Global pain of business analysts
// Small insert:) Hello everyone! My name is Bohdan, and in some ways I consider myself a “beginner” business analyst (BA – short for business analyst). This is my first article, and in it I want to talk about the pain and misunderstanding that many in this profession face. Of course, this is my personal opinion, and maybe someone will disagree with it. I will not delve into specific tasks or cases, but will try to describe the problem superficially so that it is clear to both beginners and experienced specialists. For convenience, I will divide the article into several parts.
Contents
Part 1. What and why?
When I first became interested in the profession of a business analyst, everything seemed quite simple: you go to the Internet, look for information about BA — duties, areas of responsibility, technology stack. At first glance, everything is clear. Then you begin to immerse yourself more deeply in the profession, reading articles, studying specific cases, and gradually form a complete picture in your head of who BA is. After I felt that I already had sufficient knowledge, the next step naturally arose – searching for vacancies. Of course, a lot here depends on your background: someone does not have it, someone just started studying the profession, and I already had a certain knowledge base. The fact is that I studied business informatics and many subjects overlapped with the BA stack. That’s why I started the study already with a good theoretical preparation and some work experience (which I will tell about at the end of the article, if I can;)) I told this so that it would be easier to orient myself in the part of the story.
Part 2. The first problems
When I started looking for a job, I was surprised by one observation – many employers themselves do not understand who a business analyst is. I came across many vacancies where BA was required, but at the same time, the job description most often mentioned the stack of a system analyst or even a data analyst. It was a bit of a shock for me, if I may say so. What is the problem? It seems that employers often do not fully understand who they are looking for and what tasks a business analyst should solve.
This happens for several reasons. First, many companies see business analytics as simply a “universal soldier” who can perform the functions of a system analyst, a data analyst, and even a project manager. When they hear the term “business analyst”, they associate not with clear business functions, but with someone who can do everything. Sometimes this is due to the fact that the company does not have a structured understanding of its own business processes, so they are not looking for someone to help understand, but someone who will simply “close” any problems.
Second, it is often the case that business intelligence is associated with technical roles. Employers may think: if an analyst, then he must understand technologies, systems, be an expert user of various tools and software products. This distracts from the fact that a business analyst is primarily a person who connects business and technology solutions, analyzes requirements and helps optimize processes. But when the company does not understand these nuances, the analyst begins to be required to solve tasks that go far beyond his area of responsibility.
As a result, it creates certain problems: you learn one thing, and another is required of you. And when you see such a spread in expectations, there is a temptation to study everything at once in order to meet different requirements.
Part 3. Is there a solution?
After some introspection, I came to the conclusion that it is impossible to learn everything, and here you have to make a conscious decision. If the employer doesn’t know who they’re looking for, then I have to know what I want. One of my solutions is to study the stack for a specific vacancy. This may not be the best option, because you spend time learning new skills for one position. But if the stack and the company are really interesting, why not?
A more logical approach is to focus on what you really like and be able to adapt your knowledge to the employer’s requests. Suppose you are told that your experience is not relevant, but you can explain how your skills will help the company. You may not have direct experience with a particular technology, but have similar knowledge that you can apply in the field.
A very cool plus will be the analysis of ready-made cases. There are a lot of high-quality cases that can be useful to you (I also want to talk about them separately in the article).
Part 4. Conclusion?
So far these are the only solutions I have been able to find, maybe you have experienced this problem and have possible solutions? The main thing that I realized is not to give up, to catch the feeling of the flow. Conduct a review of yourself, in which maybe you are not yet strong or, on the contrary, your strengths. Work will be found and there will always be those who need you. Do not chase high salaries at the start – they will come later, when you become a sought-after specialist.
