College graduates in the United States who majored in business are the least likely of those who majored in the four large major categories — social sciences/education, sciences/engineering, arts and humanities, and business — to express strong enthusiasm in the work they do now, regardless of what career path they may have gone into after graduation.
Less than two in five college graduates with a business-related degree (37%) firmly agree that they are genuinely passionate about they work they do, notably lower than majors in the social sciences/education (47%), sciences/engineering (43%), and arts and humanities (43%).
These discoveries come from a large same of college graduates of all ages, but even among recent graduates — those graduating between 2000 and 2014 — the patterns hold, with business majors slightly trailing all of the majors, though they are statistically tied with arts and humanities.
More commonly, business majors also trail by a substantial margin behind their academic peers in the critical area of purpose well-being.
In contrast to clear majorities of social sciences/education (56%), sciences/engineering (54%), and arts and humanities (53%) majors who are “thriving” in their purpose well-being, fewer than half of those who majored in business (48%) are thriving.
Business is the most common field of study among undergraduates, with roughly a fifth of all college graduates saying they majored in this subject.
However, business majors with postgraduate education are far more likely to be thriving in their purpose well-being (56%) than business majors without such education (46%).
Yet business majors still display a lower level of thriving in their purpose well-being compared to those who studied other subjects after college, counting the social sciences/education (63%), sciences/engineering (63%), and arts and humanities (62%).
Additionally, postgraduate education is predictive of solid interest in a person’s work, everything else being equal — 52% of those in this group strongly agree that they are deep interested in their work, compared with 38% of people who only possess and undergraduate degree.
However, those with postgraduate education, business majors continue to be less likely than other college majors to strongly agree that they are seriously interested in their work.
Furthermore, there is little difference between business majors with postgraduate studies and those without in terms of conveying a strong interest in their work — 43% vs. 36%, respectively.
By comparison, those with pro graduate degrees in other majors are far more likely than their undergraduate-only peers to say they are strongly interested in their work.