Steps Involved in Getting Placed as a Business Analyst in Leading MNCs

This article is meant for Business Analyst (BA) aspirants who need a comprehensive go-to guide regarding the steps required to get placed in an MNC. Given below are the steps:

Step 1 – Do thorough research on all aspects of Business Analysis to enforce your choice to work as a BA

Stepping into any profession, calls for knowledge acquisition as a part of the career shift or commitment towards the chosen field of work. While the methods of knowledge acquisition are the same across various domains, the resources and their forms are however varied. The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge is a good read for this purpose, and while this is an excellent source of information, it is not written with fresher’s in mind.  A better book to start off with would be “The Software Requirements Memory Jogger” or “How to Start a BA Career.” The key here to learn just about enough to decide if BA is right for you.

Step 2 – Narrow down existing Transferable skills and Leverage other qualifications which aid a BA Career

Mid Career professionals will find themselves already qualifying for a subset of BA Jobs. Since the job options for such openings are diverse in this field at present, it is not statistically possible for even experienced BAs to qualify for every BA Job that is available. Transferable skills and unique qualifications enable BA aspirants to skip right past entry level BA positions, landing them in transitional BA roles as well. Transferable skills are acquired from continued experience utilizing Business Analysis Techniques in Non BA roles. For people looking to transition within their existing organization from Non BA to BA roles will find that their knowledge of the organisations inner workings such as Business Model and existing Stakeholders will work to their advantage.

Other factors affecting BA aspirants include Industry Domain Experience, Application expertise, Process Specific expertise, and functional expertise. Post such skill exploration, it is advisable to update ones CV from a BA perspective.

Step 3 – Get tangible feedback by putting out Feelers

Once you have amassed a certain degree of momentum towards your BA career goal, the next logical step would be to gain measurable feedback. This can be done by requesting for BA oriented tasks in your current job profile or simply discussing your immediate career goals with the respective manager. Another obvious implication would be putting your CV back in circulation on job portals while applying for BA profiles. Chances for prospective employers may find one or many marketable skills that interest them, thereby offering you a BA role.

Step 4 – Incorporate a BA approach to your existing job profile to work on BA positioning

When identifying your existing BA skills, you may have come across skill gaps which need bridging. You can fill these gaps by working in BA tasks in your current job profile or volunteering in tasks related to BA. As the incorporation progresses, new Business opportunities will be organically generated to bridge the existing skill gap. This will lead to a naturally expansive Business profile.

Examples for skill enhancement from a BA perspective include enhancing business processes, creating use cases, eliciting information, and even facilitating meetings.

Step 5 – Channel all efforts into finding that first BA Profile

Following all the steps mentioned above may qualify a professional to transition into a BA role within their current organization. It may even put one at a vantage point to actually propose a Business role in the current organization. It is worth noting that, while the ideal situation would allow for transitioning into a BA role within the current organization, such seamless career shifts do not happen often. It is in this scenario that a BA aspirant would need to look beyond the current employer to land BA profiles.

Go through our Business Analysis Interview Questions to crack the Interviews.

Conclusion

Even though the framework given above is based on a generic outline, one can rely on the specific steps given to bridge skill gaps and land that coveted BA role.  It is advisable to follow said steps in the sequence mentioned to get best results towards the desired career shift. It is also recommended to customize the manner in which you as a professional would approach such a career change to ensure a speedy BA work placement.

I hope that by now you have had an overview of Business Analysis. Before you enroll in ZaranTech’s certification course on Agile Business Analysis do check out this demo video: