Commerce students career path and options for Indian school students
- career choices
- December 28, 2025
Career path for commerce students in India
The school students while planning to study commerce in their college generally aspire for mainstream career options such as CA, CS, studying law, business administration, data and statistics, finance and policy, in banking and insurance, and financial audit and analysis in consultancies. These aren’t careers, they are credentials.
We discussed a few industry-specific career options for commerce students, in an earlier post. When students think about a career in commerce, we discussed how there are diverse options in environment and wildlife, sports and fitness, lifestyle and entertainment, automobiles, space commerce, and other industries.
The goal was to make the students and their parents think about how this career looks like in real world scenarios in different types of industries and for the related roles and positions.
Imagine if your question changes from “Should I study law?” to “What will do after studying law, in what kind of organization, and for what kind of work?” It changes your career planning and thinking totally.
We spoke to a family last month and the family had some reservations about their kid opting for commerce because they assume that science has better career prospects. Before we discuss the opportunities, here are a few common myths about the limited career scope for commerce students.
Myth 1: “Commerce is mainly about banking, accounting, insurance, and analysis jobs”
Reality: Commerce skills work in every industry, and there are so many exciting options to explore.
Myth 2: “Creative industries don’t need commerce people”
Reality: Films, media and entertainment, museums and galleries, gaming—all these need budgeting and financial planning and analysis.
Myth 3: “You need a degree in CA or MBA to have a good commerce career”
Reality: These are definitely valuable, but industry expertise, combined with commerce degree learnings can be equally useful in many industries.
Myth 4: “Commerce is boring—just numbers and rules”
Reality: Commerce is understanding how the world works economically. This is often very interesting when applied in real world.
Myth 5: “Science students have more career options”
Reality: Commerce students can work in almost any industry, and with a lot of flexibility in their career paths when they grow.
🏥 Healthcare & Medical Technology
Roles: Hospital finance, medical device pricing strategy, health insurance analytics, pharmaceutical supply chain, telemedicine platform operations
Why commerce matters: Healthcare is ₹8.45 trillion industry in India, is growing even more.
Skills needed: Healthcare economics, data analytics, regulatory compliance, operations management
🖼 Museums, Archives, Cultural
Roles: Museums budgeting, cultural heritage funding, auction house economics, art market analysis, heritage tourism finances
Real work: Creating financially sustainable models for museums, managing cultural heritage restoration budgets, analyzing art market trends, developing heritage tourism plans
Skills needed: Non-profit finance, fundraising, cultural economics, grants lifecycle
📚 EdTech—Schools, HigherEd
Roles: EdTech financial models and analysis, franchise management, educational marketplace economics
Why commerce matters: India’s EdTech market is massive, they need pricing strategy, unit economics, and growth models for finances
🍎 Agriculture, food
Roles: Agribusiness finance, food supply chain management, farmer financing, food processing economics
Real work: Designing micro-financing for farmers, financial models for food supply chain, logistics costing, analyzing harvest trading, food processing economics
A few more industries where the commerce students can see a lot of career growth in different types of skills and roles, are:
- Luxury travel and tourism
- Real estate and infrastructure development
- Oceans and marine life studies
- Fashion and retail—circular economy
The plan
Studying commerce gives you the foundation (finance, economics, business, statistics, audit and analysis), industry knowledge makes you valuable (knowing how that specific world works) and employable, or more ready for your own business and enterpreneurship.
A common question by students is—”How do I know which industry or skill I should learn and I might do well there?”
This is where Steering guides you. For example we make you plan and work for:
- “Which 3 industries am I curious enough to research for 3 to 5 hours this week?”
- “Can I find 2 people working in each industry to interview?”
- “Can I spend one weekend volunteering or doing internship to test if I actually like the work?”
We have a free trial for you.
Our analysis structure in the free plan helps you in thinking deeply about your life-dreams, aspirations, wishes, and in connecting the dots for what you want to do, what skills you should learn, how to apply those skills in real life work, and what brings joy in your life when you grow up.
Steering is open for private access at present. You can take the free trial to get started.