Hello All,

At last I found a place with professionals to ask my questions to. I am in my early 30s and have been working in the medical-legal field (insides sales) for the past 5 years. Over that time, I realized that I have an interest in looking at processes, always trying to think about how to improve them/remove uncessary steps etc. I have been unhappy with my job and today I am looking at making a career change. Because of my newly found interests in dealing with operations and processes, I started looking into BA, Business Process Management and Business Process Improvement. The first thing I ran into was confusion. The roles of the practitioners in those fields seem similar (analizing/modeling processes and making recommendations to improve them if necessary). It is my understanding however that BPM and BPI are subsets (specializations) of BA. Is that correct?

In looking to make a career change, I've had to look into the skills necessary to work in those fields. It seems that most BAs and BPMs come two main backgrounds: Business and IT/computer science/Engineering. I don't any degree or professional experience in either.  All my education was done in Europe and I have two college degrees (Two Associates). One in Applied Foreign Languages. English and Spanish - applied to Business (Marketing, Accounting) and the other one in English Literature and Linguistics. I know I said that I didn't have any education in Business, but the in that first degree the Business-related classes were introductory and generic, and the emphasis was definitely on the foreign languages. I fell a few credits short of getting my BA in English Lit and Ling. I moved to the US before I could re-take the few exams I failed.

I am not a math person. I was terrible at Math in HS and didn't take any class in college. That is one thing that scares me since I think that getting an education in Business would entail taking a calculus class, and I even read that Business Analysts do perform some coding (is that correct?), meaning that their curriculum includes classes in computer science. I am creative and am also an analytical person but again,  math was not my forte. However I'd like to point out that I AM a computer person. I use them extensively even though I stay on the UI side of things. Knowing all this, do you think that I could still become a Business Analyst?

Lastly, I am trying to come up with the best strategy to make this career change. Since I do not have a Business or Computer Science background, what would you recommend I do first? Should I go back to school to learn the fundamentals of Business? I could credits from my French ABAs transfered and probably start school at the BA level. Or should I just start over and go for an ABA in Business? Or should I look into just taking A FEW CLASSES in Business Management to get a grasp on the basics, or maybe look into certification programs?

Sorry for the long and winded post, but I am currently standing at a crossroad in my life. It is all very confusing and I have a LOT of questions going around in my head (obviously) which I need answers for before making decisions and long-term commitments.

Thanks in advance for all and any help, answers and advice you can provide.

Cheers.

Gregory