Business Analyst: Prospects and Features of the Profession

Modern society has a lot of different professions. Now you can choose any of them, guided by the satisfaction of intellectual needs, career prospects or economic stability. This article focuses on a special profession called a business analyst. It is in demand in a field that opens up new opportunities for this world, develops your mind, teaches you how to contact and think, and also helps any financial company to grow.

About the profession, its main salient features

A business analyst is a specialist working in a particular company, who studies its structures, trends, opportunities, growth forecasts, analyzes information and actively communicates with the opposite side - customers. He must know what is required of his company in order for its products to be in demand, incomes to grow, and buyers to make no complaints. Therefore, the responsibilities of this specialist include close communication with customers in order to clarify all their requirements.

The duties of a business analyst include the following functions:

• Analysis of company capabilities.
• Development of new work models.
• Definition of prospects.
• Automation of activities.

It can be perfectly justified in asserting that this profession is an integral part of each company and helps it grow, earn credibility in society and improve its reputation among customers.

Appearance story

The official beginners of such an interesting profession were Western Europe and the United States of America. It was they who realized 20 years ago that companies all over the world are completely lacking new ideas for growth, prospects for improvement, and visual distribution. It follows that they began to look for qualified personnel who would help them in this. It can be concluded that the profession of business analyst is young enough and is a developing and productive specialty.

Duties

A business analyst, like any other specialist in the company, has a list of responsibilities to which he is obliged to treat with responsibility. He must understand that the future of the company depends on his assessments of the market and the operation of the enterprise. Also, business analysts need to maintain close business cooperation with the customer, find out what kind of products they want to see, and resolve all disputes regarding this issue. He must:

• For the benefit of the enterprise, the employee of which is to analyze customer requirements for goods, study standards, discuss production conditions and improve products, collect information and formalize it, as well as agree on it, be a confident PC user.
• Work with business models. Conduct compilation, analysis, processing of company development models.
• Develop new effective business practices. The business analyst’s consideration of company promotion processes is an important point in his work.
• Be able to work with documents. This type of activity will become an integral part in the professional activity of the analyst.
• Make presentations for entrepreneurs, customers, employees of this company to evaluate the developed ideas.
• Actively compare the achievements of various companies to more effectively advance the business.

As we see, the duties of an employee include a fairly decent number of functions that he must perform in the course of his professional activity.

Are there any specific requirements

Each highly paid and promising vacancy implies the presence of high requirements for applicants. The business analytics profession is no exception. Often people are unable to find a job due to the lack of some items on the list of requirements:

• The presence of higher education.
• Work experience as a business analyst. He will be needed. Knowledge in the banking sector and the activity of an information data analyst are also welcome.
• Experience in writing and maintaining documentation governing regulations.
• Correct and effective analytical thinking.
• Literate speech, both oral and written.

If you are the owner of all these favorable qualities - your calling to work in this area. No need to mess with activities that you are completely unaware of. This applies not only to this profession.

How to become a good specialist

Anyone who graduated from a mathematical, financial, economic, technical university, as well as someone who has the analytical ability to draw up regulations and submit demanded proposals, can apply for a job as a business analyst.

Wigers Karl, in his book Developing Software Requirements, says that analysts are born, not trained to be. To work in this rather complex field, you must have your own distinctive features, and not learned material. Thus, the author emphasizes that these analysts, namely those who were born for this business, are few.

Business Intelligence Salary

Since this is a very popular profession that requires a special mentality and skills, it is perfectly fair to assume that the employee's salary will be high. This is true, especially in the field of information business intelligence. Depending on the level of your skills and abilities, education and capabilities, length of service, nature of production and other factors, your salary may vary somewhat. The average salary of an employee in this field in Russia is 80 thousand rubles. But it can be at the level of 40 thousand and reach up to 150 thousand rubles a month.

As you can see, training in business analytics is sure to pay off when you get started. In addition, the profession is in many ways useful and interesting, with the prospect of self-development, which is a very important criterion for those who need self-improvement.

Become a real analyst!

