Hi,
I completed my bachelors degree in engineering (IT) from Bombay University. Then I worked with a Fortune 500 company in Bombay as a software consultant for 3 years. I have worked on complete project cycles and have experience on VC++ and C# development. After 3 years I took up an MBA (General Management) from one of the top MBA programs in UK.
I plan to move into Business Analyst role. However the challenge I am facing is that I have not been working in any domain. As in the products that we used to make were used by customers within the energy industry and we worked on the software for real time display and had no real industry exposure. So unlike other software engineers I havent had any insurance / telecom / finance industry exposure. So maybe I could just say that I have been in the technology domain.So I am wondering what is the best way to build on my technical experience and business education.
It's been mentioned in other posts that you don't necessarily need industry background to break in as a BA. The key to being a good BA is being able to quickly learn and understand a business and its main strategic and operational drivers, understanding the strategic fit of a project into that business framework, and being able to effectively translate business information and requirements into a language understood by the technical team.
While it's always desirable to have specific domain knowledge, I wouldn't let it hold you back. Since you were working in the energy industry I think it's valid to say that (provided you want to get a BA job in that realm). I'm sure you had to pick up a little bit about what was going on with your coworkers. If you didn't but still have contact with them, then I suggest going back to them and get a basic understanding of that world. You don't need to know all the ins and outs, but you need to be able to demonstrate that you can pick it up on the fly.
I definitely agree that, while helpful, specific domain knowledge is not necessary to begin a Business Analyst career. I would suggest to make sure you master the core competencies needed for Business Analysis: excellent communication skills (verbal & written), meeting/group facilitation skills, analytical & problem solving skills, business process analysis & modeling, requirements elicitation techniques, requirements documentation & management methods, solution modeling techniques (use case models, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams, structured English, decision tables, etc.).
If you are interested in a specific business domain then you can always take courses specific to that business domain - just make sure is something that you have a passion for.
- Adrian
I agree with Larimar. You don't necessarily need industry experience to be a good BA. Your first challenge will be to gain BA experience. Some of what is taught in MBA schools can be very helpful for BA work. However, you need to pick up some basic Business Analyst skills to make yourself marketable. I would recommend taking a training course to gain some solid fundamentals.
Then being trying to apply these new skills in whatever job you are in. Even though you aren't a Business Analyst in your company, you still can take it upon yourself to apply whatever new BA skills you learned from the training in your free time .
brought to you by enabling practitioners & organizations to achieve their goals using:
enabling practitioners & organizations to achieve their goals using: