Have I chosen the wrong degree?

Soldato
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TLDR; I'm 34 and have been suffering from mental illness for the last ten years, looking to get back into education and start a career (although a bit late in life).

I have signed up to do an Open University degree. Initially, I was going to do a computer science degree, but then I decided to do business instead. I'm very interested in both things, but I've always wanted to set up my own company, so I decided to go with that. I feel like I can teach myself the programming stuff, but I'd need advice from a tutor about business things.

I also thought about doing a maths degree but ruled that out as I'm not that good at maths.

What kind of things do you think a business degree will get me along with some programming experience?

There is no point studying something I am not interested in as I wouldn't have the motivation.
 
Soldato
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You want to set up your own business, but don't know what to study? So that means you don't know what business you want to set up..... Might be worth working that out 1st
 
Associate
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Yep, I agree with the poster above - you will benefit from a year or two working in the industry which you intend to set your business in to get some idea what to expect. Your degree should be focused on the industry you're look at to ideally however they are not essential to getting on. Your plan cannot be "to have a business" you need to have an idea in what etc.
 
Soldato
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Agreed, running a business isn't something you particularly need to be taught. Look at tradesmen/ small local cleaning companies etc. They'll be skilled in the service they provide but can still run a successful business employing people etc. They won't have an MBA.

What have you been doing for the last 10-15 years? Presumably even with your mental illness you'll have been working and gaining experience in something.
 
Soldato
OP
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Ah, sorry I wasn't clear in my original post. The business will be some website. I have several ideas for what I want to do, but I also want to get a degree in business to meet like-minded people to see if I could get a small team together. I'll be the programmer, but I'd like to get someone on board who can deal with the sales and marketing, for instance.
 
Caporegime
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I'm not sure a business degree will necessarily help you set up a business, well it might a bit but it's presumably also going to deal with stuff relative to large organisations etc..? It's not going to be purely entrepreneurship/start up focused stuff?

I'd have personally thought the computing stuff would be better to do formally. Maths (or at least applied maths) mostly just requires practice at undergrad - get some Schaum's outlines/solved problems books and bash out the problems.

Can you do a dual business/computer science degree?

Edit - just searched and you can, also looks like half the second year (the business part) is basically an entrepreneurship module and one of the tech streams is web development... that seems to be a good fit given what you've posted.

http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q67-citb

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Also you don't need a degree to meet people - networking events can sort that out for you.

The degree gets you, well, a degree. That means you can apply to grad schemes etc.. (if the business doesn't work out), undergo further study - perhaps an MBA later or a specialist masters. In the case of computer science that subject seems to offer conversion masters degrees, also in the case of specialist MSc degrees you might not have a relevant degree for you can often attend a 1 year grad certificate/diploma course to qualify for them if you're already a graduate.

Have you looked at online courses? There are various MBA type modules etc.. on coursera, there used to be a start up engineering course too. Also see stuff like:

https://blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup
 
Associate
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For a small startup a business degree seems overkill and there are a lot of communities online as well as physical things around.

Where our office is there a small business community with meet-ups and workshops.

If your end goal is web development i would stay on the computer science path
 
Soldato
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I would agree we've been taught to assume that a university degree is a requirement to get anywhere in life but I'm honestly not sure sure they offer value anymore given how much debt it'll put you. Consider whether what you're spending will provide a return on your investment. There's a good business lesson!

Also, if someone was so good at business and passionate about running a company why wouldn't they be doing that themselves rather than lecturing about it full time at a university? Something to consider!
 
Soldato
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Not here
A degree is used to get your foot through the door into an industry because you be applying for job in that field. So why waste money on getting a business degree when you be the one creating your own business? Another thing for you to think about.
 
Soldato
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Also, if someone was so good at business and passionate about running a company why wouldn't they be doing that themselves rather than lecturing about it full time at a university? Something to consider!

I sometimes wonder this.

When i was doing my ACCA, all the teachers are obviously qualified accountants and very good on the accounting side given they're teaching the subject. I always wonder why they'd leave industry to teach.
 
