Newsletter
Facebook
Twitter
How To Achieve In Your Career
I am dedicating this article to answering a question posted by a business analyst. If you have a question or challenge about your business analyst career, post it as comment at the end of this article and I will answer it for you:
Having recently started in my first permanent position as a Business Analyst, I find the toughest challenge for me currently, is getting up to speed with the systems I have to analyse and develop (Risk Management and Finance Systems).
Now, 5 months later, I am thoroughly enjoying my BA role and tasks. However, I am considering moving into a contracting position. The primary reason would be for the money.
My fear however is that I would be moving into a contracting position prematurely and having read some of the posts in this string above, it seems that BA contractors have to be highly skilled.
Perhaps I should firstly ensure that my general BA skills are a lot more refined before putting myself into a position where I am required to be a specialist …
Any ideas?
It may shock you to find out that contract business analysts can earn up to 50% more than fulltime business analysts with the same skills, experience and training. The specifics of how much more you can earn as a contract business analyst (if money is your motivation) depends on the company you work for before making the jump to your contract business analyst career.
Some companies pay at the bottom of the pay range for fulltime business analyst careers while others are at the highend of the pay range derived from doing a salary survey for business analysts with comparable skill sets, experience or training.
However, even though contract business analysts are paid much more, they are required to highly skilled, competent or expert business analysts at what they do!
That is fair, isn’t it? Look at it from the IT Manager’s perspective. The IT Manager who pays a contract business analyst’s salary has to pay an additional premium or bonus to a staffing or recruiting firm for hiring you. So, the cost of hiring one (1) contract business analyst may end up being two (2) times the costs for fulltime business analysts.
The IT Manager who hires a contract business analysts has certain expectations including:
-
Skills: The contract business analyst has to be highly skilled at what they do. If they are not then they wouldn’t last long on their contracting gigs, because IT Managers don’t want to pay all that money out without getting a return on their investment
-
Experience: The contract business analyst has to be highly experienced at what they do. This does not necessarily mean that the contract business analyst would have 10 years of experience or anything like that … but that when it comes to specific skills like Use Cases or Requirements Elicitation, the contract business analyst is expected to have had a lot of exposure or experience in using those skills in several projects and business situations. In other words, IT Managers doesn’t want the contract business analyst to use their company as a learning experience. They are paying for your experience and they want you to start showing that from the moment you work in through the door
-
Education: The contract business analyst has to be highly informed, trained or educated in business analysis. IT Managers doesn’t expect to find gaps in the knowledge areas of their contract business analysts. They already have fulltime business analyst employees who need to be trained or educated. But you are expected to be at the top of your game and that includes having the requisite knowledge to get your job done quickly, excellently and without any issues.
In the end, only you can tell you whether you should make the jump to becoming a contract business analyst. The rewards can be really good. You may get paid a lot more, you may work on a lot of fast-paced projects where your leadership, skills and experience will be fully utilized.
However, you will also have to highly skilled, knowledgeable and experienced to succeed as a contract business analyst. Your must be able to perform, produce results quickly and prove to everyone that you are worth your hire!
If you have any question or challenge facing your career, go ahead and post it as a comment at the end of this article and I will address it for you.
If you enjoyed reading this article, Subscribe to Business Analyst(s) Boot Camps Newsletter
Looking To Advance Your Career?
About Training & Coaching Classes
- Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training
- Become A Leader Coaching
- SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training
- Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training
- Data Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Data Analyst Video Training
- Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training
Hello,
I think the the toughest challenge facing my career is compete in overseas environment career, especially working with the best people in the world of my career.
Maybe you can give me some advice or tips to struggle with that?
Thank You,
Cams
Cams:
I need more background information to answer your question.
Cams:
What type of career are you in (business analysis, web design, project management, computer programming) … ?
In what areas of your career are you facing these challenges (communication skills, etc.)?
What country do you live in?
Thank you
Hello,
My carrier in Business/System Analyst for 7 years, and currently my position is Software Quality Manager for 9 months. I’m 31 years old.
I want to facing my challenges career in communication skills, leadership skills, and management skills.
I live in Indonesia but from 2001 I work at foreign company, and currently my office in Singapore. So I want to compete in overseas environment i.e. U.S.A or Europe.
Thank you,
Cams
The toughest challenge facing me is “the transition from Senior Business Analyst to Lead Analyst”
Hi Kingsley,
I like your articles and posts and look forward to a good advise from you on the following :
The toughest challenge for me is to get back into Business Analysis after working for just less than 2 yrs where my domain was government sector projects and a dash of incomplete healthcare knowledge.
