International Business Major
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About the Major
The international business major provides students with the business acumen, cross-cultural awareness and international experiences required to function effectively in a complex global business environment. It emphasizes the acquisition of business knowledge and the development of international skills through hands-on learning and experiential activities.
Jobs in International Business
- Global logistics/supply chain manager
- Consultant
- Global marketing manager
- Global banking/finance manager
- Research analyst
Past Elon International Business Internships
- DHL
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Financial Hearings in Stockholm, Sweden
- International Rescue Committee
Related Majors
With accelerated degree and study abroad opportunities, international business major found the right fit at Elon
When Anne-Cecile Guyader graduates from Elon University in 2025 with a major in international business, she will do so having earned not only a bachelor’s degree but a master’s as well.
Elon’s unique 3+1 Accelerated Dual Degree program — where some Love School of Business students can complete their undergraduate work in the first three years and their graduate coursework in the fourth year — was one of the many draws that brought the Alabama student to North Carolina in 2021. She was also swayed by the growing reputation of Elon’s business school, its small class sizes and its strong study abroad program.
“Going into the workforce, a bachelor’s degree is not always enough to set you apart from others, and my master’s degree does that,” Guyader said. “And Elon’s business school has continually been rising in the ranks in prestige.”
She chose to major in international business in part because she saw how her father, who is French, has built a global career.
“My whole life he has been traveling because he works internationally, so I knew just from seeing all the cool things he got to do throughout my childhood that I wanted to do something that involved traveling,” said Guyader, who is also minoring in French, a language she speaks fluently. “And you can do so many things with a business degree — it’s good general knowledge to have and very applicable to many areas.”
Most of our classes are essentially team-based, so we’ve had to do a lot of team projects, and I think that has been something that’s ended up being super useful to me, especially in my internships.
Elon’s international business program requires that students combine their major with a second major or minor in the World Languages & Cultures Department to gain language proficiency and become exposed to the region’s culture. It also requires at least one semester abroad and at least one internship — both opportunities that Guyader said have been valuable to her education.
Knowing that she would need to start her master’s program in 2024, she chose to study abroad in France in the spring of 2023. And she chose the more immersive experience, studying with French students at a university in Montpellier and staying with a French-speaking host family. The opportunity gave her crucial exposure to the culture, which she knows will be helpful when she returns to the country for work.
“I now have a lot more cultural knowledge that I can apply later on when I will eventually go work in France,” she said. “I think having the ability to have a greater understanding of the nuances of French culture versus American culture has been super useful and will be useful in the future.”
Guyader said the international business program’s internship requirement has also been useful, as it’s given her the chance to experience different roles in the business world and determine what she likes and doesn’t like and where she might want to focus her career after graduation.
“I think sometimes it can be kind of surprising going into the real world never having worked, and this gives you a taste, which has been really nice,” she said.
In the summer of 2023, Guyader was an intern at the loan company Altec Capital Services in Birmingham, and the following summer, she worked as a business analytics intern at Yosubi — a pre-seed startup that bridges language barriers in the construction industry using AI-powered solutions — as well as a marketing intern for the Pink Lemonade Stand Challenge, a national campaign benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Through her internships, she’s learned that she enjoys front-facing work in marketing technology as well as digging through data with market research. She likes having her hands in different projects and working in a team for a bigger purpose.
Her business classes at Elon have certainly helped her learn the best ways to work in a team and get the best results from group work, she said.
“Most of our classes are essentially team-based, so we’ve had to do a lot of team projects, and I think that has been something that’s ended up being super useful to me, especially in my internships and I assume post-grad,” she said. “How to compromise, how to not step on other people, how to support teammates is really emphasized in our classes. You’re never going to stop working in teams, especially in business.”
As Guyader prepares for graduation in 2025 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and a Master of Science in business analytics, she is already making use of some of Elon’s most valuable assets: its professors, career development support staff and alumni.
Her business school professors have been instrumental in helping guide her coursework and study abroad experience, and she’s taken advantage of the career development staff — on the main campus and specifically in the business school — to debrief after internships, review her resume, edit her cover letters, provide mock interviews and more.
And because Elon has such a strong network of alumni — “a big benefit of Elon is that most people who went to Elon loved their experiences and are super willing to talk to current students” — Guyader has been reaching out to past students to pick their brains about their education and careers.
Among her conversations: “Learning about how they set themselves apart from others and how they frame their international business major as cross-functional, what their journey was like applying for jobs, their experiences post-grad, how they are using their degrees, if they started working internationally right away or if it took a few years.”
Having so many Elon people to connect with gives Guyader confidence she will find a good job after graduation.
“The job search can be a little bit daunting,” she said, “and the earlier you make those connections, the more guidance you can receive.”
Did You Know?
- Students are required to combine the international business major with a second major or minor in world languages to give them the breadth and depth to compete in the global workforce. Such courses expose students to the cultural heritage, diversity, history, religion, communication, and environmental and political aspects of doing business across borders.
- There are many ways to get hands-on business experience at Elon, including by participating with individuals from around the world in global virtual teams through the X-Culture Global Collaboration Experience. International business majors are also required to complete at least one internship for academic credit, as well as a semester study abroad program.
- Elon’s Accelerated 3+1 program gives international business majors the opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration as well as a Master of Science in Business Analytics in just four years. The majority of undergraduate coursework is completed in the first three years, with graduate coursework in the fourth year.
- Elon also offers an international business dual degree, a unique four-year program designed for students who want a truly global education and have a strong interest in studying business in two cultures, receiving two bachelor’s degrees. Students spend their first two years on Elon’s campus and their last two years in Germany, France, Italy or Spain. While abroad, they apply what they learned in their business courses into practice through a semester-long, full-time internship.