Well i went for the 2nd interview yesterday.
The test was broken down into 3 steps: 20 mins on SQL, 20 mins on using MS Project and 1hour 20 on BA tasks
The SQL stuff was very simple, they provided a database with 5 tables and basically provided 8 questions asking me to interigate the database to get out information. i had to know: aliasing tables, grouping, counting, joining tables, etc etc nothing to bad.
The MS project tasks were also pretty straightforwrd: create a new project, add all of the stages that should be involved in a software development project lifecycle, add resources, add the tasks that should be done inside each stage, add milestones.
The BA test was very difficult. i was given a real tender (12pages i think) and had to provide a full list of operational and system requirements that i could extract from the document, build a visio diagram of a basic over for the potential system, build a list of questions i would ask the client and a list of assumptions i have made if any. I struggled with this due to the time factor. the doc was very long and it took time to go through it, i ended up with a requirements list and half a visio and then ran out of time.
i heard back from the recruitment company yesterday afternoon and they said they still really like me for the job but the director is concerned about my lack of project managment experience. they want to speak to the guy who would be my boss (he interviewed me 1st of all) to see if he is happy and will let me know in January.
Im not sure how they can be concerned with my PM experience because the role is for a BA. but from talking to people yesterday i think its a BA/PM role in the data warehousing team. I would need to ask a few more questions before i accepted the role (if they even offer to me lol) like what would be the day to day tasks etc as i would like some clarification on what this role is really doing even though they call it a BA.
So its just a waiting game now i guess.
Thanks
Ken