10 MBA Career Paths You Could Pursue

By Steve Smith

The information presented here is true and accurate as of the date of publication. DeVry’s programmatic offerings and their accreditations are subject to change. Please refer to the current academic catalog for details.

March 27, 2024

8 min read

If you’re thinking about preparing to pursue new career opportunities, to move into a new industry, pursue management-level roles in your existing field or change careers altogether, you might be thinking about how earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree can help you take the first step toward your career advancement goals. This graduate-level degree may help open up new MBA career paths and represent a life-changing milestone in any business professional’s journey.

Of all the reasons to pursue an MBA degree, perhaps the most practical one is that an MBA might help you meet employers’ requirements for a broad array of management-level business administration roles. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at 10 MBA career paths, summarizing each one and providing a corresponding MBA specialization here at DeVry.

The Difference Between a Master’s and an MBA

What’s the difference between an MBA and a master’s in a specific field? They’re both graduate level degrees, but there are typically variations in the structure, scope and focus of topics and program length. The simplest way to explain where they differ is that in an MBA degree program, students will usually study a broad range of topics related to business management as well as any additional program focus, where students in a specialized master’s degree program will focus predominantly on one specific area of business. Think about your professional goals and choose the route that you find is the best fit for you.

1. Product Manager

First on our list of MBA career paths is product manager. Product managers are typically responsible for the end-to-end management of a product’s lifecycle, from the initial research to determine its usefulness and appeal to consumers, to the development of new markets to sell the product into. Regular product manager’s responsibilities include:

Overseeing product design and manufacturing based on consumer research and market conditions.
Comparing the product to competitors’ and examining market conditions to identify trends that may affect the product’s performance.
Defining the product’s marketing communication objectives, which may entail various advertising and promotional tactics.
Reviewing inventory levels and production schedules to maintain the availability of the product across various distribution channels.

Product managers may have a marketing-related degree but may also have a more industry-specific degree, such as engineering, agriculture or technology. DeVry and our Keller Graduate School of Management offers an MBA program with a Specialization in Marketing that can help you develop skills in market segmentation, channel distribution and advertising that are useful skills for product managers to have.

2. Project Manager

If you have strong organizational, communication and leadership skills, you may want to consider project management as an MBA career path. Project managers have significant responsibilities when it comes to watching over the successful completion of projects.

Project managers, as you might be able to guess, are responsible for every stage of a project as well as stewardship of the project budget and timeline. Other common responsibilities include:

Defining the scope of the project, and providing documentation to inform stakeholders and project team members of the scope.
Preparing and adhering to the project budget.
Performing regular assessments to measure progress, identify problem areas and propose solutions.
Acquiring and managing project resources, which may include internal and external team members, and creating and managing contracts with external vendors and suppliers to ensure timely delivery.
Managing interdepartmental coordination to assure smooth progress.
Communicating with various internal and external stakeholders to inform them of progress and manage their expectations.

At DeVry and Keller, we offer an online MBA program with a Specialization in Project Management that can help you acquire the risk management, corporate team building, business analysis and professional communication competencies required for effective project management in the global business environment. DeVry's MBA with a specialization in Project Management is accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC). As a PMI authorized Training Partner, DeVry is approved to provide PMP® and other certification exam prep courses. Students enrolled in select classes receive a complimentary Project Management Institute (PMI) student membership as well as the opportunity to attend the International Project Management Day virtual conference at no cost to them.

PMP is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

3. Human Resources Manager

A management-level position in human resources can enable you to help growing organizations build their corporate culture, remain compliant with regulations governing employee-employer relations, administer employee benefits programs and initiate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

A partial list of the human resource manager’s duties includes:

Working with senior management to be sure strategic HR goals align with business initiatives.
Developing training materials that help employees understand their responsibilities.
Managing the staffing process, which typically includes recruiting, interviewing, hiring and onboarding new talent.
Ensuring that all company HR policies are applied consistently across departments of the organization.
Conducting employee performance and salary reviews.
Designing and executing employee retention strategies.

DeVry and Keller can help you as you prepare to pursue management-level positions in human resources with our online MBA program with a Specialization in Human Resources. This MBA specialization aligns with the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) HR Curriculum Guidebook and Templates and can help you develop an understanding of management theory and practices, employment law, strategic HR management, performance measurement and other essentials of the development of an organization’s people and culture.

4. Financial Analyst

Financial analysts typically work at banks, consulting firms and corporations to provide guidance for investment strategies that help organizations maintain overall growth and financial stability. Their role is to help guide a company through economic waters that can be sometimes choppy, organizing data and producing reports that help to make sense of it all.

The financial analyst’s regular duties include:

Analyzing economic conditions, stock market performance and other variables to advise company leadership in financial decision-making.
Gathering data about other companies to determine trends and industry standards as they emerge.
Producing reports using key metrics such as yearly growth, return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share, and submitting those reports to senior leadership.

Financial analysts typically have some experience in finance or investment banking prior to entering the occupation, but a master’s degree can sometimes substitute for experience requirements.

At DeVry and Keller, you can advance your ambition with our online MBA program with a Specialization in Finance. This MBA program offers real-world experience in topics like securities analysis, mergers and acquisitions, advanced financial statement analysis and more, to help you gain an understanding of today’s complex domestic and international financial markets.

5. Information Technology Manager

An information technology (IT) manager is responsible for the supervision, implementation and maintenance of an organization’s computer needs. These responsibilities may include:

Managing IT staff, which may involve recruiting and training, monitoring performance and providing on-the-job guidance to employees.
Testing, troubleshooting and modifying information systems.
Monitoring the daily operations of hardware, software and operating systems that make up an organization’s IT infrastructure.
Managing and overseeing the annual budget for the IT department and ensuring the cost-effectiveness of department policies and activities.
Purchasing new and replacement hardware and software, and coordinating the installation, upgrades and maintenance of various technologies.

