A degree in a business management-related subject can set you up for a multitude of career paths. Of course, to stand out from competitors, you will have to gain experience in these areas, as well as learning theoretical knowledge. At Salford Business School, we pride ourselves in being able to provide you with both the knowledge and the opportunities to gain this experience through initiatives such as professional placements, internships and business simulations. 

Salford Business School focuses on connecting with industry to ensure we are up to date with the latest industry trends, allowing us to ensure that we are preparing you for the careers of the future. 

Want to find out more about where a degree in business from Salford could take you? Take a look at just a few examples of careers below. 

At Salford, you'll be studying a business degree, specialising in a certain area meaning you could become qualified for all of the careers below, not just the roles listed under your discipline. Want to find out how? Speak to our Employability Team to see if there's extra experience you'll need to apply for a role outside of your specialist area or if your degree already covers the requirements. 

 

Business management

Business advisor

Job description:

Business advisors help established businesses to grow and evolve and provide advice and support to new business start-ups. In your role as a business advisor, you will help clients develop effective business plans and provide advice and guidance on anything from finance and grants to business improvement and more. This is a rounded and adaptable role, where you could be involved in business coaching, running training and development workshops and research.

Key responsibilities: 

  • Evaluating and improving key business strategies including sales, marketing and business plans
  • Preparing business reports/strategies
  • identifying and evaluating new, key opportunities
  • Evaluating customer analysis, target markets and competitor analysis
  • Risk analysis

Average salary:

£29,920 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Excellent customer service skills
  • The ability to lead and project manage effectively 
  • Effective project-solving abilities
  • The ability to develop strong professional relationships in order to gain trust 
  • The ability to multi-task effectively and work to multiple deadlines

 

Data analyst

Job description:

Data Analysts are in high demand across all sectors, from finance, consulting, and pharmaceuticals, to government and education. As a data analyst, you will use your strong mathematical skills and curious nature to spend time cleaning, preparing, and understanding data to present to a range of stakeholders. You will have an eye for detail, be highly organised, understand different forms of data and provide insight and analysis through clear communication.

Key responsibilities: 

  • Developing databases
  • Identifying and evaluating trends from reports and data 
  • Performance analysis
  • Preparing and presenting business analysis reports
  • Identifying and removing corrupted data 

Average salary: 

£35,322 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Analytical skills
  • The ability to produce clear data visualisations
  • Experience in statistical methodologies and data analysis techniques
  • An ability to carry out data quality control

Project manager

Job description:

Project Managers are needed in all sectors of business. Their role is to plan and organise different projects the business takes on. They are responsible for ensuring projects come in on budget, meet deadlines and achieve the objectives set out by the company. Normally, a project manager will delegate responsibilities of the project to team members, ensuring that each team member is working to the best of their ability. 

Key responsibilities: 

  • Identifying project goals, objectives and needs
  • Ensuring projects come in on budget and meet key deadlines
  • Management people, ensuring they deliver quality outputs
  • Communicating and presenting progress to key stakeholders

Average salary:

£48,445 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • The ability to motivate and manage people
  • Effective planning strategies and skills
  • A decisive attitude and the ability to work under pressure
  • Excellent communication and problem-solving skills
  • Effective negotiation skills

Entrepreneur

Job description:

Got a unique business idea? Maybe your future lies in starting your own business! 

An entrepreneur can be defined as someone who sets up and runs their own business. As an entrepreneur, you would have to start from the ground up, from securing investments to developing a business strategy, building a team and running a successful business. 

Key responsibilities

  • Pitch an idea for a unique and viable business
  • Secure funding in order to set the business up and run it effectively
  • Has the final say on all business-related decisions
  • Employ an effective team which will help deliver your objectives and goals
  • Develop strategies to help keep the company viable and achieve a profit

Average salary: 

This will vary greatly, depending on the nature of the business and how successful this business becomes. However, the average salary for an Entrepreneur in the UK is £47,245  (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • A creative and analytical mind
  • A unique and viable business idea
  • Excellent managerial and communication skills
  • The ability to present and pitch
  • The ability to manage stakeholders and sell your vision
  • Attention to detail
  • The confidence to take risks 

Business with human resource management

Graduate recruitment advisor

Job description: 

Recruitment advisors support a range of clients and candidates, building relationships either in a general market sector or a specific industry. As a graduate recruitment advisor, you will develop a network of contacts and manage relationships with senior stakeholders across a portfolio. By providing sales and support services, you will source candidates for a variety of roles, collaborating closely with clients to help them meet their staffing requirements.

