Aspiring Business Analyst

[mbolton]

No it's not IMO. You are sitting there happily with no time pressures so start applying. You get lucky and someone is interested. Does this give you a yard stick as to whether you can get end to end gigs over years or how much time you'd spend on the bench? No it wouldn't. You are going to get giddy that you've a chance of a contract at mega bucks and all sense and reason will go out of the window. This approach is going to feed your excitement and not give you a clear picture of what your chances are. You already know where you stand and what to work on from this thread.

Don't forget also the client is likely wanting an immediate start so your notice period is going ruin some of the opportunities you are getting giddy about.

If you really want to go down this route open a new bank account or whatever if you've got the monza style thing and start applying. Add your monthly outgoings to the value in that account and then see what it looks like after a set period of time. If you are two months in before a sniff have a look at that account and suss out whether you could have lived for those two months while looking. That will hopefully give you a more realistic spin which will counter the giddy feeling you get when you get a positive response in three weeks.

Also no, you don't get any feedback. Occasionally you might get something from an agent but you can't believe a word of it. The agents are paid on commission. If you are no longer earning potential for them they are done with you. You most certainly don't get detailed feedback from the clients like you would a perm position.

Personally I think it's a terrible idea. You know the issue so throwing chance and luck in won't help.

Noted

[PerfectStorm]

Except he's only got 4 solid(ish) years compared to your 10.

Due to working for the same company for a lot of that time, I could've left after 4 years and I wouldn't have noticed the difference. I didn't, due to inertia, recession, fear etc. but sometimes wonder how things would've gone if I had.

[simes]

This is potentially a very good idea, I might do this. I am assuming you potentially don't get much feedback from these applications?

The only feedback you're looking for is an offer. Indeed, multiple offers. Only through this will you truly understand if you, and your CV, have contracting needs to offer.

Getting the interviews and not being offered will not inspire confidence. And neither will not getting any interviews.

Either way, you will have your answer.

Best of luck.

[northernladuk]

Due to working for the same company for a lot of that time, I could've left after 4 years and I wouldn't have noticed the difference. I didn't, due to inertia, recession, fear etc. but sometimes wonder how things would've gone if I had.

I find that hard to believe. I don't think it would have gone as smoothly for sure. Most of the threads on here mention experience and it's pretty fundamental to what we do. Ignore the pen pushing drone roles that are out there, to give a client what they want you need experience. Period. The difference between 4 years and 10 years is huge. It's over twice as many projects/pieces of work delivered. It's you being able to apply what you did in the first half and apply & improve in the second. It's twice as much experience on your CV for agents to look at. I don't think you can compare 4 to 10 years and say it wouldn't have made a difference.
Apprenticeships only last 4 years (higher ones), Uni 3 years so 4 years experience out of a 40 year career is just a start. Take all the contractors out there and compare their experience. I'd be willing to bet that someone with sub 5 years will make a fraction of the percentage.

Yes you could get lucky but it's but that's a massive exception to the rule and not one to be basing a contracting career on.

IMO OP is on the perfect track by researching this and preparing but bottom line is he just doesn't have the experience. II believe he should be parking this now, just because of brexit, IR35, covid, the end of contracting as we know it and many other reasons and just get his head down and deliver. Work a 5 year plan with his client (or leave and start again with another client who respects him as a BA, not a learner) to be at a different level than he is now and the pop back up with 10 years and multiple projects under his belt and then have a look.

[northernladuk]

Oh, and on the certs. Yes they are just a filter and mean nothing but when starting from scratch they can't help but add weight to a new CV. With the lack of experience I think a raft of the well know certs will do some good. When your experience eclipses them then yeah, bit pointless but in the OPs situation he's going to need everything he can. Most roles on projects ask for Prince, any work on a service change will need ITIL awareness, business change Sigma and so on. He won't be able to demonstrate this awareness in his experience so his certs are the only way to get it on the CV. If you have two one page CV's, both with less than half a page of activities, the one with the certs is going to be more attractive without a doubt.

[PerfectStorm]

I find that hard to believe. I don't think it would have gone as smoothly for sure. Most of the threads on here mention experience and it's pretty fundamental to what we do. Ignore the pen pushing drone roles that are out there, to give a client what they want you need experience. Period. The difference between 4 years and 10 years is huge. It's over twice as many projects/pieces of work delivered. It's you being able to apply what you did in the first half and apply & improve in the second. It's twice as much experience on your CV for agents to look at. I don't think you can compare 4 to 10 years and say it wouldn't have made a difference.
Apprenticeships only last 4 years (higher ones), Uni 3 years so 4 years experience out of a 40 year career is just a start. Take all the contractors out there and compare their experience. I'd be willing to bet that someone with sub 5 years will make a fraction of the percentage.

Yes you could get lucky but it's but that's a massive exception to the rule and not one to be basing a contracting career on.

IMO OP is on the perfect track by researching this and preparing but bottom line is he just doesn't have the experience. II believe he should be parking this now, just because of brexit, IR35, covid, the end of contracting as we know it and many other reasons and just get his head down and deliver. Work a 5 year plan with his client (or leave and start again with another client who respects him as a BA, not a learner) to be at a different level than he is now and the pop back up with 10 years and multiple projects under his belt and then have a look.

