Free Career and Job Search Advice

davidrocastle · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 3 Career Advice: +0/-0

Hello

I was wondering if some one could give me a bit of advice. I have been currently working the past 3 1/2 years in a pharmaceutical company. My position has been in the IT deparmtment in which i have found myself working in all areas across IT. This involves IT Support, IT Network Administration, AS400 Administration. Basically i have been a jack of all trades if that's how i can descibe it.

As well as this i have worked on numerous projects, six sigma projects, yellow belt celt certification. For example automating the system of generating the necessary paperwork for Batch History Records. We operate on lean scale so i have found myself working as Team Leader, Project Manager, Project Programmer through VBA/ASP, writing necessary procedures and requirement documents to have the automated software system validated. The system has been an excellent success reducing turnaround time by 50% while also reducing defects signifcantly.

What i want to do now is that could i apply for an IT Business Analyst position. I am looking for advice in that would i qualify for this position based on such of my type of work mentioned above. I am also working on some projects, including moving a purchasing requsitions paperbased system to p-card credit cards and heavily involved in our KPI systems to measure current performance of our organisation.

I currently have a BSC in Business Information Systems. I was wondering could someone offer me advice as to how i could market myself into becoming a business analyst?

197jdm · Newbie Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 4 Career Advice: +0/-0

Hi

If I were you my irst stop would be my Managers office to ask him/her to consider me if any vacancies occur in the department. My second stop would be to HR to ask to be considered for these roles in alternate locations or associated companies.

The reason for this advice is that while no-one knows your skills as well as you do, your current employer will run a close second.

Parallel to the above I'd register with a number of job boards where I could potentially control my career and job applications.

If you have Six Sigma (even at low level) that will be seen as a big bonus by many employers and a good step onthe ladder toward becoming a BA. My advice is to maximise the elements of analysis you have undertaken minimise the support and coding parts. You will need to have very strong people skills as you'll spend half your life in front of users.

Good luck

davidrocastle · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 3 Career Advice: +0/-0

Many Thanks for your reply.

I will take your good advice on board. Could i ask though what direction in terms of courses should i maybe look for aswell? Getting involved in a big project with finance, would this be a good aid as i would be expose to the financials of how a company performs?

197jdm · Newbie Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 4 Career Advice: +0/-0

As you have the basics of Six Sigma I'd suggest that you start the process of moving to Black Belt.

See if your Boss will let you have copies of old Business Case documents, business specs and so on of both projects that went ahead and those that fell. Look at all of these and see how they are perepared, take on board the way they are written, is there a common theme with the ones that were dumped?

Talk to the existing BA's on site, ask them for their advice - they after all were in your position once.

Be prepared to drop salary in the short term to achieve your long term goals which will then pay dividends later.

davidrocastle · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 3 Career Advice: +0/-0

Many Thanks for your replies

Yeah i am currently in the process of carrying out writing a Business Requirement Specification document for a software program i have written and am about to do UAT testing on the software so these will probably help me in the areas of Business Analyst experience. On a site of 300 people there is currently no Business Analyst

If you have any more advice please do not hesitate to post back

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