First of all, it depends on the level to which you have studied these three subjects. If it’s part of or a combined degree course, that means you have many more options. If it’s at for example 6th form or college level, one option of course is to study further in one of these areas.
It may be helpful to look at economics and business studies as one area, and life sciences as a separate one. At the moment any kind of scientific background is a really useful thing to have, because all the main areas of science are not being studied enough and there is a shortage. So if you chose to develop your interest in science – for instance by doing research in biology – your prospects should be good. Teaching is also a good option for anyone with a science background as teachers are desperately needed in this field.
You can also go in the direction of medicine. The NHS has a particularly wide range of careers including in toxicology, pathology and blood sciences. More training would be needed for any of these specialist careers but there are definitely openings.
Generally, life sciences offers a variety of career choices. If you put ‘life sciences career’ in a search engine you will find links to a number of sites that specialise in recruitment for science-based jobs, as well as forums etc where you can get in touch with others in a similar position. Also, even if you decide to go for a career where you don’t directly use your scientific knowledge, you should find that employers are interested in someone with that kind of background, as any kind of scientific study is generally a good preparation for work and life.
Economics and business studies are also useful areas of study, mainly if you are thinking of working in business or finance. Economics is often the starting point for a career in accountancy, for instance. In this field there are many points of entry – it’s possible to start in a firm more or less at school leaver level and then take training – accountancy exams go from all levels – but equally many people study to degree level before looking for work. At any level accountancy offers a range of career options and is generally well paid with a lot of promotion prospects. It’s not for everyone though – you really do have to be good with figures, though if you’ve already studied economics and business you should be fine. The same applies to the banking industry, which again has a lot of options for economists.
The career path with business studies can be very similar – a lot of people with this background do also go into accountancy or other work in the financial sector. However, as business studies is much more general, you should find that this qualification is of interest to people in a very wide range of industries. Basically, any firm, large or small, should look favourably on someone with a good business studies qualification. There is a slight drawback though, which is that this particular study area has been very over-subscribed in recent years. This means that there are rather more business studies graduates around than are needed, so this doesn’t look quite as good on a CV as it once did. But combined with your other skills it should still be helpful if you have good grades.
Probably the first step is to have a talk with a careers officer. Your college or university will be able to help here; if you’ve left, you could go to the National Careers service website and they will put you in touch with a local adviser. Good luck.