I disagree. Rather than spending another 5 years in a company picking up 6 months worth of experience and a lot of repetition - he wants to just go with whatever client will have him. Turn up, be polite, ask questions, "how is this normally done here" and just learn learn learn. There will always be a reason 'not' to do something, but you only need one client (at a time, at least).

People say the hardest gig to get is gig 2. I secured mine on the last day of the first role, which itself extended 3 times.

[northernladuk]

I disagree. Rather than spending another 5 years in a company picking up 6 months worth of experience and a lot of repetition - he wants to just go with whatever client will have him. Turn up, be polite, ask questions, "how is this normally done here" and just learn learn learn. There will always be a reason 'not' to do something, but you only need one client (at a time, at least).

We'll have to agree to disagree then. Use the 5 years wisely, move employers to get rid of the newbie/learner tag, work hard and become the best, soak in knowledge and training is going to set up much better than some drone work a client gives him because he's cheap. All while trying to keep a roof over his head.

People say the hardest gig to get is gig 2. I secured mine on the last day of the first role, which itself extended 3 times.

There is a woman down the road from us that can bend double and kiss her own arse but it doesn't mean everyone can. Well done but it's not a given. There will be as many people that didn't do that. And how long ago was that? Times have changed.

[SteelyDan]

I reckon a good exercise for you to go through might be to start mind-mapping all this out. As has been mentioned, a 'BA' role can be interpreted differently depending on organisation, & judging from your posts, you're looking at the whole smorgasbord which will confuse you even further, so start to filter stuff out.
A 'BA' role can take many twists & turns so you might need to identify which direction you want to go. Tech, or Non-Tech, would be my 2 streams:

I'm not 'Tech' but the sort of things I can see fitting into that are RPA, Process Mining (possibly), Data related stuff (modelling, analysis), Systems analysis, et al...others may be better placed to advise on this route.

‘Non-Tech’ would likely include business process analysis, mapping, improvement, etc., which in turn would hopefully lead you to de facto world standard BPMN (forget IDEF), ITIL, maybe Lean 6 Sigma, and maybe down the PM route, and also Change Management (process & organisational), so could bring in the likes of Prosci (ADKAR) for example. These things take time to learn & reach a decent level of competence which you can sell/provide to a client as a service...which is what contracting is all about.

I'm a LSSBB and so the route I pursued was strictly business & non-tech related. That said, I've been pulled into the tech side from time to time as it's been important to have at least some tech systems understanding (which is unavoidable these days), & ability to work with tech people.

From your point of view you need to identify where your leanings, and strengths are. If it's tech, or non-tech, then follow that route and build your depth & experience levels there, as opposed to trying to be all things to all men.

[mbolton]

I reckon a good exercise for you to go through might be to start mind-mapping all this out. As has been mentioned, a 'BA' role can be interpreted differently depending on organisation, & judging from your posts, you're looking at the whole smorgasbord which will confuse you even further, so start to filter stuff out.
A 'BA' role can take many twists & turns so you might need to identify which direction you want to go. Tech, or Non-Tech, would be my 2 streams:

I'm not 'Tech' but the sort of things I can see fitting into that are RPA, Process Mining (possibly), Data related stuff (modelling, analysis), Systems analysis, et al...others may be better placed to advise on this route.

‘Non-Tech’ would likely include business process analysis, mapping, improvement, etc., which in turn would hopefully lead you to de facto world standard BPMN (forget IDEF), ITIL, maybe Lean 6 Sigma, and maybe down the PM route, and also Change Management (process & organisational), so could bring in the likes of Prosci (ADKAR) for example. These things take time to learn & reach a decent level of competence which you can sell/provide to a client as a service...which is what contracting is all about.

I'm a LSSBB and so the route I pursued was strictly business & non-tech related. That said, I've been pulled into the tech side from time to time as it's been important to have at least some tech systems understanding (which is unavoidable these days), & ability to work with tech people.

From your point of view you need to identify where your leanings, and strengths are. If it's tech, or non-tech, then follow that route and build your depth & experience levels there, as opposed to trying to be all things to all men.

I would say I am currently 50:50 tech to non tech so this could definitely be the start of the problem. I have come from a more technical background (dev work etc) so have a passing knowledge of most of the things you mention without anything deep enough to be a tech BA.

I would prefer to steer towards "non tech" if I can and am currently reading up on all things BPMN etc. I do not have any Six Sigma or ITIL qualifications so this may be worth looking into.

I have a bit of experience with Change management and am not overly interested in that or PM work, I have never even heard of Prosci/ADKAR so that also might need a little research.

[ContractorBanking]

Re: Certs - everyone is talking about BA Certs but if you're committed to an industry then get domain experience in that field. If you can achieve Chartered status then so much the better, this will show competence and commitment to the industry.

Of course do your BA Certs because its always to do a formal course but as I say, don't forget the other non-BA Certs, which will include technical ability.