Hi,
You have raised a few questions and I have responded to them in no particular order:
Industry experience: Again from a recruiter and BA perspective here is the issue: employers don't understand the BA role and realise it is a BENEFIT not to know the industry you are analysing user requirements for! The reason for this is that if you don't (think and assume) you already know about it then you ask all those dumb/obvious questions that everyone else takes for granted and more often than not that is where very real value for the business lies - the type of user repsonse I cherish which is "I never really thought about that before, I just assumed that...blah blah blah, but now you've asked I guess there isn't much reason to do that and I don't know why we don't do the other. Funny how we never thought about that before."
But employers don't get that so their number one criterion (almost universally) for a BA is relevant industry experience. FYI the 2 other major criteria that employers look for is (in order of importance): a degree level education in a 'hard' subject such as science, maths, etc - this is quite often mandatory - and a relevant BA qualification such as CBAP etc - this has always only ever been optional or desireable in my experience, and is usually not even requested. I am sure that they will help at the CV selection stage though.
So, if you want to get in to those interviews then get relevant industry experience in as many different industries as you can and it will help if you have a degree or equivalent.
Working practices and methods: given that business analysts define change requirements then all the working practices and methods are achieving the same end through (usually) different terminology and (sometimes) different techniques. Fundamentally, all practices and methods covering the same subject matter do the same job and cover the same ground and I refer you to my article "The Fundamentals of Business Analysis" for a fuller explanation of this.
Working with other BAs has (in my experience) been the best way to learn useful stuff that works in the real world - hence www.smart-BA.com
Qualities and skills: The application of logical, rational, justifiable thinking, and the interpersonal skills to extract and convey the products of that thinking to all those who need to make the decisions for the project in a way that does not confuse or antagonise them.
Career development: you can regard your career as a project and analyse what your requirements are. See the article "Starting Out As A Business Analyst" for a fuller explanation of this.
I hope some of the above helps...
Guy