Author: Geri Schneider Winters
People come to the job of Business Analyst in many different ways. Some people graduate from college and immediately start to work as a junior Analyst for a major corporation. Often a Business Analyst has some years of work experience in some related field before starting to work as an analyst.
You may choose to work for a company in the role of Business Analyst, or you may be a consultant and some of what you do is work as a Business Analyst.
Once you are working as a Business Analyst, what can you expect in terms of career growth? This will depend on the experience you bring to the job and your interests.
BA’s with more experience are generally assigned to larger and/or more complex projects. If you are an experienced BA, you will be often asked to mentor junior Analysts, and depending on your other
experience, you may also be asked to mentor the Project Manager, Software Process Engineer, QA group, or even the Project Architect or Designer.
Over time, you may be asked to work on a small project as both the Business Analyst and the Project Manager. This will introduce you to the job of the Project Manager. You may decide to gain experience and certifications through the Project Management Institute (PMI) and evolve your career into management. You could work your way up through the levels of management as far as your talents and desires take you.
You may decide that you really love the BA job. Over time, you will work on more complex projects with more responsibility. You may then choose to create an internal organization for other BA’s in the company, to provide guidance, internal training, and resources such as templates or guidelines for people in that role.
You might decide you really like teaching and mentoring, so go into jobs such as corporate training or consulting. You would work to train and mentor other Business Analysts in their jobs.
You might become very interested in software development processes and become a process engineer. This tends to be a consulting position. Few companies have software process engineers on staff, though you may find such as position as part of a corporate governance or continuous quality improvement organization.
With your strength in the soft skills of listening, speaking, writing, and meeting facilitation, you can look at other kinds of careers that may interest you more than writing requirements for software projects.
For example, if you really like learning to install and use software tools, you might become a tools person – someone who elicits the corporate needs for software tools, determines what tools are needed, and how they will be used to support corporate goals. You might also be involved in creating manuals and training for company personnel to show them how to use the tools in their jobs.
Maybe business is your real passion, so you use your soft skills to become a business coach. You work with people to discover the goals of their business and how to achieve these goals. This is often a position where you work with small business owners who want to improve or grow their business.
Consider a job as a Product Manager. Note that is product not project. A Product Manager is a marketing person who surveys the market and writes the business requirements for new projects. A Product Manager typically works closely with project teams to achieve good products that meet the needs of the marketplace.
As you see, with experience as a Business Analyst, you have developed a lot of skill in listening, speaking, writing, and meeting facilitation. You may have also learned a lot about a particular domain. You can use these skills to develop further as a Business Analyst, or to go into other jobs such as Project Manager (and higher management positions), Product Manager, Tools Person, Governance, Quality Improvement, Business Coaching, Corporate Training, Mentoring, and Consulting.
For more information, Click Here to see a video on planning your BA career.
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Now it is your turn.
Are you currently working as a Business Analyst? What are your thoughts about your career? What will you do as you gain more skill as a BA?
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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.
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Hello Shalini -
One of the easier ways to change careers is within your company, if your manager is willing to help you make the change.
The basic approach is this:
1. Talk to your manager about your career goal and ask for his help to make a plan to transition to a new job.
2. Find another manager in your company who manages Business Analysts. Ask that person what he expects from a BA. Ask his help to find the gap between your current skills and what he need from a BA.
3. Work with both managers to create a plan of education and experiences to transition you from your current job into the new job.
Business Analyst is defined so broadly in the marketplace, that it is hard to guess what might be needed. Another approach I can suggest is this:
1. Look at ads for Business Analysts in Telecommunications.
2. Review the ads to see what the required skills are.
3. Create a plan of education and experiences, including possibly volunteer work, to acquire the needed skills.
4. Improve your resume, and apply for Business Analyst positions.
When changing the kind of work you do, it is wise to stay within the same industry if possible. Laura Brandenburg at http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/ is an excellent person to work with to help you tune your resume and to learn how to analyze job ads to find the best to apply for.
Hello Shweta -
Which position is better – asst manager operations or business analyst – depends on where you want your career to go. If you stay in operations management, then you will likely continue to progress into higher level management positions at your current company, or perhaps move to a larger company into a position of more responsibility (more people working for you) and eventually higher level management positions.
If the BA position is in IT, then your career progression will tend to be into positions of more responsibility in terms of your own work. You will work on larger and more critical projects over time. You might choose to become a project manager and lead software projects, or become a BA manager. Over time, you might go on to work at the enterprise level in business processes, enterprise architecture, or governance.
