Are business analyst jobs difficult?

[SeductivePig]

I'm starting to realize I'm not a big fan of my career (EE with power focus). Business seems pretty interesting.

 

[el-Capitan]

You will have a hard time in any career if the the best you can do is start a single-lined thread on whether it is difficult....wow

 

[Ns1]

i love being a business analyst. gotta be comfortable talking to and working with people though.

 

[Vdubchaos]

For whatever it's worth, in the company I work for BA = dumping ground of random stuff.

Right now they are doing BA work, PM work and Resource work (actual work).

BA = everything man (at least here).

In most places, BA mostly works on Requirements/Pre Sales oriented tasks.

 

[SeductivePig]

You will have a hard time in any career if the the best you can do is start a single-lined thread on whether it is difficult....wow

I'm already doing well as a consulting engineer but the outlook when I'm 30 doesnt seem very interesting.

I think my question is valid. There's a reason why accountants can pull 80 hour weeks consistently and engineers can't - conceptually it is more difficult as an engineer.

Now of course this is generalizing to accountants only and I'm well aware that certain jobs in the finance/IT industry are much more difficult.



I was more interested in the IT business sector.

 

[steppinthrax]

BA's are the people that work with the "tech" people and the customers. They perform some PM activities as well as general presentations and organization of projects/priorities. Generally they are glorified secretaries. I work with a BA, he used to be a real estate agent before hand. He pretty much has this used car salesman type of personality. I make much more then he does.

 

[SeductivePig]

BA's are the people that work with the "tech" people and the customers. They perform some PM activities as well as general presentations and organization of projects/priorities. Generally they are glorified secretaries. I work with a BA, he used to be a real estate agent before hand. He pretty much has this used car salesman type of personality. I make much more then he does.

Ouch.

Guess its not what I want then.

 

[Ns1]

BA's are the people that work with the "tech" people and the customers. They perform some PM activities as well as general presentations and organization of projects/priorities. Generally they are glorified secretaries. I work with a BA, he used to be a real estate agent before hand. He pretty much has this used car salesman type of personality. I make much more then he does.

Generally they are glorified secretaries

lol.

 

[xeemzor]

I'm already doing well as a consulting engineer but the outlook when I'm 30 doesnt seem very interesting.

I think my question is valid. There's a reason why accountants can pull 80 hour weeks consistently and engineers can't - conceptually it is more difficult as an engineer.

Now of course this is generalizing to accountants only and I'm well aware that certain jobs in the finance/IT industry are much more difficult.



I was more interested in the IT business sector.

What do you think of ERP consulting? I'm a CPA that just finished up three years of manufacturing audit work started IT consulting last Friday. From my understanding I'll mainly serve as a bridge between IT and finance employees during implementations. So far the work seems much more interesting, hours are waaay better, a slightly higher salary, and much more varied exit opportunities. Overall I'm pretty excited for the change.

 

[Ns1]

What do you think of ERP consulting? I'm a CPA that just finished up three years of manufacturing audit work started IT consulting last Friday. From my understanding I'll mainly serve as a bridge between IT and finance employees during implementations. So far the work seems much more interesting, hours are waaay better, a slightly higher salary, and much more varied exit opportunities. Overall I'm pretty excited for the change.

As a former accountant now in a BA role, I can tell you with 100% certainty FUCK ACCOUNTING.

 

[reallyscrued]

BA's are a stepping stone to a full project manager or IT director.

It's about managing people mostly, not technology. You manage (or relate to, depending on your seniority level) the people that manage technology.

If you didn't like steppinthrax's definition, you wouldn't like being a BA. Not to mention that your background in EE would be ill suited for a BA position without a few weeks of training, so you're going to offer a little less to the table than a fresh graduate with 4 years of requirements analysis under his belt.

What part of Engineering Consultant are you unhappy with? And what kind of engineering is this? The term engineer can be broader than "associate".

 

[steppinthrax]

lol.

This dude behind me right now (as I type) is working on typing meeting minutes and making PowerPoints. If he is not doing that, he's sending out CCed emails to groups and organizing meetings. He looks real busy, which makes people (who don't know shit) think he is doing more then us.

