General Management

No matter what industry or sector, organisations need managers. Managers are responsible for planning and organising the allocation and implementation of resources and employees to meet the aims of the organisation. Whatever management role you go into, the analytical and problem solving skills you picked up in your maths degree will stand you in good stead.

Role:

There are many different management roles within various organisations, including:

• Branch Management: Responsibility for running a branch of the organisation and ensuring profitability and success in that branch, e.g. store manager.
• Departmental Management: Responsibility for a particular department within an organisation, e.g. children’s-wear department manager.
• Business Area Manager: Responsibility for a particular business area, e.g. human resources

Skills required:

• Leadership and decision making
• Commercial and customer awareness
• Interpersonal skills
• Good organisational skills

Advantages:

• Management graduate schemes often are rotationally based; you will get the opportunity to see several areas of the business.
• If successful, you could see rapid promotion to area or senior management. Further still, directors are often drawn from the company’s senior management.
• Management roles give you a great experience of leading people and organisations; if you want to one day start your own business, then management is the perfect preparation.

Things to consider:

• Roles exist in pretty much all employment sectors; choose an industry that interests you and ensure you thoroughly research the industry and the company.
• Many of the graduate schemes, especially fort the large retailers, can be very competitive.
• Expect to work very hard.