I ‘m neither a fresher nor an experienced guy with very less domain exp. I mostly get healthcare projects ( since my last project was on health care domain) where my knowledge is inadequate and companies do not want to employ me for the same.How can I bag such jobs when the domain knowlege is lacking? or how can I convince that my BA skills are good enough for the new domain?
I am not sure what additional skills I need to gain to be employable.Should I gain any technical knowledge or do IIBA certifications?
Please advise.
Thanks
Sri:
I answered your question in this article titled: “How To Become A Healthcare Business Analyst”; http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/14/how-to-become-a-healthcare-business-analyst/
Please recommend this article to all your friends and network
Thanks
from kintu vicent,
does bussiness analytists good for entreprenuers like supermarket owners,how?
also how is it better than business administration and management in bussiness?
give me samples of real application of it in bussiness analysing ,suppose with figures also how it can be used in worldly economics and evaluation of risk-takingof starting a new project?
Kintu:
I answered your question here” http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/03/alternate-career-paths-for-business-analysts/
Please refer the article to your friends using the “Tell a Friend” button
Thank you
Hi, I want to make my career in the field of Business Analyst., Could you please provide me some information so i can follow the path,
please find the below the exp detail of mine.
SHASHIDHAR T
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Having overall 3.9 years of experience, I undergone to various roles & responsibility like – campaigning events, Support, Project effort and cost estimates, lead generation, email campaign, market study (segments), company profiling, project costing, team management, requirements gathering (client interfacing), requirements analysis, documentation, presentation, Coordinate with teams like IT, Development, Training and Development, team handling, data processing/validation, preparing RFP/RFQ and Tenders for private and government organizations, event handling, internet marketing, PPT preparing/presentation, training & development for new joiners, report generation (daily, weekly, monthly and completed event report).
OBJECTIVE:
To take a challenging role as a Business Analyst and give an efficient and effective solution that would help the organization to achieve the best solution in business which would increase its productivity in market. Meanwhile want to work with a high level people to understand learn new strategy so I can implement in relevant situations.
GOAL:
Become a Business Enterprise Analyst.
EDUCATION:
Master of Business Administration, International Business, IIBR Pune, 2006
Master of Personal Management, Human Resource, Pune University, 2006
Bachelor of Commerce, Gulbarga University, 2003
SOFTWARE SKILLS:
Well versed with Microsoft Office Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word,
Windows OS – 98/2000, 2003, XP.
Diploma in Computer Software from Aptech Computer.
Basics of VB, MS-Access, DBMS, SQL, HTML.
SAS (Learning)
SOFT SKILLS:
Self Motivator/Quick Learner
Coordination between management and technical teams
Eager to learn new technology and work on that
Report generation
Ready to take up responsibility
Completion of work at a given period of time
Good communication (verbal, written)
Time management
Documentation
Hard worker
Database maintenance
Team player
Achieve the target at a given period of time
WORK HISTORY:
TATA Elxsi Pvt Ltd., Bangalore, India.
Executive – Business Development (Dec 2008 – Present)
Responsibility:
Market Study (Segments), Company Profiling, Project effort and cost estimates, Team Management, Requirements Gathering (Client Interfacing), Requirements Analysis, Drafting Project Brief, Documentation, Presentation, Coordinate with teams like IT, Development, Email campaign, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, Pres Sales activities, Responding to RFP/RFI, Preparing Proposal/Tenders, Lead Validation, Understanding Client Requirements, Market Research and getting new account to organization, finding out new opportunity from new client.
ICMG India Pvt Ltd., Bangalore, India
Business Consultant (Sept 2007- Dec 2008)
Responsibility:
Event Management, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, SEO (partly), Team Handling, Preparing PPT’s, Preparing Business Strategies and Functional Process, working closely with Managers and CMO to understand the various business strategies and functions in detail. Implementation of new ideas explores possible business opportunity making use of free sources to mitigating the company expenses. I learned a lot from my roles and responsibility say leadership quality, team handling, solving the problems, generating validated leads, coordination with management and team member, document maintenance, market understanding, business strategy, business process planning and many more activities.
ACTO Information System, Bangalore, India
Marketing Executive (May 2006- June 2007)
Responsibility:
Involved in various activities of marketing life cold calling, fixing up meeting, clients meet, presentation, proposal making, trouble-shooting and customer service