Hi All
Firstly a disclaimer. I've been doing some volunteer work for ModernAnalyst.com with Chris and he's been very patient with me especially over the prototyping - so thanks for that Chris.
I'd just like to provide a bit of a testimonial on the interview Q&A on this site particularly Chris'es material. I've completed a post grad cert in systems analysis and I would thoroughly recommend that along with ITIL or CMMI or other IT service management framework and some basic project management study. Understanding IT Service Models and the Project Process is a big help in getting along with PMs and when you're called on to manage a project phase. I'm a technical BA so a lot of my study time is on technical and domain learning rather than straight BA topics. I get plenty of BA experience in my day job!
But whenever I'm in the market which happens a bit now as I'm contracting I use the interview process to refresh and deepen my BA knowledge. Nothing like an impending interview to focus the attention! I've found the interview Q&A helps: provide some context for my war stories; gives me questions to ask at interview; keeps me abreast of developments in the field and fills in gaps. It also provides me with new tools and context to improve my day job - particularly the appended comments/discussion. Thoroughly recommended.
The result - well my last foray into the market I fielded 3 offers and I've accepted a long term contract as a senior BA so far so good. Of course book learning won't replace experience but a combination of the two is the best approach.
P.S. I do live in Australia so Chris won't be buying me any beers for this ;-)
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