Bellevue Business Degree Designed to Help Students Select Their Career

“How many people do you know who say they chose their career field because parents, or someone else, thought it was a good idea?” asked John Patterson, J.D., MBA, and program director of the Bellevue University Bachelor of Science in Business degree. 

Selecting a career is often a random, uniformed process for students at the undergraduate level.  John designed this Business degree program to help students discover the career that is the best-fit for their individual interests, skills and life goals.  “I believe teaching is about helping students live a better life,” John said.  “Our professors show students what they need to know and then provide the best tools to learn.”

“In this business degree program, students learn about themselves and potential career paths,” John described.  They take interest and skill assessments, explore various jobs and learn about potential employers.  Students match their own desires with the kind of jobs, and even workplace cultures, they might find enjoyable and rewarding.”

Another important step for students entering the job market is to establish their digital presence.  “Hiring managers often check Linked In profiles, and even social media, to learn about a job candidate,” John indicated.  Our students work on building the right kind of professional profiles which helps them expand their career network.”

The Bachelor of Science in Business teaches practical skills in core business topics and includes several applied learning experiences.  The core topics establish a strong foundation for the world of business: Communications, Human Resources, Marketing, Economics, Finance and Accounting, and Management. 

“These provide an important base of knowledge that will help students excel in virtually any business setting,” John said.  “In addition, they are able to customize their education through applied projects that go along with each core topic.”

Examples of applied projects include:

•   A student might be interested in starting their own business so they could develop a blueprint for the business.  One project might be a business plan and another might be a marketing plan.

•   A student may work for an employer that has changed customer service communications.  They could create an instructional presentation for customer-facing employees to help them learn the new process.   

•   A student might imagine being a product manager who is the direct point of contact for major clients.  They could create a “Best Practices” document for clients to use when they purchase the product.

Learning by doing is also embedded in the Capstone course toward the end of the program.  “The Capstone utilizes a business simulation where students work in groups of three to five people,” John described.  “Together, they run a business and compete against the other groups or teams.  This gives them experience in collaboration and teaches them to think about the reality of competitors in a business marketplace.”

John also works closely with the school’s senior leadership on innovations in education.  “I am constantly thinking about how students learn best,” John said.  “Historically, students have been asked to read chapters in a book and then write a paper.  That is still useful, but today, there are so many devices and a variety of ways to learn:  text, video, podcasts, interactive exercises and more.  Our goal is to match learning options with how today’s students take in information.”

“Continuous improvement requires change,” John added.  People will either run toward it or away from it.  I will always run toward it.”