Key responsibilities:

  • Helping candidates prepare for interviews
  • Finding and researching roles 
  • Screening candidates for roles
  • Negotiating contracts
  • Arranging and scheduling interviews

Average salary: 

£41,981 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Effective negotiation skills
  • An excellent communication style and teamwork skills
  • Excellent analytical and interpretive skills
  • Good record-keeping, time management and multitasking skills
  • An ability to exemplify honesty, integrity, independence, and approachability

HR advisor

Job description:

HR Advisors provide advice on a range of HR processes, procedures, and employment law, as part of the HR lifecycle. In this role, you will act as a key asset, ensuring the organisation achieves its aims and objectives by supporting both the business and its employees. You may be a generalist or work to become a specialist in a chosen field, such as recruitment, pay or diversity.

Key responsibilities:

  • Analysing a company’s practices and operations in relation to the workforce
  • Implementing and monitoring employee policies 
  • Advising managers on policies relating to the staff they manage
  • Helping to coordinate the recruitment and enrollment process of new starters
  • Advise on government legislation relating to employment policies

Average salary:

£34,584 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Excellent communication skills
  • Good knowledge of current legislation 
  • An ability to work in a team and as an individual
  • A professional and proactive nature 
  • Attention to detail

Training and development officer

Job description:

A Training and Development Officer is responsible for ensuring a company's staff are equipped with the training, skills and qualifications needed for them to excel in their role. In this role, you could be asked to source or provide training seminars and discuss with employees about areas they wish to develop. 

Key responsibilities:

  • Sourcing or providing training opportunities
  • Monitoring and reviewing the progress of employees within their roles
  • Discussing with employees about how they wish to progress their careers
  • Devising development plans 
  • Developing induction processes for new employees

Average salary:

£31,430 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Good time-keeping skills
  • A creative mind, able to design training courses
  • The ability to understand staff members' needs
  • A friendly and approachable demeanour 
  • Strong analytical skills, able to determine what each staff member requires within their training. 

 

Business management with marketing

Marketing manager

Job description:

Marketing Managers are responsible for planning and developing strategies and tactics to boost the company’s reputation and drive traffic. Whether you are a generalist or prefer to focus on a targeted sector, as a Marketing Manager you’ll help the business build and maintain a strong and consistent brand through a range of online and offline channels. You will be responsible for tracking and analysing advertising and branding campaigns, experimenting with content, and producing valuable and engaging content to attract the target audience.

Key responsibilities:

  • Developing strategies to reach, inform and sell to the company's target audience
  • Delivering marketing strategies from concept to completion
  • Creation of engaging content that appeals to the target audience
  • Competitor analysis 
  • Building relationships with key stakeholders 
  • Analysing marketing trends

Average salary:

£49,898 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • A creative, yet analytical mind
  • Excellent problem-solving skills
  • Extensive knowledge of marketing trends and strategies
  • Thorough attention to detail
  • A good knowledge of computer software such as design and organisational tools
  • Knowledge of social media platforms and tools, with a willingness to keep up with trends

Business development manager

Job description:

Business Development Managers are responsible for identifying new business opportunities to generate revenue, improve profitability and help the business grow. Business development can be applied to most types of business, and the exact objective of your role will depend on the industry sector and nature of your company. Your work is likely to involve careful strategic planning to position the business in appropriate markets or enhance operations of the business, and you will need excellent interpersonal skills to establish and develop relationships with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Key responsibilities:

  • Researching new opportunities and strategies to help develop the organisation
  • Planning new marketing strategies
  • Developing new sales strategies, helping to progress the organisation's growth
  • Develop professional relationships with key stakeholders

Average salary: 

£44,107 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • An excellent communicator with strong negotiation skills
  • Analysis skills with the ability to hit targets and track KPIs.
  • Thorough with excellent attention to detail
  • Professional and articulate
  • Able to influence and communicate to a range of stakeholders.

PPC/SEO specialist

Job description:

Roles specialising in SEO are responsible for ensuring the company's target audience can find and will click on their website through targetted key words and knowledge of search engines. PPC specialist main duties include setting up, running and evaluating digital campaigns to specific websites/landing pages. Sometimes a role will include both specialities however, in larger companies, these roles may be separate. 

