Want to become Business Analyst...qualifications needed?

[charlotte1989]

Hi all

I am currently contracting within an IT department doing Admin. I would like to make the leap into becoming a Business Analyst as they always seem to be in high demand and are paid very well (£50 minimum per hour here.)

My question is - what qualification/s do I need to make this leap? I did not go to university. I have some IT experience (software testing, technical helpdesk, software support analyst) but what qualification do I need to attain?

Many thanks

[northernladuk]

Are you talking about permies or contractors. If you are talking about contractors it's years of solid experience you need. Being backed up with a qualification might help but the qualification alone is useless.

You'll probably need to find a permie job and get trained up and deliver for a couple of years before you can sell your skills at anywhere near those rates.

[tarbera]

you would think so

Are you talking about permies or contractors. If you are talking about contractors it's years of solid experience you need. Being backed up with a qualification might help but the qualification alone is useless.

You'll probably need to find a permie job and get trained up and deliver for a couple of years before you can sell your skills at anywhere near those rates.

you would think this would be the case

i know of 2 recruitment agents bods that packed up and have transferred to become Business Analysts in the last year on £500 a day - top buffers and very opportunistic, if not specialized and you can follow a companies framework - how hard could it be

[northernladyuk]

Are you talking about permies or contractors. If you are talking about contractors it's years of solid experience you need. Being backed up with a qualification might help but the qualification alone is useless.

You'll probably need to find a permie job and get trained up and deliver for a couple of years before you can sell your skills at anywhere near those rates.

This.

Best thing would be to get involved with some projects where you work and build up some credible experience there before moving into a junior BA role, maybe at your current employer,

[northernladuk]

This.

Best thing would be to get involved with some projects where you work and build up some credible experience there before moving into a junior BA role, maybe at your current employer,

I am currently contracting within an IT department doing Admin

HTH

[PerfectStorm]

There are two streams of Business Analyst jobs - old school ones who learnt on the job, often coming up through IT-based project management and taking on the BA title when it meant a bigger salary

Or the graduate type that likes making Powerpoints and enormous docs but tends to farm out the detail

I'm the first kind cos I like actually doing stuff, but YMMV

[LondonManc]

If you want to become a BA, go perm and suck it up - you'll need five years under your belt to get a consistent string of BA contract roles under your belt. Any decent permie co will train you to be a BA; why stop there though? Why not push on to project and programme management?

[Hertsseasider]

Hi OP

Moving into a contract BA role with no BA experience is gonna get you found out pretty pronto. You might need to - Run workshops, capture requirements, engage with Business users, engage with IT, write functional specs, write a detailed project plan etc etc etc.

Would suggest you get a permie BA role and build up these skills first

Best of luck

[ladymuck]

Depends on what type of BA you fancy being too.

There's the techy ones and there's the non-techy. I'm more the latter. I do stuff around business process, reporting, ensuring the tech stuff works for the end user etc. It's probably not BA work in the more traditional sense but it's the best description I've managed to come across. I do the requirements gathering and gap analyses and the like, lots of data analysis when required, lots of process analysis when required.

I got into it mainly because my roles have always had an element of that work and it didn't take a huge leap to start marketing myself in that manner. However, if I had gone down the fully techy route and got myself into the sticky end of, say, banking then I'd be sitting pretty on the day rates those guys make.

[cojak]

https://www.iibauk.org/documents/pre...enburg2010.pdf

https://www2.bcs.org/certifications/ba/


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