He has this "Ted Bundy" type of malleable personality that appeals to everyone. I just keep away from him as much as possible.

 

[Wyndru]

BA's are the people that work with the "tech" people and the customers.

 

[Ns1]

This dude behind me right now (as I type) is working on typing meeting minutes and making PowerPoints. If he is not doing that, he's sending out CCed emails to groups and organizing meetings. He looks real busy, which makes people (who don't know shit) think he is doing more then us.

He has this "Ted Bundy" type of malleable personality that appeals to everyone. I just keep away from him as much as possible.

Yes, that's the physical by-product of business analysis work. However, that's not what business analysis work is.

 

[Fayd]

what does a business analyst analyze?

 

[Ns1]

what does a business analyst analyze?

whatever the business needs analyzing, duh

 

[steppinthrax]

what does a business analyst analyze?

One of their roles is determining business requirements. For example. If you have 5 developers who are tasked to develop a web application for DMV. The BA would come down with a developer and have a kick off. He/she would put on a big fucking dog an pony show on how good the team is. He/she would try to use some of the technical jargon that they know nothing about (to try to show people he/she has a tech background).

They will spend the rest of their time kissing ass and sucking the appropriate dick while creating various "Use Case", Activity Diagrams and other requirements documents that he/she will give to the developers.

They will then go back and try to task work to developers. In general we developers will pull the wool over his eyes and do our own thing.

 

[SeductivePig]

BA's are a stepping stone to a full project manager or IT director.

It's about managing people mostly, not technology. You manage (or relate to, depending on your seniority level) the people that manage technology.

If you didn't like steppinthrax's definition, you wouldn't like being a BA. Not to mention that your background in EE would be ill suited for a BA position without a few weeks of training, so you're going to offer a little less to the table than a fresh graduate with 4 years of requirements analysis under his belt.

What part of Engineering Consultant are you unhappy with? And what kind of engineering is this? The term engineer can be broader than "associate".

I don't like working alone in a cubicle
I don't like dealing with electricians and blue collar workers
I don't like shitty contractors making unreasonable demands
I don't like low budget projects
I don't like staring at a computer screen all day
I don't like a quiet office
I don't like an industry which has a poor focus on employee training
I don't like it wgen senior managers are still focusing on technical philosophy and disregarding budgets to get their socks off

 

[Ns1]

I don't like shitty contractors making unreasonable demands
I don't like low budget projects
I don't like staring at a computer screen all day

danger, danger.

i spend half my time in meeting rooms, the other half in front of my computer.

 

[glenn1]

"Business Analyst" is one of the most amorphous job titles around - I've seen it applied to dozens of job descriptions over the years. Steppinthrax has the jist of it in an IT/SDLC type environment (albeit from the developer POV). He neglected to mention the "herding cats" part of the job however - getting ahold of all the stakeholders to define the problem space, create a business case, and define scope. That's a ton of work before you even get into eliciting requirements, much less trying to get the signoff from approvers on any of it.

 

[SeductivePig]

danger, danger.

i spend half my time in meeting rooms, the other half in front of my computer.

I'm not a fan of meetings but I'm also not a fan of working alone.

Lately I've been the only guy on the left wing of my building. Depressing as hell

 

[glenn1]

I'm not a fan of meetings but I'm also not a fan of working alone.

Lately I've been the only guy on the left wing of my building. Depressing as hell

Maybe OP is Milton?

 

[Ns1]

"Business Analyst" is one of the most amorphous job titles around - I've seen it applied to dozens of job descriptions over the years. Steppinthrax has the jist of it in an IT/SDLC type environment (albeit from the developer POV). He neglected to mention the "herding cats" part of the job however - getting ahold of all the stakeholders to define the problem space, create a business case, and define scope. That's a ton of work before you even get into eliciting requirements, much less trying to get the signoff from approvers on any of it.

yeah, and then you have the douchebag developers who just want to do their own thing and try to pull the wool over your eyes.

 

[xeemzor]

yeah, and then you have the douchebag developers who just want to do their own thing and try to pull the wool over your eyes.

At least you can catch them. There are a lot of not so tech savy BAs that they can successfully manipulate.

 

[Fritzo]

Any job that has "anal" as part of it's title will suck.