Hello, everyone. I'm an ex-IT Pro who has only ever worked as the jack-of-all-trades "IT Guy" for small businesses. I have about 4 years experience as this, doing everything as it relates to IT: Programming, writing SQL queries, troubleshooting networks, helping users; the works. My last job a few months ago had me truly in the "Analyst" role as I was responsible for defining functional requirements by talking to the end users, creating specifications, and a little bit of project management as I was responsibile for coordinating with an offshore development team.
Now, I'd like to make the move full-time into being either a Systems or Business Analyst as I feel my skills are better suited to that; I don't have true programming experience (I'm entirely self-taught) but I know enough to understand and communicate effectively with programmers. I enjoy thinking at the high level, the whats and whys of software development, as opposed to the "how" or low-level (i.e. the actual code), but I can effectively communicate across IT departments since I've had to do all of those things myself in the past.
At present I only have an Associate of Science in Information Systems; I do however want to get my bachelor's degree, probably in Business Administration with a minor in MIS, and possibly a dual minor in either Economics or Management.
What should I look at doing in order to start on this career change? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
It sounds like you're well on your way to become a valuable business analyst as you've already been doing the work of the business analyst: solving their problems!
Being able to communicate with the business stakeholders and the end users in order to understand their problems is half the battle.
Business analysts don't need to be programmers - if they have a decent understanding of technology then even better.
I'm assuming that you would like to make the switch to a BA career as soon as possible. If that is the case, you might want to consider taking a couple of very focused business analysis courses which would provide you with an understanding of what you already know and what you don't know in regards to business analysis. They will also give you the confidence that you at least know what is involved in being a business analyst - after that you can learn on your own - as you go.
Once you land that BA job - focusing on completing your BA is a great idea and if you can get a masters degree - even better.
Best of luck!
- Adrian
Hi Adrian,
My case is similar to Wayne's. I have been working in IT for over 6 year. I am looking at moving to become a business analyst. I took a course in Durham college it is called Masters Certificate in BA. Can you please advice me how i can transition into this. I have My masters degree in business Administration.
Hi Seyifunmi,
It's almost always easier to transition into your first BA role within your current organization. that is where you have hopefully already built a solid reputation for quality work and a strong network of associates.
Express your interest in moving towards a BA role. Perhaps there are some small projects where you can split your time between your current role (where you are already adding value), and a new BA role where you will be getting the hands on experience you need.
If finding something internally just isn't possible, then you may be looking at taking a few steps back to a more junior BA role in another organization. If you decide to take this route and land an offer, be sure to express upfront that given you experience in IT and the leveragable skills you have that your expectation is that you can move up the ladder more rapidly than someone who lacks similar experience.
Hope this helps.
To switch into Business Analysis career, you need to understand the requirement process and the techniques to gather the right and quality requirements.
You must definitely take some training.I have trained a no of people to break into this career.I focus on 3 main things while preparing the candidates:
analystschool.com
1. Prepare them for BA skills: This is not simple requirement gathering.There are processes to gather the right requirements and most of the people in the industry think that gathering requirement is just collecting req from stakeholders and writng long word document. This is not true. There are different type of requirements and you must know the significance of each one of them.
2. Preare then for the interviews: As a candidate it is important that you start speaking the language of BA and I offer a lot of mock interview preparation session.My students have the recor of cracking the very forst or the second interview they go for.
3. Resume screening: Righ resume is the key to entry to BA filed. We screen resumes and professionalize them to meet the market demands
Thanks
Supriya
you can contat me at [email protected]
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