You may consider pursuing leadership or managerial positions in information technology when you expand your technical management skills with an online MBA program with a Specialization in Information Systems Management from DeVry and Keller. Coursework in this online MBA specialization explores topics such as upgrading information systems, maintaining networks, acquiring and deploying new technologies and more.

6. Medical and Health Services Manager

Working in various healthcare settings such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, medical group practices and skilled nursing facilities, medical and health services managers perform the following regular duties:

Coordinating medical care and services in a facility.
Staying up to date with healthcare laws and regulations.
Managing medical staff and communicating within departments.
Maintaining organizational or departmental budgets.
Implementing policies.

If your goal is to advance along your current career path in health services or target this occupation as a new direction, you might prepare to pursue this role with our online MBA program with a Specialization in Health Services. Build your skills in healthcare management while you explore the high-level issues facing today’s healthcare economic and public policy landscape. Experienced faculty offer guidance through real-world examples as you build your skills and develop an understanding of legal and ethical issues in healthcare, health insurance trends, fundamentals of risk management and more.

7. Accountant

Accountants perform a range of services depending on their education, work environment and the type of certifications they’ve earned. They may work on staff at a large corporation or public accounting firm, in their own private practice or in a corporate environment. The most common accounting designations are the Certified Public Accountant (CPA), the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA). An accountant’s regular duties may include:

Reviewing financial statements, documents and reports to ensure their accuracy.
Preparing tax returns and helping clients take advantage of any available tax deductions allowed under state and federal tax laws.
Providing risk analyses and forecasting.
When specializing in auditing, an accountant may perform internal or external audits of financial records, or forensic accounting to uncover evidence of fraud or embezzlement, or as part of a criminal investigation.

Depending on your professional goals and desired MBA career path, an MBA program with a Specialization in Accounting can help you prepare to pursue management-level opportunities in financial or managerial accounting, auditing or public accounting.

8. Business Intelligence Analyst

Typically working as part of a business intelligence (BI) team at a corporation, business intelligence analysts work closely with IT departments and business development leaders to improve business operations. They use the latest data mining and visualization software and techniques to gather the intelligence to make well-informed decisions in areas like employee productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, sales and workplace culture. Regular responsibilities of a BI analyst include:

Identifying areas where an organization’s operations can be streamlined, or made more efficient or profitable, and developing reports on the improvement of business processes.
Collaborating with team members to collect data and carry out an organization’s goals.
Developing and managing business intelligence solutions.

While training and education requirements will vary by employer, a master’s level degree in business analytics may help you stand out to potential employers as a candidate for this role. At DeVry and Keller, our online MBA program with a Specialization in Business Intelligence and Analytics Management can help you develop your business management skills while teaching you to effectively evaluate and use the analytical tools of today’s data-driven business environment. Experienced faculty in this MBA program will help you gain real-world experience and develop the strong leadership skills that are necessary in the business analytics space.

9. Supply Chain Manager

Professionals who work in the supply chain ecosystem connect manufacturers, distributors, and everyone else along a product’s journey to your home. Supply chain managers oversee the import or export of a product and utilize technology to track them or the raw materials that make them. Supply chain managers need to be able to see the big picture and communicate effectively with teams and stakeholders along the way, using their skills to help companies streamline their processes and increase efficiency.

In their day-to-day work, supply chain managers may:

Coordinate with vendors, procurement teams, or buyers to secure the materials they need for a product.
Analyze where costs can be reduced according to a budget.
Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers or partners.
Keep updated on current technologies being used in the field and the best ways to leverage them.

Students in our online MBA program with a Specialization in Global Supply Chain Management can explore how they can learn these skills and apply them on a large scale. The curriculum for this MBA specialization will cover a broad range of topics like strategic procurement, risk management, operations management processes, problem solving, and interpersonal skills like collaboration to help you to gain a practical foundation with an emphasis on managing global relationships.

10. Business Manager

Business managers are integral parts of a company, big or small. These professionals work closely with employees to track projects, refine daily operations, coordinate between departments, or work on operational strategy. A business manager may also work in a particular area, like sales, accounting, or marketing.

There is a broad range of skills business managers should work to develop that they will need in their daily responsibilities, including but not limited to:

Leadership
Negotiation
Communication
Time management
Team building
Attention to detail

At DeVry, we offer an MBA program with a Specialization in Entrepreneurship that takes the core business and leadership skills you’d already gain from our core MBA program and focuses it for small business. Through theoretical coursework and practical application, this specialization centers on the new venture lifecycle from the initial conceptualization of a business idea to its planning, funding and execution, covering everything from marketing best practices to venture finance concepts.

Get Started on Your MBA Journey with DeVry and Keller

Whether you pursue a general MBA degree or one of our 10 MBA specializations, an ACBSP accredited¹ Master of Business Administration degree program from DeVry and our Keller Graduate School of Management can help you navigate your own MBA career path and work toward the career advancement you’ve been striving for, led by knowledgeable professors who have practical experience in the fields they teach.

For motivated working professionals, a Keller MBA can be earned 100% online, and have no GRE/GMAT requirements. Flexible scheduling allows you to take classes when and how you choose. And to be sure you’re not going on this journey alone, our advisors are ready to provide the support and career-building resources you deserve, before and after graduation.

¹This program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), demonstrating it has met standards of business education that promote teaching excellence. ACBSP has also granted specialized accounting accreditation to this established degree program with a specialization in Accounting.

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