In the last few decades, we have seen a plethora of businesses emerging and succeeding since the liberalisation that took place in 1991, which made the business establishment all the way easier than anytime ever in the history of mankind.
Did you know that coming up with a business has become the easiest in recent times since the online industry and marketing has boomed up. To make the stuff even easier, digitalization has cut down the majority of the costs and efforts that had to be laid down while setting up a business offline.
And with booming up of so many industries, the business analyst skills have been most in demand skills in the recent times.
In such a scenario, the competition in every sector has also been rising steeply, and so has been the demand of some specialists who can decode the business, and let us know the ifs and hows of the ways the business can be expanded and taken to greater heights.
BOOM! That’s what a business analyst is! Such a mighty jargon broken down to a simple and rational statement.
Why business analysts?
Business analytics infact represents a golden opportunity for young professionals to switch to the strategic horizons of the business. While this does involve a lot of hard work and meeting the clients’ or the manager, it is one of the most highly paid and well reputed jobs, that brings along with it a lot of responsibility as well as ownership.
And you will be surprised to know that the demand for business analysts has in fact risen by a mighty 400% since the past few months. All the businesses want to stay the fittest in the market, as the Father of Evolution Charles Darwin theory goes “SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”. ANd for this, they need more and more of these specialised persons aka business analysts.
Are you also looking to start your career or even switch your career and want to get into a field that pays you handsomely and rewards you magnificently as well?
If a “Yes” is wandering in your head, you are the best place on the internet right now.
Latest business analyst skills as per the industry requirements:
We’ll discuss some of the business analyst skills required to excel in this field, and most importantly, what all changes you may need to make in your mindset to gain success in this field.
Problem solving skills:
First of all, the all-time important skill for an analyst to have is analytical and problem solving skills, or more importantly, a problem solving mindset for that matter. One should always be inclined to break down a problem into certain smaller problem sets instead of attacking the problem as a whole. Such analysis of a problem statement goes a long way into strengthening your roots as an analyst and getting you unexpected returns and solutions.
Case study skills:
Apart from it, having a business acumen is equally important, for analyzing any sort of business ,and scaling it.
For enhancing your business acumen and getting an indepth knowledge of how a business operations and functions, you must take up certain case studies and try to come up with a solution for them. But before solving, the thing that must be mastered is breaking down the problem statement into easily approachable subproblems. Having a knowledge of the government’s policies, and flexibilities shall be a bonus.
While approaching the case study, the attempt must be to come up with an optimal and rational solution to the problem, which may include but is not limited to enhanced efficiencies, increased revenue, reduced operational costs and expenses, or higher productivity.
Market research skills:
Market and competitive research is also one of the most important skills to have for an analyst. It helps a business to stay alive in the ultra fast-paced market, and also helps the organization to never settle for something.
A market research analyst uses data-driven and analytical skills to help the company understand what precise products/services are demanded by people, and what those people are willing to pay for them. All this is done through data analysis techniques using various tools about which we shall talk ahead.
Business intelligence skills:
Having business intelligence analyst skills shall ease out a lot of tasks that may otherwise had to be done manually or on other software’s and tools which may not be as efficient. It combines some hard skills like data modeling, and hardcore programming to implement new data analysis methodologies.
Now here comes the most awaited question!
Do business analysts need to code?
This is one of the most sought after questions by a beginners or students who want to make a career in field of analytics. Do business analysts need to have good programming knowledge to succeed as an analyst?
The answer to it is a partial yes. Even though it’ll still do if you don’t know to code, but mind my words, one won’t be able to run far from programming for a longer time, if you want to succeed in a business field.
To succeed in the world of analytics, if you don’t have the basic knowledge of programming and algorithms, you’ll keep scratching your head and struggle with the comparatively outdated tools like Excel and PowerBI, and even Tableau to get your job done, but no matter what, such outdated tools shall still not be able to get you the results that the modern data analyst skills and tools shall get.
Hence, a proportionate mix of analytical, programming, and soft skills coupled with a problem solver mindset shall put you far ahead of many other business analysts struggling at the bottom horizons.
The job description as a typical business analyst may also require you to mine data using complex softwares and then analyse the data to find trends. He may also be required to work hand in hand with the IT department to deploy software and hardware upgrades that make it possible to leverage big data use cases.
So, one just cannot run from technology in this field, it’s better to start getting your hands dirty with technical stuff right away, and every technical skill learnt shall pay you back in unexpected ways.
Essential soft skills for a business analyst to set him apart from the crowd:
Summed with some of the hard skills mentioned in the above paras, there are certain typical soft skills that shall give you an edge as an analyst anyday.
- Being a good listener
- Having quick grasping power
These essentially can help you understand and segregate the problems faced by your company or the client you are serving. Ability to detect risks quickly and decision making skills shall help one handle critical situations effectively.
Negotiation and persuasion skills
Managerial skills,
Effective communication skills
These are also the key strengths of a business analyst and are something that define him as an individual apart from this field.
If you are a beginner and wish to frame your career in data analytics, I recommend you to click here and read this detailed article as well.
Tip to build resume for a business analyst role:
One must also have worked on certain projects to land himself a good opportunity as a business analyst. One must consider adding projects to your resume as a necessity, as it helps to stand out and highlight the resume, especially for freshers since their projects are the only swords that they have to compete and succeed over professionals with experience.
To get more tips to succeed as a business analyst at your workplace, click here and read this amazing blog:
Conclusion:
Hence, the combination of certain basic qualifications, coupled with the hard skills and soft skills mentioned above shall be more than enough to put on the fast track to a successful career as a business analyst. Our country is experiencing a dramatic upsurge in the corporate sector, as more indian companies are leaving a global footprint. Today, Most of the skilled professionals in the country want to be a part of this evolution and you can too step ahead and become a part of this movement by widening your skillset as detailed above, and contributing to the well-being of the economic health of our nation, though indirectly.