How To Get An IT Business Analyst Job

Part 3 of 23 in the Series: The Business Analyst Job Description

jobs-employment-recession

On of my readers needs help with finding a business analyst job. I posted the information I provided to him below. If you have any question about this or about your business analyst career, post it as comment at the end of the post and I would answer it for you.

Here is the business analyst career question posted by my reader:

Hi – my greatest challenge is the fact that I’ve never held an IT Business Analyst position. I’m convinced I can do the job based on my experience, but I have not had any interviews outside of my current employer. I had a few interviews in my current company but was being sabotaged by my former boss so I never got the job.

As the economy has dived over the last few months, I am not getting any offers for interviews. I’ve given up trying to get into the IT Bus Analyst field for now.

What do I need to do to get back into the ‘hunt’? And, how do I convey to potential employers that I am the man for the job?

Below is my response to the question posed by this reader. If you have any questions that you want answered about your business analyst careers, post it below:

Why Do IT Managers Hire Business Analysts

IT Managers hire business analysts with skills, training and experience matching specific jobs. IT Managers have a wide range of requirements for business analysts. The most in-demand skills for business analysts include UML, Use Cases, Requirements Elicitation.

IT Managers Are Looking For Hands-on Business Analysis Experience

The Key to getting a business analyst job is to find out what employes or hiring managers are looking for and then give it to them.

This sounds quite easy and simple, but believe me, it is not that easy. There is a lot that goes into following this simple directive.

What are IT Managers hiring for? IT Managers are looking for hands-on skills, experience and expertise in specific knowledge areas. You may already have some of the requisite skills and experience based on your previous or current job experience. Some of the list of skills is frequent demand are included in the business analyst career curriculum:

Tailor Your Resume To Business Analyst Jobs

You may already be able to do a business analyst job based on your current experience … so, why not also work on improving your current resume so that it reflects the experience or skills you may already have in business analysis?

Begin by highlighting and expanding on the business analysis tasks you have performed in the past. Put more spotlight on the skills you utilized, the business analysis roles and responsibilities you held (formally or informally) and the results you achieved.

You want to joggle your memory and bring out every relevant detail. Imagine that you are making your case in front of a skeptical judge. Your prosecutor is the list of job candidates that would make a better presentation than you. The arguments in your favor is your resume.

Your business analyst resume has to be very convincing for you to get the job.

Improve Your Business Analyst Resume

The strongest argument that you can make will be along the lines of experience, resume and skills. So, you want to marshal all your arguments forcefully on your resume because if you don’t, you may never get a second chance.

If your resume is not convincing, you may not get a second chance or a follow-up phone interview or a face to face interview or the job or an offer or the ability to pay your mortgage … you get the picture?

Add More hands-on business analysis experience to your resume!

The fastest way to get hired for an IT business analyst job is not your educational qualification or your business analysis certification but your hand-on business analysis experience! Are you surprised about that?

IT Managers know that certifications can sometimes be gamed! There are horror stories about job candidates who have the perfect certifications and the perfect scores and then fail to perform on the job after they are hired! These sorts of candidates have damaged the credibility of the certification market!

But experience cannot be gamed. It either you have it or you don’t. Because IT Managers are looking for hands-on experience, your can cut to the chase by getting a lot of hands-on business analyst experience such as that offered through the business analyst boot camp training. There are other ways to gain hands-on experience and I discuss this next.

Start again by volunteering for non-profit organizations. They are plenty of them around and in this recession they will be needing your help even more!
Do a good job and ask the non-profit organization to provide you a reference for for the work you’ve done for them.
Use your spare time in the evenings and weekends to rack up your experience and references.
Then go on a job hunt. Start by sending your resume to multiple recruiters (not just one or two recruiters) … telling them that you are in the market for a business analyst job … then just sit back and wait for them to line up business analyst job interviews for you.
That is all you need to do. Take massive action towards landing your dream business analyst job and while you are on it, forget about the economy or the recession or your manager who denied you the opportunity to move ahead.

FYI: Stephen Covey in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” mentions that proactive people do not worry or focus on factors or things over which they have little or no control … instead they focus on their “Sphere Of Influence” … those factors or circumstances over which they exercise control.

So, while you may not be able to change the past or the economy or the recession, you can dramatically improve:

Your Business Analyst Resume
Your Business Analyst Hands On Experience
Your Business Analysis Job Interview Skills

If you have any question or challenge about your business analyst career, go ahead and post it as a comment at the end of this article and I will address it for you.

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«Getting Back Into The Job Market: How To Start A Business Analyst Career

How To Get Business Analyst Job Interviews»

maggie

I did not intend to be IT BA, sorry, maybe give u wrong information.

What I want to do is Business Analyst, I have no experience about BA, so can u tell me how to get it start?

Kingsley Tagbo

Maggie:

I can definitely tell you how to get your BA career started.

Can you tell me why you want to be a BA and not an IT BA?

What differences do you see between a BA Career and an IT BA Career?

Thank you

Can you specify different non-profit organizations or places to inquire about volunteering to get hands-on experience?

