as services that the company has to offer. The marketing professionals have to be skilled enough to take decisions regarding advertising communication as well as public relations which will attempt to build the image of the brand as well as promote the product of the company.
  • The key components about MBA in marketing include strategic planning understanding economics financial analysis consumer behaviour marketing and sales as well as business trends.
  • The main agenda of a marketing expert manager critically maximize the revenue of the company that they work in. This can only be insured by putting the best efforts to keep the sales figures always up. Now to be on the top customer satisfaction must be of utmost importance which requires expert marketing of the product and attending to customer needs.

Both the fields in MBA are extremely interesting and I must say that there is no dearth of opportunities in either of the fields. So whatever you choose make sure that you put your mind and heart in the subject only then can you achieve cent percent success. I still remember when I used to go to my college to pursue the MBA degree one of my favourite processes used to say that, “There is no prerequisite for MBA so all you need is a clear and open mind with a brilliant zeal to keep learning.”

Even though marketing and finance might seem like to completely different fields but they are extremely relevant to one another and they can hardly exist without the support of each other in a specific organisation. The marketing function is extremely crucial because without it no revenue can be generated and show the finance department will not be able to source the funds from other resources for its production.

On the other hand if the finance department does not function properly agenda marketing department will not be able to provide any profits to the organisation due to lack of proper distribution. So, one must understand that both the departments are complementary to each other in terms of functioning.

The Outlook:

The finance Outlook always must focus on two main components which are the procurement of funds and utilisation of funds. The former helps in reducing the costs and the latter is for maximizing the returns. Both the components can be short term as well as long term. In terms of short term aspects the company has to think about the current assets and for the long-term they must analyse about investment and how the money can be fixed in various projects which are worth investing.

Marketing is extremely important as a selling process and it is evolved a lot to the advancement in technology. Not to forget that digital marketing has taken the world by storm. The market experts specialise in advertisement by understanding the needs of the customers and catering to their demands. You all must understand that none of the customers like to be bombarded with irrelevant advertisements which might be inappropriate so marketing works as a tool in terms of fulfilling the expectation of the customers and developing a customer centric approach for selling their brand.

Moreover marketing is not only used for generating revenues but it is also a crucial source for best talents. The job role of a marketing expert includes a critical task to convey the message and reach the existing as well as potential customers for generating large scale profits.

Finance: its pros and cons as a career

Each and every career has its own perks! But one must not forget they might also have some disadvantages and limitations. Since this post is all about a career in in finance or marketing, let’s explore those.

Pros of finance career

  1. A student who can be proficient in analytical as well as technical skills like valuation financial modelling, as well as preparing financial reports stands a chance of achieving maximum success in finance.
  2. There is more number of career choices in finance then any other domain in this industry. The career path have already been mentioned before some of which include financial manager, accountant, brand manager, and others.
  3. Given the versatile and numerous career choices for the finance students, the chances of getting the right and appropriate job for them are much higher as compared to other domains.

Cons of finance career

  1. To earn well the students must choose a core finance domain and work on it.
  2. Is the students to general finance and the compensation is not as lucrative as other domains.

Finance requires a lot of hard work which in turn results in excessive work pressure and might be a reason for stress to a lot of budding financial managers.

Marketing: its pros and cons as a career

Pros of a marketing career

  1. The work life balance for marketing managers is quite amazing. Apart from the sales professionals none of them have to work beyond the fixed hours of the company.
  2. Since marketing helps in generating revenues of the company the for the compensation is extremely lucrative and the return on investment is also quite high.

Cons of a marketing career

  1. Technical skills play no role in a marketing career it’s more of a personality-based job. So, it might be quite challenging for the introvert people to present themselves with confidence.
  2. Rejection is major part of this profession.
  3. It is extremely tough to achieve success in a marketing career and often will have to go back and start from scratch.

I hope this post helped you to resolve your dilemma regarding the career path that you need to choose between finance and marketing. You can always exclude the syllabus and get a deeper inside about the key topics that interest you. Don’t stress out because both the courses provide great opportunities for building a successful career!

Keep your zeal to learn active and never back down.

Author bio:

Sid Yog is an extremely professional and talented online tutor who has an MBA degree from the Harvard business School. Sid Yog is a member of the finance unit at Harvard Business School and has taught courses on Real Property Asset Management and Investing in Emerging Markets. His simple language and problem-solving skills handmade are one of the most popular teachers among the students. He always clarifies the concepts of students so that they can achieve success in life. He loves to guide MBA students in their homework as well as for understanding complicated topics as well.

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