If the BA position is in sales or marketing, then you would likely be very customer focused and possibly more of a consultant. These tend to be more high pressure jobs.
Hope that helps you to think more about what you want over time. I think you could benefit by reviewing my video on career planning, which you can find here: http://www.wyyzzk.com/BAFundamentals/Careers.mp4
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I am currently pursuing breaking into a BA, Project Manager, or Product Manager role. I have been a software engineer for 5 years, and for abour 1.5 years a lead engineer role. I received my PMP recently, and will receive my MBA soon. However, I have received no offers from companies for any of these roles, and I’m wondering if I am too junior still, if they are looking for someone who has already been a BA, and if I need to stick to a software engineer for a while again, and then try to work my way up?
What do you think?
Hi Geri,
A very informative blog for BAs like me I must say. I have a few questions though.
I am a B.Tech / MBA(Finance). I have 3.5 Years of experience in IT Industry (2 Years as Software Developer and 1.5 Years as BA). My domain has been Capital Markets throughout my professional career and I aspire to make a career in management in an Investment Banking company.
Also, reading all the above conversations, it seems I can have other career paths like Consulting, Business Mentoring, etc.
Please tell me how can I make this switch and which path will be more suitable for me in acheiving my career goal.
Thanks in advance,
Shyamsunder
Hi Geri, thanks for your articles!it’s really informative and helpful. any advice for a sales team admin changes her job role to BA? and what i should prepare and how will it help me? and where i should i head for the future career?
Majored in biz English, 1.5yrs working experience as a language tutor,2yrs working experience as a sales team admin in a IT company.
thanks in advance!
Milly from China
Hi Geri,
Thanks for lots of information! I have done my bachelors in electronics engineering and have a work experience of total 2 yrs at a big manufacturing firm. I have been offered the role of a business analyst.
I would like to know what career path options are possible if i dive into this role. because I am interested in making my career on the management path. I have heard that mostly people go into either the operations mgt side( i am nt sure what all it encompasses) or project management side.Where do these paths lead in the long run?
Also given my level of experience would it be a good time to get into it?
What other courses/training do you recommend to succeed in this role?
Thanks
-Tammy
Dear Geri,
It is an interesting and useful information. Coming to my case, I’ve completed my Engineering and MBA. I do not have any technical experience. I wanted to see my self as a BA. Could u plz let me know the possible options to start my career as BA??
will be waiting for your valuable information.
Hello Geri,
This is a great article and I regret having read it so late. Anyways, Thanks!
Your article has instilled in me the confidence that you might be the right person to guide me with career decision. I have approx 4.5 yrs of experience in IT industry and have been working on SCM modules in ERP. At this point I want to move away from IT roles and get into a functional role. However I would not want to be a functional consultant and confine myself to a product. Hence I want to build on the knowledge I have on SCM and work as BA in Supply Chain Domain. I am considering doing CSCP from APICS to boost my knowledge as well as to certify myself. Is this the right option at this point? Will it help me in find a BA role?
Would appreciate your views in this regard.
Thanks Again!
Dear Geri,
I need advice please. I am working as an accountant from last 3.5 years and currently I have two job offers in my hand i.e. Business Analyst & Financial Accountant. I am very confused between these two options. Currently, I am also pursuing CPA and in 10-15 years of time, want to be a part of management level. If my long term goal is COO, than what is best, BA or FA.
Many thanks for your help and time in advance
Regards,
Rann
Hi,
This post is really very beneficial to me…. Currently I am working as a Business Analyst from 1 year and previously i have worked as a software developer. Now I m searching for other BA job opportunity for better learning as i m not getting good work here. I have few job opportunities but have some confusion..which one is better.
- 1 opportunity is for “Pre-sales BA” role but that company is small sized, services based and giving small package with 1 year bond and 3 months notice period,
- where as other opportunity is for “System Analyst” role & company is large sized comparatively, Product based, giving better package and no bond.
- System Analyst role includes analyzing User Stories regarding enhancement in product provided by other department, Writing SQL queries, preparing Specifications and providing to development team, testing the developed modules and optimizing database. Here I wl get to learn only about one domain and one technology. This role will take my career towards DBA or Project Mgmt…
- Pre-Sales BA role includes preparing RFP, understanding Clients request, supporting technical team for client quereis, preparing specifications, other documents. Here I wl get to learn about many domains and different technologies. This role will take my career towards pure BA Role…
I am capable to perform both kinds of role..but I dont know which one is better…
Please suggest me, I should move towards which ROLE.
