Business graduates are some of the most versatile and in-demand people in the job market due to the wide variety of knowledge, skills, and abilities they acquire during their academic journey.
The field of business is popular because it offers people many highly lucrative career options in the short and long run.
Even middle-income countries like Kenya offer a rewarding career to business graduates. This is one of the primary reasons behind so many native Kenyans opting for business degrees and specialization.
The country’s GDP looks promising, with a growth rate of 5.5 percent in 2023. Kenya has an expanding economy with a strategic geographic location, providing opportunities for the population to work in national and international organizations.
With a developing business landscape, business graduates are bound to find opportunities in production, technology, finance, agriculture, and hospitality.
In this blog, we will discuss four career options for business graduates.
So, let’s dive in!
- Finance Manager:
A finance manager is a significant player in any organization’s finance department. They are in charge of preserving and increasing an organization’s financial health. They implement plans and strategies developed by higher management to achieve immediate and long-term organizational objectives.
Earning Potential:
The typical compensation for finance managers in Kenya is KES 286,000 per month, but many factors influence these salaries, including corporate operations, location, and individual credentials.
Nowadays, candidates readily apply for an online mba in Kenya to increase their earning potential and advance their careers.
Qualification:
To progress to executive roles like Chief Financial Officer (CFO), you can look into Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) certifications after a Master’s as well. Remember, these certifications can be challenging.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
A finance manager’s essential duties and responsibilities include:
- Financial data collection, interpretation, and review to predict future financial trends
- Reporting to higher management and stakeholders
- Advising on how the company may be affected by financial decisions
- Making financial reports for budgets, accounts payables, accounts receivables, costs, etc.
- Creating long-term business plans based on financial statements.
- Ensuring sound budget review, supervising expenditures, and managing financial resources
- Building strategies that work to reduce financial risk
- Medical and Health Service Manager:
Medical and health service managers work within the healthcare industry in the administrative division. They work behind the scene in healthcare settings such as hospitals, clinics, and medical centers. They ensure the smooth and efficient running of operations in these settings.
Earning Potential:
The median salary of a medical and health service manager in Kenya is between KES 23,920 and KES 99,546 per month in 2023. It is a relatively good pay rate subjected to bonuses and other benefits.
Qualification:
You can easily pursue entry-level medical and health service management positions with a bachelor’s degree in business. You can increase your likelihood of being hired for this position by pursuing a Master’s in Health Administration (MHA).
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Creating budgets for optimal performance
- Ensuring patients have access to healthcare within the limits of their insurance
- Collaborating with insurance companies for patient care
- Organizing and implementing team meetings
- Supervising billing for medical services
- Creating recruitment and training plans for new employees
- Coordinating case management
- Training new and old staff to obey new policies or laws and information management systems (MIS)
- Researching new data management strategies or systems
- Fostering communication between administration and staff
- Obtaining feedback and performance reviews
- Marketing Manager:
A marketing manager is a liaison between an organization and its target audience. They work with a team of marketers to ensure that the products/services of a company are priced, placed, and promoted in a manner that yields maximum return on investment.
Earning Potential:
The median salary of a marketing manager in Kenya is KES 165,000 per month. Many multinational organizations (MNCs) offer higher wages than this with various benefits. This figure also fluctuates with education, qualification, experience, and scope of operations from one organization to another.
Qualification:
A marketing manager must have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or public relations. They must be creative and have a few years of experience in the field for practical insight and to understand the industry’s workings.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Gathers and analyses data to find new markets and customers, product and service demand, and the effectiveness of existing marketing initiatives and plans.
- Must conduct market research, sales forecasting, and strategic planning to evaluate and ensure product sales and profitability.
- Conducts pricing research and analysis to ensure product and service pricing is competitive.
- Must have comprehensive market knowledge
- Analyses and assesses product development’s financial aspects.
- Participates in the creation of new products.
- Creates, develops, evaluates, and delivers marketing activities, plans, and policies.
- Participates in, collaborates on, and coordinates promotional efforts or trade shows.
- Contracts for services required to carry out a marketing strategy are negotiated.
- Project Manager:
Project managers ensure their project runs smoothly and meets all deadlines and goals. They communicate with higher management, determine project goals, assign roles and tasks to team members, and track progress to ensure success.
Earning Potential:
The median salary for a project manager in Kenya is around KES 280,000 per month (Glassdoor). If you follow their typical career path, you will enjoy reasonable increments, bonuses, and other benefits.
Qualification:
A bachelor’s degree in project management is essential to pursue this career path. However, it is typically the minimum education required.
You should also consider Project Management Institute (PMI) certifications for lucrative career growth.
Key Responsibilities and Duties:
- Ensure all projects are completed on schedule and within the specified scope and budget.
- Lead project start and planning while ensuring technical feasibility.
- Make certain that resources are available and allocated.
- Create a clear plan for monitoring and tracking the project’s development.
- Coordinate with internal and external parties to ensure project success.
- Manage client and stakeholder interactions
- Using appropriate project management tools, assess project performance.
- To mitigate project risks, conduct a risk management analysis.
- When necessary, report to and escalate to top management.
- Create and maintain detailed project documentation.
Bottom Line:
You have a wealth of career options in the corporate world. Hence, you have an open field corresponding to your interests and goals.
The four career possibilities described above have been thoroughly studied and have a favorable job outlook in the following years.
Whether you want to become a finance manager, marketing manager, project manager, or medical and service manager, you will enjoy a rewarding career. Good luck!
