Æðµã´«Ã½

Career options available to those completing a B.S. or M.S. degree in Economics from Æðµã´«Ã½ are extraordinarily diverse. This results from the wide applicability of the practical skills, knowledge, background, and techniques of empirical analysis one learns when earning their degree. This flexibility of the “human capital” one gains when studying economics can be usefully applied across a variety of occupations and industries. The non-specific flexible aspect of these skills is particularly important for individual career success in a world buffeted by a wide range of unpredictable shocks. Someone with narrow skills may be in very high demand one year, but out of a job the next. Some degrees train students for specific jobs and when these jobs are in high demand those with this specific training do well; but a change in technology, external economic conditions, or government policy can quickly render these narrow skills obsolete or less valuable. Those with training in economics can more readily adapt to changes and adjust by moving between occupations and/or industries. 

An economics degree from Æðµã´«Ã½ effectively prepares students for success in a wide variety of fields, both in the government and private sector. Popular fields of employment include actuary, data analyst, economist, financial analyst, and marketing analyst. The degree also prepares students for graduate study in areas such as business, law, economics, and public policy. Reports from the Wall Street Journal, Payscale.com, and elsewhere show those earning a degree in economics do relatively well in terms of upward mobility and monetary compensation. An economics degree provides the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions and skills desired by employers. One can learn to work with new technology to improve their productivity and effectiveness, rather than be replaced by it. 

The department has recently developed new courses in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis of geospatial data. Moreover, the department has enthusiastically introduced new techniques, technology and software in courses such as Economic Statistics, Forecasting, Econometrics and Game Theory to provide our graduates with current skills demanded by employers in the private sector, government, and academia. 

Cal Poly Economics alumni have secured positions ranging from treasurer of Commercial Bank of California, accountant for KPMG, accountant for UCLA, data analyst for the Cal State System, financial advisor at New York Life, analyst at Amazon, economics professor at Boston University, professor of Sport Management at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, lecturer at Mt. SAC, and Line Producer for shows such as Love is Blind and Beach Bodies. 

For a general view of careers of those with an economics degree see the made by the American Economic Association. 

Also search for information from government agencies such as the .

If one’s primary concern is a highly compensated job, or to make the world a better place, an economics degree can help one do both; to “do well while doing good.”