Caporegime
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When i was doing my ACCA, all the teachers are obviously qualified accountants and very good on the accounting side given they're teaching the subject. I always wonder why they'd leave industry to teach.

Because it's not all about being good at accounting. I'm not an accountant but I did some work for the consultancy arm of a firm I used to work for - same sort of principle (ditto to being a lawyer to some extent too)... these are professional services industries that are reliant on generating revenue via billable hours. The most valuable people (to the company) are not necessarily the best auditors (or indeed best techies or best lawyers) etc.. but the people who can bring in business (that requires sales skills too). It's one thing to be efficient, do good work for your clients and rack up the billable hours as an individual - it's quite another to bring in new business for an entire team/department etc...

If someone isn't likely to progress beyond senior auditor/whatever then perhaps the idea of staying in that role for the next 20-30 years isn't so attractive to them.

Also don't underestimate how much some teachers/trainers earn, especially when delivering courses to professionals/paid for by corporates. Some of these people are self employed and if some company is paying a grand or two per person for their course then it can get rather lucrative!

We had an internal training arm at one company I worked for, it employed 2-3 people and they brought in a low seven figure sum in revenue... obvs that mostly goes to the company.
 
Caporegime
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I'll call BS on degrees being played down for entrepreneurs - and certainly the idea that they mostly don't have them... unless you're counting your local shop keepers, hairdressers etc...

Most tech start ups are founded by people with qualifications and industry experience not university drop outs or geniuses without degrees etc... don't mistake the Bill Gates, Zucks etc.. for the norm - anyway they were originally very capable students at a top Ivy League uni who dropped out because their businesses had already become successful.

Obvs if he's got some super cool, disruptive, moonshot idea that achieves some rapid growth initially regardless of funding then VCs/Angels etc.. will perhaps be inclined to throw money at him regardless - but the Zuck/FB types are the exception not the rule.

If he's hoping to set up a small software house, taking on paid projects etc.. or being an independent contractor etc.. then having some credentials/experience would still be useful.

If instead he's going for some high growth start up that requires funding then this might mean leveraging the [non-brand name] undergrad degree to get a [brand name] MSc and in that case better to sack off the soft subject (Business studies) and combine CS with maths - something that will be much more helpful if you're going to get into something serious/deeply technical... I mean that could be like a 5-6 year plan - Computer Science&Maths join honours or similar over 4 years part time then 1 year MSc course somewhere decent (or 2 years part time), then leverage your MSc/dissertation into a start up - people certainly do that at the moment, there are some obvious areas that are hot right now and some serious funding is available (just take a look at the various incubators/seeding programs and the start ups there - you'll find people who've met via university etc..). Not to mention there are academics in Oxbridge/top London unis who are involved in start ups and people at those universities who can help with putting you in contact with the right sort of people.

Also note there are more and more opportunities for flexible study popping up and govt funding (loans to cover fees) available - Oxford offers some flexible/part time MSc program (Software Engineering, Security) and Imperial just launched an online one (ML/Data Science), UC Dublin has one (data science related), various respectable US universities offer them Georgia Tech has a well established one, endorsed by President Obama even! :) etc...

I mean it's kind of a long game and would require a lot of work (don't underestimate this) and would be better if OP started acquiring some relevant work experience now too so he has 3-4 years of experience working in tech while completing the undergrad study) but for a higher chance of success then getting the mentorship and funding etc... via an incubator type program would seem to be a better option than say taking pot shots with say random apps in iPhone/android app stores or trying to get a web based business out there, by yourself, organically.

While technically you don't need a degree (or degrees) it can be incredibly useful to have them (better though if it is from a good brand, comes with some experience etc..) - the routes available to you in terms of getting connections/funding and your credibility can vary quite considerably compared to just going it alone and hoping for organic growth.

If aiming at being self employed/running a small tech business rather than start up then the above doesn't apply so much but at least having a BSc and some work experience in a tech firm or similar would be helpful/give credibility before taking on projects/clients independently.
 
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