Exactly how useful is a single commerce degree? (1 Viewer)

Dosu

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
58
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
It's such a popular course nowadays, and there's quite a few money hungry people from my school doing commerce who think their degree will make them "heaps rich bro". I am aware there is a commerce forum but I would likely receive a lot of bias from there. I don't mean any offense to commerce students by posting this, but isn't commerce on its own not that useful? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to do combined law/commerce?
 
Last edited:

La Bomba

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
272
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
It's such a popular course nowadays, and there's quite a few money hungry people from my school doing commerce who think their degree will make them "heaps rich bro". I am aware there is a commerce forum but I would likely receive a lot of bias from there. I don't mean any offense to commerce students by posting this, but isn't commerce on its own not that useful? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to do combined law/commerce?

there is noot many commerce jobs going around at the present due to the recession.
 

Absolutezero

real human bean
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
15,082
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
It depends what you want to do with it. If you want to go straight into big money then a straight commerce degree is not the way to go. Unless however, you maintain at least at D average to keep you above the competition. Honours or a double are a great way to get ahead as well.

However, if you just want to go into the commerce sector, and earn an average wage, then a commerce degree is fine.

In the end though, it's not what you do, but what you do with it.
 

witide

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
439
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
there is noot many commerce jobs going around at the present due to the recession.
Are you sure? I know quite a few commerce graduates who have had no trouble getting a good job.
 

rx34

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2009
Messages
541
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
A single commerce degree is very useful because you can do a double major-accounting/finance, accounting/management. As long as you do the mandatory CPA/CA accounting subjects, when you graduate you can train to get your CPA/CA. All degrees can give you a certain amount of wealth, but even if you do commerce, the graduate pay for accountants isn't that fantastic, about 45k-50k. In contrast, the graduate pay for dentistry is extremely high- I think it's mid $60k. So for the superficial 'bros' who want to get rich, dentistry is definitely a better option than commerce. (provided they can get in)

Not everyone who does a commerce degree wants to do a double degree, why waste two years of extra fees when you can graduate at 21 y.os? Commerce is useful depending on what major you do, if you do accounting and get mediocre marks, that is still acceptable. But if you do management and get crappy marks, then commerce is not as useful.

Doing law without a minimum amount of passion is really hard because you would not be motivated to study hard as the years pass. Also, not everyone can get into law (unless you go to the lower ATAR universities), so doing commerce with law should not be a do or die attitude.
 

Absolutezero

real human bean
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
15,082
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Commerce is useful depending on what major you do, if you do accounting and get mediocre marks, that is still acceptable. But if you do management and get crappy marks, then commerce is not as useful.
Agreed. This definitely seems to be the case nowadays.
 

RDX

one8seven
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
1,092
Location
Melbourne
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Uni Grad
2011
Doing law without a minimum amount of passion is really hard because you would not be motivated to study hard as the years pass. Also, not everyone can get into law (unless you go to the lower ATAR universities), so doing commerce with law should not be a do or die attitude.
Yeah a lot of people at my uni do Com/Law and have a fair few fails in their law component.
 

Dr_Fresh

U MAD??
Joined
Sep 30, 2008
Messages
1,524
Location
Adrenal Cortex
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
McDonald's and KFC don't relate to a job in the Commerce field. He's talking about jobs related to the degree.
y do ppl always suddenly assume that working at MacDonalds/KFC equates to 8 bucks an hour flippin burgers with bad acne or working at the counters. u could be working at their headquarters in marketing/accounting/finance etc.
 

Absolutezero

real human bean
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
15,082
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
FreshOffTheBoat said:
y do ppl always suddenly assume that working at MacDonalds/KFC equates to 8 bucks an hour flippin burgers with bad acne or working at the counters. u could be working at their headquarters in marketing/accounting/finance etc.
You made the assumption yourself:

FreshOffTheBoat said:
MacDonalds and KFC don't count.
:)
 

Dr_Fresh

U MAD??
Joined
Sep 30, 2008
Messages
1,524
Location
Adrenal Cortex
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
@runnable: haha, i can see u being a very picky/difficult patient i which case, i wouldnt treat u as a patient
 
Last edited:

Trebla

Administrator
Administrator
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
8,220
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
If you want to be rich then become a doctor. They tend to get better starting salaries than anyone else simply because they are super high in demand. However, you have to be really passionate about medicine and saving lives rather than just care about the cash, considering the rounds of interviews and examinations to get the degree in the first place and then study for a very long time before becoming a qualified doctor. This is probably what drives money hungry people to commerce rather than medicine lol thank god somewhat for that. I wouldn't want to entrust my health to a doctor who is nothing but greedy lol

In my opinion, commerce is the most overrated degree ever. At least half my peers are doing commerce degrees and for the majority it's the same attitude with the "I wanna be rich" thing. Unfortunately, many people I know who have interests in other areas (and not commerce) decide to do commerce only because of this "rich" stereotype when they should at least be doing combined commerce degrees.

If you intend to do a commerce degree only, you have to do WELL in it to stand out from the millions who've done the same degree...and lets face it, the finance/accounting industry for example is too crowded and competitive these days plus they are NOT in high demand compared to other fields like education or medicine.
So really only the cream of the crop manage to get into those big firms with a good starting salary and can work their way up the corporate ladder from there. The rest generally end up doing mediocre jobs for a longer period of time and find it much harder to climb the corporate ladder unless they successfully start their own business or something of the like; either way getting rich becomes much more difficult.

Combined degrees are more common these days and the reason for that is that you acquire more diverse skills in different areas making you more desirable for employment. It also makes you stand out a bit from the pile of commerce only people. Furthermore, it allows you to explore any passion that is NOT in commerce.

So basically, if you're really into commerce and always do well in it with a passion then go for the single degree. However, if you have other areas of interests such as science, engineering, arts or law but still want to do commerce (but you're not that passionate about it) then you're better off doing a double degree.
 

bio_nut

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2009
Messages
874
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
@runnable: haha, i can see u being a very picky/difficult patient i which case, i wouldnt treat u as a patient
Unfortunately you get difficult patients as a doctor, and you don't get to choose whether to treat them. Maybe if you become a specialist or something you can become more picky, but you have years and years of difficult, stupid and stubborn patients ahead of you. :)
 

Dr_Fresh

U MAD??
Joined
Sep 30, 2008
Messages
1,524
Location
Adrenal Cortex
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Unfortunately you get difficult patients as a doctor, and you don't get to choose whether to treat them. Maybe if you become a specialist or something you can become more picky, but you have years and years of difficult, stupid and stubborn patients ahead of you. :)
It sux. Practicing medicine is pretty sucky nowadays and will only continue to get worse. Srsly, the patients act as if they are shopping in Westfield when it comes to doctors. They are no longer happy about being just treated/cured, instead they also want some1 nice/warm/friendly to talk to and a life coach. Doctors doing their jobs is no longer sufficient. Sighs
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top