Photo by LifeSupercharger 
In the classic children’s board game “The Game of Life,” players live out a virtual life, get married, have kids, and choose a career. The goal is to end up with the most money at the end of the day. While intended to be a recreational pastime, the game contains relevant themes for children to take away. It emphasizes the importance of college degrees, with jobs that require degrees often leading to the highest income.
When these students grow up and go off to college, many pursue a BBA–a bachelor’s degree in business administration. They continue their path down the game board for a bit but diverge at a certain point, pursuing their own fields of study. In many ways, the specific areas of study for a BBA are heavily reminiscent of their own unique board game experience.
Just like each game helps exercise an aspect of brainpower–whether it is memory, strategy, or creativity–each field of study is similar. Here are just a few possible subjects that can be your area of emphasis for a BBA, and the board games to play before you pick up your textbook:
Enterprise Management
Your favorite board game: Chess
Simply put, enterprise management majors look at the big picture. They strive to be in roles of supervision, dealing with the long term outcomes of large corporations. Important responsibilities include observing trends and metadata while also deeply involved in the processes of the company’s future directions.
Additionally, well-versed enterprise management majors prepare for possible jobs working for a large multinational corporation by learning about international business and marketing.
Those majoring in enterprise management control the board, see the endgame and attempt to move their business in that direction.
Business Management
Your favorite board game: Guess Who?
As opposed to enterprise management, where the big picture is the focus, business management majors deal with day-to-day operations of the company and delegate tasks. Many of the branch managers and human resources reps of the world have background or experience in business management. This major helps students combine their natural interest in people with their business ambition.
Management majors often are well-versed in risk management and conflict resolution. They aim to keep the company running as smoothly as possible.
Finance
Your favorite board game: Monopoly
For finance majors, it all comes down to the cash. They learn how to plan, analyze, and allocate funds for the business’s best interests. They are able to provide expert opinions on financial matters. Often, finance majors go on to careers such as investment banking, financial consulting, and commercial banking.
Financial experts often live behind the scenes, keeping the money flowing in and finding the funds to support the business. If the enterprise management majors control the board, the finance majors keep the game from ending.
Marketing
Your favorite board game: Pictionary
Got a creative mind, but want to enter a pragmatic field where you can use your imagination constructively? Right this way, to the marketing concentration!
People in marketing, especially in creative divisions, devise ways to get their products out on the open market, make it appealing to consumers, and step above the competition. Marketers can create ad campaigns, pitch ideas for commercials, and often work in sales and advertising.
In many ways, Marketing is the most flexible business field, allowing for the most leeway in creativity and strategy.
Real Estate
Your favorite board game: Settlers of Catan
Real estate is a field designed for business-minded folks who enjoy working with people and building social relationships. Ever since the housing bubble burst in 2008, the real estate market has been slowly climbing, and, according to Business Insider, the housing boom currently building in the US is not expected to end any time soon.
It is not necessary to have a degree in real estate in order to obtain a license to be an agent. But, choosing this as your area of emphasis will reaffirm your commitment to the field to potential clients. In addition to becoming an agent, real estate graduates can become property managers, appraisers, or brokers depending on the path they choose to take.
Due to the economic climate as well as the personal nature of the business, real estate is an appealing field of study for many young businesspeople.
