Hi All,

This is Cshah , completed my BS and MS in Civil Engineering (major in Construction management) and i have 1.5 to 2 years of experience in the same field. Considering the economy condition right now , i dont see any scope of entry level to intermediate level job postions in my field.  Right now I am struggling a lot to get a job.  I am thinking of changing my field to Business Analysis and was wondering is this the right decision to make.  I have never worked with IT industry ever before.  How hard would it be for me to getting it started? Does it require knowledge of general IT industry? What do you generally seek in a person to become BA? What kind of situations you have to dealt with at work? What is the exact role of BA?

I have seen a lot of people are helping each other by giving very useful suggestions.  I hope i get some guidlines from any of you guys. Thanks a lot in advance for your time and reading this post.

Thanks,

CS

Thanks for the plug, Adrian.  Hope you don't mind if I drop by and put in my two pennyworth.

Hi CS 

I've known a number of engineers  who've crossed over to IT and several who haven't, and they do usually make great BAs.  The combination of systems thinking, process design skills,  the ability to work to a methodology, and when necessary the qualifications to out-geek developers all make engineers great BAs.  

The areas where engineers do sometimes have to play catch-up are

• accepting that when fast is right, right will often be wrong and

• occasionally some of the softer, touchy feely stuff arund requirements elicitation, providing training and writing comms.  

• It can also be frustrating if you want to take the route into IT architecture and can't.  

I think my key question is if you were 17 and choosing a college course, would you want one that led to being a Project Manager, one that led to being a BA or one that led to being a Software Engineer?  

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Ben