An associate degree in business can open the door to a great first job that can lead you to a well-paid career with lifelong job security. You will have to do the work of mastering the tasks you do every day to keep businesses up and running and profitable, but the rewards of the jobs you can get with an associate degree in business are ongoing opportunities for advancement and professional growth — as well as higher-than-average salaries.
In this article we will list the top 10 career opportunities for you when you earn your associates degree in business. We will explain the job and list typical salaries. We will give you the government’s take on how fast the job market is growing. And we will list the best online options for earning an affordable, accredited, job-ready associates degree that will help you get a start on your career in that field.
Accounting Technician
Median pay:
- $41,230 per year
- $19.82 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Job marketing is shrinking, but there is still lots of turnover with 1.67 million jobs in the USA.
Do you have a talent for crunching numbers? Many students find that their pathway to success in an accounting career begins with an online associates degree in accounting to qualify for jobs as accounting technicians.
Accounting technicians need to know the basics of entry-level accounting. They need to have an understanding of how finance works in the business world.
It’s an accounting technician’s job to record revenues, purchases, sales, and expenses. Accounting technicians will do monthly bank reconciliations and billing. They record adjusting entries and assist with scheduling.
There is a difference between accounting and bookkeeping. Accounting technicians usually have one accounting task to do for a larger company. Bookkeepers will be supervised by CPAs but they may do nearly all the day to day accounting tasks for larger companies.
Job opportunities for accounting technicians are growing every year, but openings for bookkeepers are harder and harder to find. You will have more job opportunities if you get the preparation you need to specialize in an accounting task as an accounting technician.
If you already have some knowledge of bookkeeping or accounting and you are getting serious about getting a job, Colorado Technical University is a great place to get your online business associate’s degree. CTU lets you take fast-track exams to get college credit for what you already know so you can learn important principles of corporate accounting, government and not-for-profit accounting,, and tax. The online associate of accounting program at Colorado Technical University is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).
Accredited Real Estate Appraiser
Median pay:
- $57,010 per year
- $27.41 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Job marketing is growing at about 3% per year, although you may need to relocate to find a job.
Real estate appraisers provide unbiased and objective appraisals of the value of real property. These appraisals are used for mortgage lending, tax assessments, lease negotiations, and more. Appraisers physically inspect land and buildings and compare them to similar properties to determine value.
It’s a plus to have an accredited college degree in real estate to make progress in your career as a real estate appraiser. But to get in the door, you need to take courses required by your state’s real estate appraisal board, pass the National Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP): 15-hour course after you get your associates degree in real estate.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for accredited real estate appraisers.
Tuition: $1,426 for 31 semester hours required for a real estate certificate, but just $414 for the three courses you need to qualify to sit for the exam.
Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open Access)
Mt. San Antonio College offers the college coursework you need to meet the requirements to become a real estate appraiser in any state. Online students can take courses over Canvas.
Advertising Associate
Median pay:
- $53,310 per year
- $25.63 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Job marketing is slowly shrinking, but there are over 150,000 jobs in this field in the United States.
Advertising associates need a combination of a flair for sales and number-crunching ability. Advertising associates book advertising for marketing campaigns, but this is only part of the job. They also do statistical analyses to locate the best target markets, to document conversion rates, and to choose the most effective advertising messages that maximize revenues for their employers.
Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open Access)
Penn Foster College gives advertising students a great grounding in the advertising principles they need to know to succeed on the job: pricing strategies, marketing research, math for business, and advertising principles. Courses are offered asynchronously so you can take them on your own schedule. Penn Foster’s associates degrees are licensed by the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education, and the school itself is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC).
Bridal Consultant
Median pay:
- $50,600 per year
- $24.33 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Job marketing is slowly shrinking, but there are over 150,000 jobs in this field in the United States.
There is a lot that goes into planning a wedding. There are the design elements of the wedding and reception, chosen with sensitivity for the couple’s religion and traditions. There is the budget for the wedding, and the negotiating skill to keep clients close to it. And there are the business connections needed to secure and coordinate all the goods and services needed for the ceremony and reception. Add to all of this, bridal consultants need to be able to read and understand vendor contracts.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for bridal consultants:
Tuition: $3,600 (can be paid at $650 a month)
Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open Access)
There is no better online preparation for high-end bridal planners than the Hospitality Management program at eCornell, associated with the famous program at Cornell University. The credential offered by eCornell is technically a certificate, rather than an associates degree, but it is recognized all over the country and only takes six months.
Digital Marketer
Median pay:
- $53,310 per year
- $25.63 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Job marketing is slowly shrinking, but there are over 150,000 jobs in this field in the United States.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for digital marketers.
Florida Institute of Technology
Tuition (entire program): $31,110 – $32,640. Tuition assistance is available.
Acceptance Rate: 66%
Florida Tech in Melbourne is a public research university that offers nationally recognized associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees. Their online program in digital marketing gives you a great foundation for getting a job with the university’s help, and for future study you will need to advance your career. The principles you learn in the program and the credential you earn can help you find associate positions in any field of marketing.
The Florida Institute of Technology is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Convention, Meeting, and Event Planner
Median pay:
- $61,920 per year
- $29.77 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
The job market for convention, meeting, and event planners is growing at about 7% per year.
