In 2011, a New York Times article dubbed business degrees as the “default major,” backed by its soaring popularity in the United States. A case in point: one in every five undergraduate students major in business. Its popularity was attributed to a purely instrumental line of thinking that has seeped into business education.
Put simply, business degrees are a means to an end, this being one or all of three things: an elite network, further credentials, and a big paycheck. Years later, that dream still hasn’t quite matched the reality.
The Problem with Business Schools
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, of the nearly 2 million degrees awarded in 2017, business degrees accounted for close to 400,000, producing the largest body of undergraduate majors in the country. In the same year, a LinkedIn report found that around 50 percent of general business and marketing majors are “more likely to be unemployed or underemployed.”
Suhasini Gadami was among the former. Despite earning two master’s degrees—an MBA in India and a Master’s in Engineering Management in the US—she struggled to secure a job. “When I moved to the US, I found everything very different. The work culture was different, even the way that I had been taught about things in my previous studies.”
“My education had always focused on the same textbook content, year after year. And that didn’t seem to be what was needed in my new home,” she said. “I was struggling to find a job, and interviews I’d done led me to think it was because I didn’t have the skills and approach to work that recruiters were looking for.”
Immediately here, the problem with the traditional business learning model becomes evident, and it’s one that’s been making the rounds for years. That is, despite the prestige that traditional business programs boast, the skills they impart have strayed so far from what the current job market demands.
As Forbes put it, “For the most part, today’s business schools are busy teaching and researching 20th-century management principles and, in effect, leading the parade towards yesterday.”
Yet alongside the declining ROI of business degrees is the rising demand for professional development opportunities. With the virus on the loose, the race toward increasing one’s relevance in the workplace and future-proofing one’s career has become top of mind for most.
Responding to this demand is Udacity.
Introducing Udacity’s Business Nanodegree Programs
It used to be that aspiring business professionals only had two learning products on the menu: an undergraduate degree and an MBA. In recent years, however, the combination of digital disruption, staggering college tuition fees, and a dynamic market has pushed for the emergence of more accessible, affordable, and adaptable learning platforms. One such platform is the edtech company, Udacity.
While most would recognize Udacity for its tech-centered Nanodegree programs, it’s actually a hub for business courses, too. A quick look at its catalog shows you 14 business Nanodegrees, all of which cover the most competitive areas of the business industry. We know that reading about 14 programs in one go is a lot to process, so here are the details on Udacity’s most sought-after business Nanodegree programs.
1. Product Manager
- Estimated Time: Four months
- Cost: You can either pay for four-month access worth $1,116 ($279 per month) or select a pay-as-you-go option at $399 per month.
Why should you enroll? Product managers oversee the overall delivery of competitive products in the market, from the moment they’re built to the moment they get phased out. From one perspective, product managers are CEOs of their own right, working cross-functionally with all teams involved in product development.
Because of their significance, product managers maintain a high standing in the job market. In 2019, LinkedIn listed the Product Manager role as its fifth most promising job. Two years later, the role climbed up ranks after taking Glassdoor’s third spot in their list of the 50 Best Jobs in America for 2021.
Take this beginner-level program if you fit either of the two profiles. One, if you need to learn the foundational skills necessary to assume entry-level product manager roles. Two, if you need to learn the core skills needed for specialized roles like Growth Product Manager, Data Product Manager, AI Product Manager, and more. A bonus: Udacity also offers Nanodegrees for these roles.
2. Digital Marketing
- Estimated Time: Three months
- Cost: You can either pay for three-month access worth $837 ($279 per month) or select a pay-as-you-go option at $399 per month.
Why should you enroll? As companies scramble to adapt to a series of digital whiplash, digital marketing has become increasingly relevant in the market. Just last month, LinkedIn ranked digital marketers as the sixth most coveted professionals across the jobs board, to no one’s surprise.
Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree program teaches the building blocks of the field at a fraction of the time and costs it would take to complete a four-year degree. The program also puts multi-platform fluency and real-world experience at the center of its curriculum. With partnerships and real-world projects with Google, Facebook, and Hubspot, among others, students emerge from the program with a holistic understanding of the field.
3. Business Analytics
- Estimated Time: Three months
- Cost: You can either pay for three-month access worth $837 ($279 per month) or select a pay-as-you-go option at $399 per month.
Why should you enroll? Simply because business analytics remains a powerful tool in today’s market. To demonstrate, Glassdoor listed a career in business analytics as one of the best jobs in the United States in 2021. After all, it’s not a secret to anyone that data is, well, a transformational force in every business, and it’s even made greater by how businesses can use it to increase revenue and efficiency.
Udacity’s Business Analytics Nanodegree program plays a critical role in producing qualified business analysts with the skills necessary to provide value in any organization. Throughout the program, students work on eight projects that include querying a digital music store database and building data dashboards.
Take this beginner-level program if you’re looking to elevate your data skills in your current role. It’s also a great first step if you’re pursuing a career as a data analyst or data scientist, both of which are also taught at Udacity.
While the Nanodegrees above are beginner-level programs, they don’t hold out on depth. Each program advances a project-based curriculum designed to give you the building blocks you need to progress in your chosen field. So, does it work?
Raise the Bar with Udacity
Amid Suhasini’s struggle to find a job in a country she had just moved into, she came across Udacity. From thereon, she enrolled in the school’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree program. “My aim was to combine the marketing experience and education I already had with the practical knowledge of tools and technologies that I could see companies were looking for in job postings,” she said.
“I thought Udacity’s program focused most on those specific tools and technologies, with the added benefit of the projects that would help me build my portfolio.” Her intuition proved her right. Shortly after completing the program, she landed a job as a product marketing manager for Aptiv, a global automotive parts technology company.
“They were really impressed by the projects I’d worked on [at Udacity], and it gave me a lot to talk about. For example, I gained so much from a project I worked on with Facebook and Google ads. It was more than just learning to use tools, it helped me understand how to target the right people with the right message,” she said. But Suhasini’s record went beyond what she accomplished at Udacity.
“When I started, my company was managing to get around 1,500 impressions each month on LinkedIn. In just a few months, we took that to around 100,000 impressions per month,” she said, proving that Udacity’s hands-on training builds skills that can easily be applied in the workplace.
After finishing the Digital Marketing Nanodegree program, Suhasini took on another challenge: Udacity’s Business Analytics program, which she, in turn, used as a stepping stone for the Data Analyst Nanodegree program. And, as if to check Udacity’s top three business programs, she also completed the Product Management Nanodegree.
Suhasini’s growing portfolio of Udacity certifications gives us a simple yet significant takeaway. That is, Udacity offers more than a one-and-done education that’s otherwise seen in the traditional learning model. Because the Nanodegrees take a shorter time to complete at a lower price point, they open the door for students like Suhasini who seek perpetual learning.
At the moment, Suhasini no longer works as a product marketing manager at Aptiv. Instead, she’s been serving as the director for marketing and strategy at HighIQ, a leading provider of Digital Workforce as a Service (DWaaS) and a seeming point of convergence for all the skills she acquired at Udacity.
Time to Get Down to Business
Udacity offers real-world projects and instruction by industry experts that can rival traditional business schools. Going back to where we started, for a significant number of business majors, business degrees present the opportunity to gain one or all of three things: a network, further credentials, and a big paycheck. With Udacity, that can become a reality—with fewer investment risks.
Network? Udacity has a community of technical mentors, alumni, student peers, and partner companies ready to help advance your knowledge and skills. Credentials? Suhasini has four, all of which took a little over a year to complete. A big paycheck? Seventy-three percent of Udacity’s overall graduates who signed up with the intent of advancing their careers reported favorable outcomes. Half of them received around a 33 percent median increase in pay.
If that sounds like a good deal, visit Udacity and explore the Nanodegrees that its School of Business has to offer.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
