Emerging Career Paths for BBA Graduates that didn’t Exist a Decade Ago

Dr. John Lodewijks, Academic President at SP Jain School of Global Management in a recent interaction with Higher Education Review shared his views on how have roles like digital marketing analyst or e-commerce strategist opened up new career avenues for BBA graduates in the post-digital economy, the kind of skills students must acquire to thrive in this digital native role and more.

A distinguished economist and academic leader, he holds a PhD in Economics from Duke University, USA, and has taught at prominent institutions including the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney. With over 30 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Lodewijks has contributed significantly to curriculum development, academic strategy, and quality assurance.

How have roles like digital marketing analyst or e-commerce strategist opened up new career avenues for BBA graduates in the post-digital economy? Also, what skills must students acquire to thrive in this digital native role?

Much has changed in the digital business landscape. Technology has become an essential pillar of modern commerce, making it crucial that our students gain the knowledge, training, and skills needed to navigate and leverage these digital tools effectively. But let's not forget that while we focus very extensively on digital technology, which basic skills - soft skills, personal skills are still really important to get jobs in organisations, to work in teams effectively. So let us not completely forget about those old skills. They're still really important.

However, there are all these new skills, and particularly Gen AI is completely transforming the nature of business. Some companies remain somewhat perplexed, unsure of how best to harness generative AI. Others, however, have embraced it boldly—integrating Gen AI across every aspect of their business operations.

We must now equip our students for this evolving digital world. Fortunately, we’re not starting from scratch—today’s students are digital natives who have grown up immersed in technology. They often understand and navigate digital tools far more intuitively than the older generation.

What we can do is we can add value to the way they use those tools. We can look at social media marketing. We can look at how digital awareness, digital capabilities enhance their skills in the business environment and that means we have to be continually revising and updating our curriculum to take into account all these changes in technology.

What are the opportunities for BBA graduates in fast-growing sectors like fine tech, sustainability consulting and data-driven business operations? Also, how do these roles differ from traditional corporate pathways?

The biggest change that's happened is that in the past, graduates have looked at securing employment with a large company and even a global company as their main objective. However, with the emergence of all these start-ups, new ventures, it is not a case for many students of finding jobs with employers. It's the case that they have started up their own company and they are the employers.

So that's a very fundamental shift rather than focusing on large, well-established companies, they have opened up their own companies. So that's very different, especially the start-up environment that we have now.

FinTech plays a vital role in today’s landscape. In many countries—including Australia, Singapore, and Dubai—regulations now require companies to go beyond traditional audited financial statements and produce audited sustainability reports. These reports must detail how businesses affect climate change, the measures they’re taking to mitigate their environmental impact, and the strategies to reduce their carbon footprint. Importantly, this shift demands genuine, verifiable action rather than mere statements or greenwashing, pushing companies toward measurable and transparent sustainability commitments.

They have to calculate the impact they're having on the environment and have to provide quantifiable measures, to indicate how they're lowering their carbon footprint. All of that requires expertise, big shortage in that area. And many of our students see this as a wonderful opportunity to get into this field.

Thus, there are numerous different career paths now with the development of disruptive technology, with the concern about the environment, with the emphasis on corporate social responsibility. It is opening up so many more avenues for our students to find employment.

How can students leverage interdisciplinary knowledge to pursue new age careers such as UX business strategy or AI product management? And, is a BBA degree enough or should students pursue complementary certifications?

We have a four year BBA program. What we find is that many of our graduates from the BBA, they work for a couple of years and that's very valuable. It allows them to pay off their debt. It allows them to accumulate some savings.

But most importantly, it gives them hands-on business experience. And, then after those two or three years, they go and pursue master's programmes. They find that a BBA is not enough and that it is simply the first step along the path of lifelong learning.

You can pursue this formally through a master’s degree or an MBA, or informally via training programmes and platforms like Coursera, which offer exceptional, often free courses from top global universities and renowned faculty. These opportunities allow you to further strengthen your skills. Even during a BBA, the most ambitious and forward-thinking students proactively earn certifications, gaining a valuable edge.

They will engage in summer programmes at other institutions. They will enrol themselves in all sorts of extra curricular, extra training, extra academic certificates, which fills the gaps in their credentials. A BBA program can't offer you everything. There will be going to be some gaps in your chosen field. So, you have to fill those gaps to make you more employable.