| sonam31 wrote
Hi everyone,
I need some expert advice. I am working as a Technical writer in Australia with software company. I have 3.5 years of experience in Technical Writing/Analyst . I have done my Masters in IT so i have knowledge about requirements elicitation, UML etc. I was called for interviews for BA roles, but they look for minimum of 1-2 years of Industry experience. I started looking for some certifications for it, but they are way too expensive.
Can you please advise me, how should i go about it, so that i can get into a BA role. Should i read some books or is it necessary for me to do BA certification, which can then be an asset in my Resume.
Looking for advise from everyone....... Thanks in advance.
Sona
|
Hi Sona,
You Masters in IT coupled with your experience as a technical writer should help you out. Reading books is good but nothing can compare with real experience. A few more things that you can do which could be used in lieu of work experience would be:
- Take a BA course which includes working on a hands-on project,
- Find a senior BA to mentor you and provide you feedback on the exact areas in which you many need to improve,
- Volunteer your time for a small company or not for profit organization to help them to the BA for a small project!
Stay away from certifications at this point since any credible certification requires around 5 years of work experience as a BA which you do not yet have.
Find an recruiter who specializes in placing Business Analysts and let them help you find a job. Go to as many interviews as you can because, first of all, you will get comfortable with the process but also you will begin to see what the interviewers are looking for. Make a point at the end of each interview to ask the interviewer if they have any suggestions as to what areas you can improve on and then write those things down and work on them. Consider the job interviews as "free" career advice since generally the interviewers are senior analysts or managers who many years of experience. Don't just let me give the "you don't have enough experience" line. Many companies do hire junior business systems analysts. Ask them what else they think you can do to improve your chances of landing a BA job.
Since you have IT and technical writing skills you might want to consider starting your career as systems analyst (creating functional specifications and designs) and then slowly moving into business analysis.
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
- Adrian