I am trying to break into this field but even by reading and not doing, I can easily get stumped in interviews and the hiring manager quickly decides I am probably incapable of the job.

I need hands on but don’t know where or how to get it.

Thanks.

Kingsley Tagbo

GJ:

1.)Self Study: reading business analysis topics alone will not provide you with the hands-on eexperience that hiring managers are looking for.

2.) Business Analyst Training: Just getting business analyst training will alone will not help either because even though you will get an in-depth knowledge from a business analyst training program, you won’t get hands-on experience or practical business analysis skills from most training events

3.) Certification: Getting business analyst certification is not the same thing as getting handson business analyst experience either. This article explains why: http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/03/09/which-comes-first-certification-or-training/

You need a training program like our job search training program or our business analyst boot camp training that is specificaly designed to help you get hands-on business analysis experience or real-world skills.

The information that you are looking for is actually covered during our job search coaching and the practical skills is covered during our business analyst boot camp.

Please let me know if you have any questions about either or these programs

Hi,

Thanks for the great post. I am having an interview tomorrow for an IT BA position. Hope I get it!

I have the same question as GJ: Can you specify different non-profit organizations or places to inquire about volunteering to get hands-on experience?

Thanks!

Theresa

I am currently in my third year of school and I am interesting in becoming a business analyst.

I recently took a computer class and it caused my interest in databases. My major is in finance.

I am looking for ideas on how to improve my resume and get hands on experience while I am still working towards my degree.

Do you have any ideas? What type of non-profit organizations or places would be good to inquire about volunterring to get hands on experience?

Theresa:

Your background in Finance and your interest in databases matches that of a “would be business analyst.

It is also a great idea to gian hands-on experience before you finish from college. I did the same thing more than 15 years ago, and it helped me greatly.

I have written articles on this site on how to get hands-on business analysis experience. You are welcoem to take advantage of those articles.

Right now, I don’t have a list of non-profit organizations. You should be able to compile that and perhaps share that with the members of this site.

On the other hand, I may put together a more professional, internship program for business analysts. If I do, be sure to sign up for the news and to take advantage of that.

Let me know if I can be of service in any other way.

Best Wishes

What are some suggestions for the unemployed and those that cannot afford paid training?

Kingsley Tagbo

GJ:

That is a really good question. Your question “What are some suggestions for the unemployed and those that cannot afford paid training?” has been on my mind for a while, but I must confess, I haven’t done something to address it.

So, I am going to give analyze the options carefully and then get back to you perhaps today or next week.

But thank you for asking

- GJ
  
  Hello;
  
  I am awaiting your reply. Have you had the opportunity to address the options for the unemployed wanting training? Thank you.
  
  GJ
  
  - IT Career Coach
    
    #jobs: GJ, we are working on a plan to mentor or coach unemployed IT professionals including those interested in becoming project managers or software testers or starting some other career.
    
    You should be hearing some announcements this week … and of course, you should be one of the very first to participate
    
  - IT Career Coach
    
    We still have you on our mind and will be getting back to you soon, OK?

Nikki

When attempting to volunteer at a nonprofit for hands on experience, what type of position/area should I ask to be placed in?

Nikki:

When volunteering at a nonprofit for hands on experience, ask to be placed in the Systems or Information Technology (IT) department or area.

Thank you

Penguin19

Hello!

Is this the right kind of market to be looking for BA jobs?

I am a Comp Sci + Econ major, working as IT developer since 4-5 yrs.

I am planning to make a switch to BA. Most of my duties revolve around getting with the user to support in house apps.

My question is, is this the right time to be looking for this kind of opportunity?

Appreciate your time and comments in advance!

Kingsley Tagbo

Hi:

It is a competitive job market … but what are the options?

What are your options if you don’t go for a business analyst job?

IT Career Coach

the right time to switch to a BA job is now because there will always a challenge in front of you.

Asking the question makes it sound like you don’t have a genuine reason, strong motivation or good enough reason to become a business analyst.

There is no good time or bad time to become a busines analyst or switch your career to business analysis.

If you say that the economy is recovering or improving and because of that, you should become a business analyst, you would be facing competition from others switching careers to business analysis.

if you say that this is not a good time to switch careers and become a business analyst, it means that others wanting to switch careers are going to be thinking the same thing … this is not a good time to switch careers and become a business analyst. Because of the lower competition, your resume will receive more attention as well.

There is no right time or wrong time to do what you love.

Besides, if you start now, you will figure out what you have to do to switch your career earlier.

So, decide if you want to switch careers to business analysis and then become a business analyst … if this is the right time for you based on your readiness and not based on how good or bad you think the job market is!

Ali

Hello sir,

I’m interested in pursuing a career as a BA. I have an undergraduate degree in finance, and I’m thinking of doing a 1 year Business Analyst postgraduate program at a community college. I have 1 year project management experience, and 1 year technical support experience. (recent graduate)

My question to you:

1. is it worth doing the 1 year postgraduate program at the Community College?
2. what is the job market for this profession?
3. can I get work sponsorship in the States?

I have 17 years of experience in project and operations management, but in a non IT field.

