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The first thing I would do is ask the former colleague that exact question:  "Why do you think the Business Analyst position you are recommending is a good fit for me?"

Let me try to speculate on some of the reasons:

• Executive Admins are generally very good listeners who make sure they clearly understand what they are supposed to do - a trait important to any business analyst,
• Executive Admins are generally very organized and are used to recording all information down by date, by subject, person, etc. - another important trait,
• Executive Admins tend to be fairly good communicators as they deal with high-level execs - a must for BAs,
• Executive Admins are used to dealing with political situations without getting frustrated - good skills to have as the BA will have to deal with politics sooner or later,
• Since you have years of experience as an exec admin in the IT field you may already have an understanding of many of the concepts involved in developing new systems and perhaps even and understanding of how the business works if you have been working in the same industry all this time.

Having said this, this is not enough for you to jump into a BA career.  I would add one more "must".  That is great analytical and problem solving skills.  If have the communication skills and the analytical/problems solving skills then the business analyst profession is something to consider.

The next steps would be to read as much as you can about the profession and take an intro course to business analysis.  Going through a course would give you even more insight into the type of tasks that a BA performs so that you can make a decision if this is for you or not.

I would recommend you take a look at some of these resources:

• Book: Software Requirements, Second Edition by Karl Wiegers
• Blog Entry on the Role of the Business Analyst
• Articles on Getting Started as a Business Analyst
• Articles related to Career as a Business Analyst

Hope this helps!  Let us know if you have any more questions.

Best regards,

- Adrian

Hi Kitty,

You are very welcome!  Keep us posted on how things go... I am always interested to find out how others enter the BA profession.

- Adrian