A lot of people have heard of the term “business analysis” and think it sounds like an interesting career choice. Professionals like Abhishek Gattani, who have worked in this field most of their lives, are actively looking for those who would like to work in this field, because there is a significant lack of trained individuals. This is because, to be a truly good business analyst, someone must be both a structured and a creative thinker. Structured, because analysts deal with data, but creative, because they have to think outside of the box to draw conclusions about the future.
How to Become a Business Analyst
Because business analysis is now such an important field, employers have placed stringent requirements on people who want to get involved in this career. Namely, they look for people who have a graduate degree in a business-related field, although preferably specifically in business analysis. Perhaps the most respected degree of all is the MBA.
What Do Business Analysts Do?
Clearly, if you want to work as a business analyst, you will have to invest quite significantly in your education. You should only do this if you are also sure that the career is for you. The job description of someone like Abhishek Gattani includes:
- To analyze how a business performs on a financial level, its employment capital returns, and more, and to use this to advise on business activities and investments.
- To review internal communications, marketing, facilities, administration, procurement plans, process flows, and other internal plans, with a view to improve them.
- To test an analyze systems.
- To project manage and to lead a company through change, including providing training.
- To help stakeholders find the financial backing for new projects and to measure its potential and actual benefits.
- To plan strategically around the needs of a business.
- To solve any problems as they come along.
Depending on the size of the organization, an analyst may focus on anything from just one of the tasks above, to all of them. Additionally, exactly what they do and how they work, and what their ultimate goals are, depends on the organization that they work for. However, in all cases, they must gather data, analyze, and find ways to improve the performance of the organization as a whole.
More and more frequently, business analysts are brought in as consultants. This is because, if they are in-house, they often start as a project manager and eventually become head of that particular project, rather than continue to perform analysis of overall performance. Indeed, people like Gattani have worked very hard to encourage organizations to bring in external business analysts to have a better chance at improving their overall processes.
If you want to work as an analyst of this kind, it is recommended to contact external business analysis companies and find out what it is that they look for. If you ever have the opportunity to work for such a company in a role other than business analysis, you should jump at the opportunity. It will be a chance for you to network and build vital business contacts.