I have been working for a publishing house for 17 years. I started my career there as a PA to a Production Director (1990), then applied for a role in the IT Helpdesk (1995) and then ended up as the sole IT Trainer (1997) for the company. By 2003 I was about ready to leave, however, I managed to successfully rollout a critical marketing expense application which saved the company a lot of money. I was promoted to Business Analyst by the end of that year. I became part of Business Intelligence team. I have been solely involved with requirements analysis, support and training for Cognos Powerplay (front-end only) and our in-house .Net business information application. A bit of an all-rounder you might say. We now have a new IT Director, and it is only now that I have become involved vendor selection, business case authoring etc for the procurement of an enterprise content management system. I have had very little formal training and I do not hold a degree/professional qualifications. I am at a loss as to whether to leave and freelance elsewhere or just stay where I am. I think I am at disadvantage due to my age (40 this year)/length of service at one company. Any advice would be most welcome.
First of all, at 40 you are still young! You still have 25+ years left in the work field if you decide to work at least until 65. Second, employers don't care about the age but about your ability to perform the job and deliver.
Here are some off the cuff thoughts on your situation:
My gut feeling tells me that you should stay with your current employer until your take one or more business analysis training courses and you feel comfortable with the new methods, constructs, and tools you learned about. Since you already have the job and title of BA, use the current employer to practice what you are learning. This could go a a few ways: your current employer might really appreciate your new skills and your ability to help them formalize the role of the BA and related processes and procedures (more money, bigger role, etc) or this would be your stepping stone to move for a different company (within our outside the publishing industry).
Hope this helps! - Adrian
Adrian, many thanks for your feedback. You have given me a boost. I am based in the UK and I think the ISEB qualification (see http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.7704) seems to be the one most mentioned by agencies when advertising for staff here. Does the IIBA qualification have more recognition?
Regards G.
You are very welcome!
I believe that, in the long run, the IIBA certification will have more recognition than the ISEB. Having said that, they are very different and you can have both. In order to attain the CBAP one has to have the work experience and take a test. I don't believe the ISEB requires work experience just that you take the courses and you pass the test. So the ISEB would be suitable for somebody with less work experience in business analysis.
For the time being, I would say that going through the ISEB program would be a good way to go for you since you not only gain the ISEB diploma but it also forces you go through the 3 course courses: Business Analysis Essentials , Requirements Engineering, and Organisational Context.
Once you complete get your ISEB diploma you can always apply for the CBAP certification also and take the test. That way you'll have both!
- Adrian
brought to you by enabling practitioners & organizations to achieve their goals using:
enabling practitioners & organizations to achieve their goals using: