? for business analysts

bonecrusher

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Location
Indian Trail, NC
I don't know if anyone here is a Business Analyst. However, Im gonna ask anyway in hopes that someone will be able to answer my question or know someone who can answer my question.

I have a BS in computer information science
an associates in liberal arts and another in Compsci

I have years of customer service work and years of sales work
I have a few years of IT network admin experience and some other computer project experience

How do I become a Business Analyst with my experience level.

What path did you take and whats most effective to getting into that interview?

If anyone can help or knows anyone who can help I sure would appreciate it.
 
just don't become a fucking Project manager.. Bane of my existance.
 
Oh dear god.
People WANT this job?
I'm doing ANYTHING to get out of it.
As for the path I took, basically it was transfers/promotions to avoid getting laid off as they closed plants. (That's how I ended up in NC)
Unfortunately the Business Analysts and Business Systems Analysts (the latter is what I actually am) seem to be the quick ones to be let go when the layoffs start.
At least in my company the difference between those two, the Business Analysts know the business side in and out. Typically came from finance, procurement some part of the "business" while the business systems analysts came from various IT backgrounds.
I started as a programmer for Ericsson, got sold, merged, moved etc etc, ended up here.
As sad as it sounds, (at least to Rich :D ) only two choices for promotion it seems are to get my PMP (yes, Rich I cringe/curse too) or to go into "real" management.
As for how to "get" into a BA or BSA position? Most decent ones I've seen have come from internal. Either that or you have to know a LOT about the internals of the company and their business model.

When you do get an interview, make sure to read as MUCH as you can about the company on their site. Walking into the interview not knowing their core business would look bad.

Good luck.
 
I'm not one, but part of my job is to analize a business compared to the rest of the market for investor purchasing purposes. I would imagine though that ALOT of it would be financing backround requirements as well as what was said about being from inside the company. I wouldn't want to waiste my time with somebody that had not worked in that particular type of industry from the ground up to know whats involved in the production of the particular product/products.
 
I work at GlaxoSmithKline, and was a Business Analyst, am now called a Process Analyst and do less requirements work and more process improvement and facilitation. But really still the same thing.

Anyway, can't really help you with how to get in the door - I was orignially a programmer here, and as part of my job started doing BA work before they called it BA, and then applied for an "official" BA job when one became available. So I moved into this job from the inside, based on the BA work I had already done for the company.

External people that are hired into my immediate group at GSK usually have previous BA experience, some sort of BA certification, and/or 6-Sigma Greenbelt certification.

If you can get in somewhere without these certifications, some companies will pay for you to get certified, which is nice.

Check out the IIBA chapter in your area if you haven't heard of it before. Here's a link to the Philly chapter. http://philadelphia.theiiba.org/Content/default.asp

Looks like they have some events you could attend, and a job posting section (see "Careers" link at top).

GSK's co-US headquarters is in Philly, so would not be a bad idea to look for jobs there. Here's the GSK job search:
http://us.gsk.com/html/career/career-search-apply-jobs.html

Hope this helps!
 
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