Convention, meeting, and event planners structure events so everyone has a good time and the hosts meet their objectives. Event planners locate and make contracts with vendors, hire caterers and entertainment, and execute backup plans when things don’t go according to plan.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for event planners:
Tuition: In-state tuition $4,840, Out-of-state tuition $5,440.
Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open Admission), although students submit SAT or ACT scores.
Genesee Community College has an “almost-all online” associate degree program in hospitality management for event planners. You will have to come to campus for your capstone project: Planning an event for 1500 people. The college also has hands-on training at Disneyworld and with travel agencies.
Genesee Community College is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, so credits are fully transferable to SUNY colleges and most other colleges around the country if you decide you later want to pursue a bachelor’s degree.
Finance Associate
Median pay:
- $81,890 per year
- $39.22 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
The job market for finance associates is growing at about 5% per year.
There are jobs for associate degree graduates in finance that pay over $110,000 per year. That’s a great return on investment for a two-year degree.
Finance associates take care of a variety of financial and accounting tasks, such as preparing budgets, finalizing financial reports, handling payments, managing accounting information, and maintaining payroll documents.
You can find a job in finance with an online associates degree, but you have to be very careful about your selection of courses. At a minimum, you need to have studied:
- Finance or Economics – You need introductory courses in micro- and macro-economics along with a math-heavy introduction to finance.
- Business and Finance Math – You need to be able to compute depreciation, present value, and future value, along with critical business performance ratios, and you need to understand the results of statistical analysis.
- Business or Business Administration – You need a good understanding of how business are organized
- Financial and Managerial Accounting – You need to understand budgets, basic business law, performance evaluation and corporate taxation.
- Securities and Investments – You need to understand the kinds of analyses done before making investments.
- Business Law – You need to know different business structures, how contracts are formed and enforced, and how the judicial system regulates business.
That’s a lot! And if you are going to take the time to learn all the basics you need for a financial associate job, be sure you get your courses from an accredited university so you will get credit for them should you decide to go for a bachelor’s degree later.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for finance associates.
Tuition for 65 semester hours to complete the degree (if you have no transfer credits): $38,676
Acceptance Rate: 89%
Davenport University has a nationally recognized, fully accredited program for your associates degree in finance that can get you a great job. The tuition is pricier than many other online schools, but the return on investment justifies it.
Human Resources Associate
Median pay:
- $61,920 per year
- $29.77 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
The job market for human resources associates is growing at about 7% per year.
Human resources associates do the heavy lifting of the personnel department. They obtain, explain, record, and forward confidential data about employees and they maintain applications, résumés, and applicant logs. It’s typically a human resources associate who will contact the references you give on your job application.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for human resources associates.
- Tuition: In-state tuition $8,880 for the two-year program, Out-of-state tuition $15,660 for the two-year program.
- Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open admissions)
The associates degree program in HR at South Texas College isn’t 100% online, but that’s a good thing, because every student participates in an internship before graduation. If you are interested in doing HR work for a company that is invested in the LatinX community, it’s a great place to do your studies.
Social Media Manager
Median pay:
- $56,670 per year. Some positions pay as much as $160,000 per year.
- $25.63 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
Social media managers always have work to do. Social media managers post videos, texts, and links in coordinated campaigns to boost the brands of their employers, telling stories that people can relate to.
Social media managers are judged on results, and results are measured in cold, hard numbers. And social media managers have to be up to the minute on the news so they don’t make disastrously inappropriate posts.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for social media managers:
Tuition: $2342
Acceptance Rate: 100% (Open Admission)
Atlanta Tech has one of the few online programs for an associates degree in social media management. If you are confident of your English-language skills, you can complete this program in less than a year.
Underwriting (Insurance) Associate
Median pay:
- $70,020 per year
- $30.33 per hour
Requires some on the job training? Yes
The job market for underwriting associates is slowly shrinking, but there are over 100,000 jobs for underwriting associates in the United States.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for underwriting associates.
Underwriting associates assess financial risk for insurance companies. They analyze the information on insurance applications to determine the risk of insuring a customer, screening the application on the basis of pre-set criteria, and then decide whether to offer insurance.You can get a job with an associate’s degree but you will need to go for your bachelor’s to get promotions.
Best school for an online associates degree in business for underwriting associates:
Tuition:
Acceptance Rate:
You can get an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Risk Management and Insurance with certification for a job online at Mesa Community College in Arizona. You will get an employer-recognized education in risk management and the principles of health, life, auto, fire, casualty, and other forms of insurance.
Just a word about where we got our information
We found the salary and job market figures we use in the articles on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. We chose the schools for online by looking up multiple programs and choosing the accredited school that has the best pathway to (1) completing your associated degree while (2) giving you a clear path to getting a BA, BS, BBA, or higher degree building on your associate’s degree.
There are just a few more quick things you need to know about online degree programs.
The Pell Grant is a federally funded scholarship based on need. You can use your Pell Grant to pay for tuition for online degree programs.
College textbooks cost money. Choosing a program that uses ebooks provided by the school can save you several thousand dollars over the course of your undergraduate online studies.
And if these cheapest online degree institutions are still too expensive for you, you may be able to get your basics out of the way at an affordable community college.
Help us out!
We have made an effort to make sure we are giving you the very latest information about each school, but schools raise tuition, add majors, discontinue majors, and change their admission policies. We appreciate your updates of this information.