Thanks & Regards,
Sherlock
Matt -
Though there is a lot of overlap, these 3 roles require some very different kinds of experience.
The first thing is for you to pick one role to focus on:
A BA tends to work on IT projects or is involved with creating and maintaining the business processes in the company. Many BA’s are Subject Matter Experts (SME) in a particular area of business. A software engineering background is not an obvious one to move into a BA role, though many people have done exactly that.
A Project Manager is very broad, as you might have noticed from your PMP exam. What kinds of projects do you want to manage? If you are looking for Project Manager in IT, your background is very helpful.
A Product Manager is a marketing role. A Product Manager manages one or more products that are sold to customers of the company. If your MBA has a marketing focus and you are looking for a Product Manager role in a company that sells high tech products, your background might be useful for this position.
From what you have posted, your most obvious next career move is Project Manager in a software development or IT organization. I think the other roles it will be more difficult for you to convince someone that you have the right background for it. Not impossible! Just a longer process.
Hope that helps.
Geri
Hy Shyamsunder -
It sounds like you are on the right path for what you want to do. Since you have been changing roles, keeping your experience in one domain is very helpful.
Think about what kind of management you want to do in Investment Banking. Knowing where you want to end up will help you decide the experience you need.
Are you thinking about managing IT software projects at such a company? Then you are on the right path now. In the next few years, try to get assigned as a project manager on some smaller projects. As you gain experience, you will work on larger projects.
Are you thinking of managing a finance department? This is where your MBA in Finance could be useful. In that case, you would want to use your experience as a BA to find a position in the finance department (I am not familiar with finance so cannot suggest a role), and work your way into a management position in that department.
Are you thinking of upper level management? If so, you want to use your BA skills to find a position in Finance, Sales, or Marketing. These are the departments that most upper level managers come from, because they are closest to the business side of the company. Technology background does not really help for upper level management. It does not even help to get a CIO position.
Other possibilities would be to move into an Investor role, and from there become a manager. With your technical experience, BA experience, and Finance MBA you might find you enjoy Auditing. I do not think that would lead to management in Investment Banking though. Auditors tend to work for Auditing companies.
Geri
Hi Milly -
Your language skills and tutoring experience are really great. A BA needs to be a good communicator, and your experience gives you that. Being in sales is really great from a business perspective because you learn about the products that your company sells, you learn about the customers, and you learn about the market place. If you like the domain, then I would suggest you stay in the same domain to take advantage of what you already know.
Have you considered working in the marketing department in Marketing Communications? That is another role that requires knowledge of your marketplace and customers, as well as requiring strong communication skills. It also brings you more into contact with business leaders inside your company. From there, you could move into a business analyst role at the enterprise level of the company, which I think would be a better fit for you than IT.
Look up “Business Architecture” – this is a growing field that uses a BA skill set but is focused on the Enterprise – the customers and value streams of the company. It is very influenced by LEAN management styles, so you could research that as well. I am currently working on a book on this topic – there are some exciting developments in this area, and because it is new, you could be one of the first people doing this work.
If you really like the business side of things, then you might also consider an MBA over time.
Geri
Hi Tammy -
Electronics engineering and business analysis are very different career paths. The first is very technical, focused a lot on machines and technology. The second is very business oriented, focusing on the business, the people working in the business, the customers of the business, and their needs.
I made a video describing different career paths for a Business Analyst. A lot of these career paths are different kinds of management. You can find the video here: http://www.wyyzzk.com/BAFundamentals/Careers.mp4 I think this will give you more ideas.
The different kinds of management require different backgrounds and experience. I think after you review the video, it will help you see what kind of management you might like, which will help you determine the training you need. For example, Project Management and Executive Management are very different and would require different kinds of training.
Geri
Hello Rakesh -
For a BA role, think about the domain you want to work in. What kind of a BA are you interested in? A BA needs business knowledge. The MBA is good, but what area of business are you interested in? Accounting, Finance, Sales, Marketing, IT, Banking…?
With degrees in Engineering and MBA, the most obvious place to start would be in IT. So you would look for an entry level BA job in an IT department. This is probably easiest to find in a large company. A large company tends to have many levels of roles (entry level BA, junior BA, senior BA) where a smaller company is more likely to want experienced people to start.
So a possible approach would be: Decide what kind of industry you want to work in, find a big company in that industry, and apply for a BA job in the IT department.
Geri
Hello Bharath -
I am not very familiar with the operations side of a company. What you have outlined as a career path does look to be quite reasonable, because you are using your existing knowledge of the domain. It is always easier to change to a new role when you stay in the same domain.
When developing the SCM modules in ERP, have you been able to talk directly with the people in ERP, the business folks who are asking you to develop the modules? That might be a place to start – to do some of the BA work now as part of your current job. As you get to know the ERP people in your company, you can talk with them about what you need to do to work in their department.
The CSCP certification would show that you are serious about being an expert in this area. I think this would be very useful, but talking with people who do this work would help you find out if they think this is important.
Geri
Hello Rann -
What part of the company is the Business Analyst job in? If it is in IT, then it takes you away from your career goal. If it is in Finance (a financial business analyst) this might move you toward your career goals. Working in Accounting is also more likely to move you toward an executive management position than working in IT.
Executive Management tends to come from the “money” parts of the company – Finance, Sales, Marketing – and from departments that support the value streams of the business. In most companies IT is a supporting organization and therefore few executives come from IT.
A Financial Business Analyst seems like it would be more likely to lead to executive management than Financial Accountant, but I do not know Finance well enough to be sure about that. If both jobs are within the finance department / domain, then I would suggest you look for someone with 10 years or more finance experience as ask which they think is best for your career goals.
Geri
Hello Sherlock -
Which role is better depends on your career goals. Both jobs are interesting, but will lead you to different careers. The System Analyst role will keep you focused on technology. The pre-sales BA role will give you more interactions with people.
The pre-sales BA provides more opportunities than what you have described because you will be focused on the customers. In that role, you might choose to go into a sales job (where you are the sales person) or you might choose to go into marketing. With sales and marketing experience, you might decide to pursue an MBA and executive management. You could also choose to move back into IT as a BA there.
From Systems Analysis, as you point out, your career path is probably DBA or Project Manager.
So which interests you more – technology or business? If you are more interested in technology, then the system analyst role may be a better choice. If you are more interested in business, then pre-sales BA could be good.
Geri
After having had spent 10 years leading or project-managing application development projects for small businesses in the 90′s, I transitioned to an 8-year stint as a PMP-certified Infrastructure Project Manager for a large financial services company. I’ve built a reputation for precise budget and schedule control, however my favorite part of Project Management is requirements management (solicitation, documentation and validation).
The company’s core competency is financial services. Although we offer white-glove investing consultation, we primarily service our customers through our web and intranet channels. IT is considered an operational cost center in our firm, so there is a steady drive towards supporting the lines of business with as little overhead (headcount) as possible. I am very detail-oriented and analytical, so the bias towards productivity over quality frustrates me.
I currently have 2 lateral career opportunites that might better leverage my analytical abilites, penchant for efficiency, and skill at ambassadoring consensus. One is a Business Analyst position for a department that develops custom reports to help multiple lines of business track transaction history and customer behaviorial patterns. The other is an Software Project Manager position to manage an aggressive release schedule for of a highly complex and transactional global institutional payments system. My dream would be some combination, i.e. a Business Analyst for a highly transactional application … but that’s not what’s being offered to me now.
My utlimate goal is run a profit center. I appreciate the advice in your video that a MBA is essential for anyone pursuing an executive career path, however going back to school is not practical for me (for at least another 2 years). For a 3-year plan, though, how can I decide which of my 2 opportunities might bring me closer to my ultimate goal?
Hi Stephen -
Since you have had a lot of jobs with responsibility, I would look at the departments the jobs are in. If your goal is to run a profit center, then if either of the jobs you are offered is in a profit center, that would more likely move you toward your goal.
The PM job you describe has a lot of responsibility, which is a good background for managing a profit center. If the job is in IT, a supporting organization, it is not a clear career path into a profit center. You have the responsibility, but not the profit center experience.
The BA role is not obviously one of increased responsibility, but if it is a job in a profit center, then this might be the better choice. Being part of a profit center would allow you to progress your career in a profit center. And it does appear to be a challenging position that would give you the opportunity to impact the efficiency of the company in a positive way. This would be a good recommendation for increasingly responsible positions in a profit center, because you will have proved you understand the needs of the business.
The two areas to consider are: responsibility of the role, and the department the job is in. In general, if you want to lead a profit center, you want experience in a profit center. You also want to show that you have been handling increasing responsibility over time, but it appears you are strong in that regard anyway.
Hope that helps you clarify your thoughts –
Geri
Hi Geri,
Thanks for your reply…
If I go for System Analyst role..then in future I can also have opportunity for Business Analyst role… right ? and System Analyst role will be in Financial Domain… howz the career in financial domain ?
Howz Project Co-ordinator role… Can one move towards this role?
Thanks & Regards,
Sherlock
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