Hi everyone, I was hoping you could give me some feedback on what I have done so far and how i can use it to help me get my foot in the door as a BA.
I am graduating with a Master of Science in Information Systems this year. As part of this program, I have done courses in both Business and IT. (so I am a bit of a generalist, with no specific hard skill speciality). I have also worked as a Functional Analyst Intern for 6 months at a leading IT services company focused on HR. The internship involved working on an SAP HR implementation project where I got to work on Functional Design Documents, Process flow diagrams, Gap Fit analysis, scenario based test cases, perform some testing and a lot of support tasks. Before my Masters, I have two and a half years of experience in various positions. As a Project Manager in a start up, Classroom Instructor at a Education services company, Content Developer for E-learning courses at IBM and as a Intern at a research establishment getting some programming experience before I started grad school. I am currently preparing for the CAPM exam from PMI and hope to complete the exam and be certified by early July. I have an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. I would also like to add that I am very interested in Business Process Management, and I have spent a lot of time learning how to use Process Modeling software (downloading trial versions and exploring) and reading books about the subject. The only thing that remains is to get a job where I can put all this to practice. Which is proving to be the hardest part..... I would really appreciate any suggestion and advice that you all could give me about the best way to land a a BA position after I graduate.
First let me say that given your internships, experience, and education, you are about as well positioned as possible for what you are trying to get into (Business Process Management). However, I think you are going to run into a few challenges:
I would consider getting a job with one of the big management consulting firms. They often have a Strategy Consulting arm (often generically called management consulting) and an IT Consulting arm. Both of these can offer project experience in Business Process Management, though the Strategy Consulting would probably offer more opportunities. You will gain a lot of experience in a firm like this, and hopefully by expressing your interests you will be able to get placed on a few Business Process Management projects as well. Altogether, I would say you can't go wrong with this path.
If you have troubles getting into one of these companies as a consultant/analyst (back when I worked for and interviewed with these companies the hiring process was very stringent), then getting into a company that has a strong and well structured analysis organization would probably be your next bet. Over time you will be able to position yourself to take on Business Process Management activities or if they don't exist you can sell the organization on the important of Business Process Management and take it on yourself.
Thank you Chris, it makes me feel a lot more confident to hear that I am heading in the right direction. I have been applying to Business/Systems Analyst positions and I guess that since I do not have much experience, it will take some time. Also, I will focus my attention on the Strategy Consulting arms of some of the big consulting companies. They are very stringent and I am not sure how they would respond to someone without an MBA, but i will leave no stone unturned in my search.
Thanks again for taking the time to help me.
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