CAREER TRACK FOR BUSINESS ANALYST

Last week I received a call from a Recruitment team of an IT Company who specializes in Power, Utility domain. This person was trying to convince me to look at the positive sides of Power, Utility, and Gas domain even during the recession time. He was pitching it so hard and explaining me you as a BA will be doing the same thing and telling me that any organization you go you would be doing the same work and holding similar responsibilities. In fact, he was right, as a Business Analyst we all are supposed to do the same work over a period of time, however what should matter is as you spend some considerable amount of time in BA Role what would differentiate one with other is that how much domain knowledge & expertise you bring to the table.

Imagine these roles played by two different BA’s let’s say for a period of 3-5 years.

BA -1 – Has done some significant work of IT – BA role in areas of Banking, Logistics, Retail, and CRM.

BA -2 – Has done some significant work in areas of Retail & Corporate banking, Equity &Derivatives market, Insurance, Wealth Management.

At the end of 5 years I believe BA -1 can call himself as a Jack of all Trades. But I see a shortfall in the kind of work; he would continue doing same work even after having so much of experience.

On other hand BA -2 will call himself as Smart BA exposed to Banking & Financial Services domain who can easily move in to Subject Matter Expert (SME) role,  and going forward would look for Business Process Management  Consultant role.

“ Remember   BA’s career is like a Rail Track which has two rails running parallelly without which it cannot reach its next destination or Career milestone.”  

One rail is like your Responsibilities and the other rail is your Domain understanding and Knowledge which you add over a period of time.

Both Skills sets taken together which act as a superpower which going further would help you to take more challenging assignments in areas of Business Process Improvement, Consulting, Sales etc.

Also Read :
Business Analyst  Resources all under one roof
Certifications for Business Analyst