Key responsibilities:

  • Writing engaging copy for websites, incorporating targeted key words
  • Checking search terms, ranking and analytics
  • Running and evaluating PPC and social media campaigns
  • Monitoring website performance and analytics in terms of loading time, time on page and user journey
  • Monitoring search engines algorithms, staying up to date with changes and trends

Average salary: 

 £32,565 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • A strong analytical mind
  • Critical thinking abilities
  • A strong background in copywriting 
  • Practical data analysis experience
  • Experience in using digital platforms such as Google Analytics and key word tools

Business with supply chain and project management

Humanitarian supply chain specialist

Job description:

Humanitarian Supply Chain Specialists oversee the coordinated delivery of humanitarian aid and shelter by assessing routes, local procurement requirements and more. As a specialist in this area, you will undertake a variety of tasks and deliver projects right across the supply chain from international and local scoping, tactical planning and strategic inventory management to negotiation, procurement, and project preparedness

Key responsibilities:

  • Organise delivery of aid and shelter 
  • Project management
  • Setting up office and staff accommodation
  • Provide oversight and direction to inventory and warehouse management

Average salary: 

£35,601 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • Strong knowledge of distribution practices
  • Excellent leadership skills
  • Negotiation skills
  • Knowledge of management tools
  • A strong desire to help people in need

Retail category manager

Job description:

Retail Category Managers are in-store and online experts in the visual merchandising, pricing, management, and sales of a specified group of products. As a Retail Category Manager, you will be key to driving pricing, product display, marketing, and promotions of certain products to make them highly visible, accessible, and appealing to customers. You will contribute to the profitability of a company by increasing the volume of products and improving the speed of inventory turnover in the category.

Key responsibilities:

  • Deciding and evaluating product pricing
  • Approving the display of products
  • Inventory control
  • Approving promotions
  • Competitor analysis

Average salary:

£51,439 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

What you'll need:

  • A solid ability to analyse data
  • Communication and people skills
  • Excellent attention to detail
  • Negotiation skills
  • Experience in management

 

Business change manager

Job description:

A Business Change Manager is responsible for leading new ways of working within a business. As a Business Change Manager, you will be researching new strategies to grow the organisation that align with the overall business strategy, deciding on which approach to take forward, implementing the change and evaluating the progress. 

Average salary:

£55,345 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

Key responsibilities:

  • Researching new strategies and ways of working which align with the company's goals
  • Leading the transition process
  • Managing the team that has been put in place to deliver the new strategies
  • Analysing whether benefits from new strategies are achievable
  • Evaluating the outcomes of any changes implemented

What you'll need:

  • Robust knowledge of business in general and the industry operating in
  • Strong project management skills
  • Excellent communication skills
  • An analytical mind
  • Good research skills

Business management with innovation and technology

Junior web developer

Job description:

A Junior Web Developer works with a team of developers to create new websites and applications, involved with anything from brainstorming to final testing. As a junior web developer, you will specialise in web and app development, working with design, project and account management teams to help deliver successful solutions for clients. You will work with multiple server/ hosting providers to offer the best experience and value to customers.

Key responsibilities:

  • Create websites and landing pages using standard HTML/CSS practices
  • Responsible for maintaining and updating the website
  • Troubleshooting issues users experience
  • Work with web designers to build the visual and aesthetic of the website the company is wishing to create
  • Keep up to date with trends and technology in order to constantly improve and update the website

Average salary:

£25,711 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

    What you'll need:

    • Understanding of front and back-end web development 
    • A creative, yet analytical mind
    • Confident in using code
    • SEO skills
    • An ability to work in a fast-paced environment
    • An ability to work independently or as part of a team

    Technology consultant

    Job description:

    As a Technology Consultant, you will bring specific expertise to the design, instruction or operations of technical solutions. You will use technical, business analytical knowledge to solve clients’ problems and help them minimise disruption and maximise impact with human-led, tech-powered transformation. You will engage in software testing, troubleshooting issues and developing innovative solutions that will drive growth.

    Key responsibilities:

    • Understanding the company's goals and finding IT solutions that will help achieve these objectives
    • Analysis of potential issues and suggesting IT solutions
    • Install and test new IT software 
    • Analyse how the new systems are working and fix any bugs
    • Evaluation of how the systems are working and whether they can be improved
    • Keeping up to date with new technology and how it can be used

    Average salary:

    £43,211 (source: Glassdoor, 2023)

    What you'll need:

    • Experience using code and complex software
    • A logical mind, proficent problem solving
    • Good communication skills
    • Sound knowledge of business and industry
    • Excellent time management and organisational skills