In my current job as an operations manager my main responsibility is to gather requirements from different departments and suggest process improvements.

i have a good knowledge of excel, VBA and have developed many user interfaces for transaction processing and manifest planning. can i make a move into a BA role and how?

Marco

I have 7 years technical experience in Oracle development. I have lead numerous projects in the past. I got a job offer for Business Analyst for Oracle. I was wondering if this holds a good future in my career. Could you enlighten me?

jyotsana

Hi!

I am an engineer graduate in electronics & telecommunication.

Can you tell me how can I perceive my carreer in business analyst.

My percentage is very less so i need to know how to overcome to get a job.will be awaiting for your reply
thx & regards

IT Career Coach

College degrees or majors have little to do with becoming a business analyst.

Employers do not expect you to learn business analysis in college. Even if you did, they won’t pay attention to that because they are looking for your hands-on business analysis experience or training.

Notice that I said hands-on business analysis training or experience because … you can get hands-on business analysis experience even from a training program like the “Business Analyst Boot Camp”.

So in the real world, your academic training has less of an impact on your career than what you actually do with it!

SHANJAY

IM A MS(CHEMISTRY) DEGREE HOLDER WITH INTERMEDIATE COMMUNICATION AND MS OFFICE SKILLS.

CAN I BECOME A BUSINESS ANALYST?

IT Career Coach

#businessanalyst : your BA career prospects is not tied to your education or lack of it. You simply have to learn what business analysts do, get some handson experience and then rewrite your resume with that information.

So, yes you can become a business analyst with an MS in Chemistry and MS Office Skills!

Hai,
I Have an experience of 13 years of experience in Sales of Banking, Insurance and Investment products. Will I be fit for Business Analyst.

IT Career Coach

#businessanalysts #jobs you are fit for a business analyst career when you take the time to learn business analysis and you take the time to get hands-on business analysis experience.

As a Sales, Banking, Insurance and Investment professional you can focus on becoming a Domain Business Analyst by getting some BA Experience, Training and then look for to leverage your current domain experience doing business analysis.

Bee

I want to know the non-profit organizations in TX who would give me hands on training to learn BA.I have no IT background that why I want to become just BA and not an IT BA.I dont know anything about technology.
Where do I find such organizations and how do I approach them??

IT Career Coach

#texas #nonprofit non-profit business analyst training does not exist.

You need to stop looking for companies that would train you for free becase that the chances of you finding a needle in a haystack is better than that.

First get the training and then look for companies that would employ you or hire you because you are a trained and competent professional.

Twenty years ago, the norm was for companies (non-profit or for-profit) to train you after the hired you. You were promised a plethora of training and career advancement opportunities and the burden was in the employer to take care of you.

These days, the burden is on you to get trained and competent and then hire yourself out for wages.

It is a completely different mindset!

Jyoti Bhadoria

Hi.

This is jyoti Bhadoria from Pune.

I am working with life insurance co. and total work exp of Insurance in 4 & half yrs. but now i want to work in IT sector as a business analyst.

I asked so many friends they are working in IT sectors But not as abusiness analyst.some of friends are saying that learn UML& MS-visio.

But in pune I am not finding these courses so please suggest me what should i do?

I am not having any exp of Business analyst.

Thanks

IT Career Coach

Learning UML & Vision does not make you into a business analyst! Sofftware Programmers and Testers as well as Technical Writers use Visio & UML and yet they are not business analysts.

Don’t be Tool-Minded. I know that a lot of people are because they can learn a specific Software or Tool like Java, SAP, Microsoft.NET and then get a job based on that.

But becoming a business analyst has nothing to do with learning a software or tool. It has a lot to do with learning business analysis concepts like UML (the proces and nto the tool), Use Cases, Requirements Elicitation, etc.

I suggest that you take the time to famililiarize yourself with the skills requirements for business analysis jobs as discussed in the business analyst curriculum here.

Abraham Ilori

I have a degree in Economics, buti have not be able to work in my area of knowledge, i have a interest in Business Analyst, What do you think i can do.

IT Career Coach

Learn business analysis from scratch. A degree in Economics, an MBA or a business degree are good starting points but are not required for a business analysis job.

A business degree (economics, MBA, etc.) does not qualify you for a business analyst job because the educational requirements are specialized. By that I mean that they are not transferable from other industries or occupations.

This may seem hard to you considering that you have already spent so many years in college which is a good thing by itself … just not what you need to transition into a business analyst career.

With that in mind, it doesn’t matter if your first degree was uin economics or social sciences or computer science,. And no you should not pl;an on going back to college again to learn business analysis

If you are interested in learning more about the educational requirements for a business analysis job, I suggest that you download the curriculum provided here

rajendra

hi,

I do have 4 yrs experience in medical insurance( wrkd as a subject matter expert). Because of my masters programme i left my job and now i’ve completed my masters.(i do have a gap of 16 months). I would like to go as a BA in medical insurance. Please advice whether i can go as a BA or not.

is my master’s going to help me. if yes, how.

if possible pls post a few sample medical insurance sample resumes

Thanks a lot