Many see themselves in this area, but few really want to understand what needs to be done to become a business analyst. The advice of people who have already succeeded in this area will help us figure this out. It should be noted that analytics professionals feel very independent and confident in the world of modern business. To achieve this, you need to follow these recommendations:

• Develop your communication. If the analyst is in the same building / premises with the customer, he definitely needs to visit him, talk, clarify the details of the joint project, ask how much the customer likes this proposal, check with him how he wants to see the results of the collaboration.
• Draw diagrams, tables, business situations for easier and more systematic work. This very often helps people quickly cover all the material and make a decision.
• Create and play with different situations. Analysts often have to complicate the tasks to achieve a more effective result. You can work equally productively with simplified options, because you need to be able to foresee all the paths of events.
• Do not refuse to do comparisons. The work of the analyst includes a constant comparison of the activities of different companies. Professionals should also compare their own work with the achievements of other specialists from the general field. This is one of the components of a business intelligence system. Further training, the opportunity to communicate with more experienced workers in this field - that’s what you need to strive for.
• Analytically approach the solution of tasks. If a problem arises, the analyst’s main goal is to eliminate its root. To do this, you need to analyze all the data on the work done, "get to the bottom" of the problem and eliminate it.
• The correct statement of speech. This point is important not in terms of literacy (also very necessary), but in being able to correctly and accurately present your capabilities to the customer. Misrepresentation is one of the common problems, and not only in business.

How to determine for yourself the most important tasks of a business analyst.

It is necessary to compare existing processes with the detailed wishes of customers, offer them options for optimizing these processes, and consult with developers and testers. When working, the analyst weighs all the pros and cons, providing economic justification for each decision he makes. The people of this profession help customers and contractors (producers of goods) to find a common language, build a business so that mutual benefits and a desire for further cooperation develop.

There are many business intelligence jobs. They can be found in completely different areas. These can be banking companies, construction companies, trade, IT, industrial enterprises. In each of these areas, these vacancies are highly paid and promising.

Work in big cities

In megacities it is much easier to find a suitable job, since there are many promising areas where you can realize your career growth, use your knowledge and skills. Jobs of business analytics are also enough, as each company needs to conduct its business with maximum benefit.

Following all of the above explanations about the requirements for hiring analysts, you also need to take into account some of the wishes of the employer regarding your expected work. Business analysts in Moscow must be sure to know several foreign languages, as metropolitan companies quite often cooperate with foreign business partners. The work experience required to have analytics in a leading company should be at least ten years.

The same is observed in other large cities, such as Kiev, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Minsk. Business analysts at these largest centers can also easily find a business for themselves. As employers can demand that you comply with their duties, so you have the right to demand decent conditions from them for your business. Sometimes there are situations when a specialist refuses to work in a company due to unsatisfactory conditions that are provided to him.

The work of a business analyst is multifaceted and can be used in many fields of activity. Sometimes people in this profession simultaneously fulfill the responsibilities of a quality manager or manager in a company.

Cons of the profession

Experts working in the field of analytics note the following problems that they have to face:

• Difficulties in communicating with customers, inability to negotiate or compromise.
• The need to study a fairly large amount of information, in a short time to analyze and process it. In addition to studying and developing his projects, a specialist must keep under control new technologies and approaches, as well as be able to analyze business models.

However, business analysts in companies discuss their tasks in advance, that is, unforeseen situations often do not happen. The employer must discuss with the applicant both the pros and cons in the future work, thereby taking responsibility for all misunderstandings that may arise in the future.

The prospects in each case are different. To become a head of analytics or a qualified specialist, to provide consulting services, you need to learn a lot. When opening a business, it is also necessary to analyze the profitability of a business. The analyst profession is truly diverse. Despite the disadvantages that are present in all areas of activity, and not just in analytics, here you can significantly raise your level of self-awareness and implement the most ambitious projects.

To summarize

The business analytics profession is complex, but quite interesting, thought-provoking. To get a job, you need to have many skills: work experience, the ability to communicate with people, the ability to analyze the situation, be able to make plans, models, designs, navigate in many other areas, because all this knowledge can be useful in work. There are many vacancies in business analytics, so you can always find a place for yourself.

The activity of the analyst leads to organizational change. It bears responsibility for determining what changes and methods will be proposed that ensure stable growth of the company's profit. The main goal of the analyst’s work is also considered the ability not only to analyze the data and develop new ones, but to have the ability to communicate - to communicate with people so that the offer suits both the company and the customer. This is only possible for units, which makes the work of a specialist so important and significant.

Summing up the information about the profession of a business analyst, we can confidently say that it is very necessary in the modern world. This specialty improves the work of companies, positively affects their reputation, the development of new ideas and products, and also improves interaction with customers - the source of life for every business.

It is necessary to love your work and fully surrender to it. Then it will be of great benefit not only to you, but also to others.