Many professionals would like to make a career switch to business analysis but they don’t know how to do that.
Business Analysts are found in numerous industries in the world from healthcare to Insurance and professionals who are working in those industries might like to change careers and become business analysts.
These professionals might have worked with those Business Analyst’s on numerous occasions and so they might be interested in becoming business analysts themselves.
But how do you a career switch to Business Analysis ?
Business analysis is an interesting field that is applicable to numerous industries.
It uses a mix of business, technological, theoretical and practical knowledge to identify and resolve business problems.
Many professionals already understand the business side of things, so all they need to do is get some training and experience in business analysis.
To make the transition to becoming a Business Analyst, you would first have to Start with a plan, this plan would help you set a goal which you would like to attain and work your way towards it.
For example, your goal might be to make the career switch from a Banking Officer to a Banking Business Analyst.
To create your plan, you would have to start with the skills that you would need to have to become a Banking Business Analyst.
You can get this information from any standard Banking Business Analyst job description and this can help guide you in your career plan preparation.
The skills that you might need could include the basic business analysis skill set such as elicitation, documentation and root cause analysis.
But it could also include other industry specific skill sets that you would need to have to perform the job.
So how do you get this skill sets ?
While you might want to learn just those specific skills that you need to get the job, it is very important that you learn the basic business analysis skills that you need to perform any business analysis job.
Because things change, while you might want to work in a certain industry right now, in future that could change and then you might be stuck in the first industry because you never learnt the skills needed to succeed as a business analyst.
So you have to ensure that you have the basic knowledge and skill sets which is necessary to get any business analysis job in any industry.
To get this basic knowledge, you would need to get some business analysis training from a well recognized and certified business analysis trainer.
The aim of the training is to learn the skill sets that is necessary to perform the job but also to take and pass a business analysis certification exam.
Certification exams can help solidify your knowledge and reinforce your business analysis capability to recruiters.
So while the theoretical and practical knowledge is important, a business analysis certification can help prove to the recruiters that you have knowledge that is needed to do the job.
Once you have gotten the business analysis certification, then you should start applying for various business analysis positions.
Try to apply to numerous Business Analyst positions in numerous industries and this could include applying for lower positions than you would like to get.
Because even though you may want to get that enviable Senior Business Analyst job, it might be better to apply for a Junior Business Analyst position or a Business Analyst position until you have the experience needed to become a Senior Business Analyst.
Even though your years of experience might be more than adequate to fulfill the job requirements, they might not be Business Analysis experience.
So you might not have the experience necessary to get the Senior Business Analyst position and this could lead to numerous job application rejections and frustration.
So it might be better to apply and get a lower Business Analysis position which would expose you to some practical work experience and once you have had a few years experience, then you can apply for the position that you really want.