Career Options
General
This is a broad career field that supports the business activities of an internal customer. It includes areas like procurement, supply chain management, strategic planning, project/program management, and internal consulting. Business Analysts build relationships with internal customers, develop an in-depth understanding of their business needs, and find ways to improve results. They work with internal customers to define requirements, establish goals, analyze process improvement opportunities, and implement projects that impact on business results. To learn more about the Business Analysis career field, watch the video below where we meet with three Cameron-Brooks alumni to discuss their experience in a Business Analysis leadership career where their responsibilities touch many aspects of a business to improve business results.
Key Responsibilities and Required Skills
Project management Skills
Business Analysts lead multiple projects from start to finish. They define project scope, develop specifications, analyze resource requirements, establish timelines, work with external vendors, manage budgets, resolve conflicts, and manage projects to conclusion.
Leadership/Interpersonal Skills
They spend the majority of their time working with teams of people, providing advice on a project, decision, or new strategy. Because they will partner with peers, supervisors or those of higher authority, they lead through collaboration, relationship building, and interpersonal and communication skills.
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Business Analysts will dig into data and processes, find trends and variance to identify what is happening and determine what they can do to make improvements.
Information Technology/Data Analysis
An emerging trend in business is big data to drive analytical decision making and problem solving. Business Analysts utilize MS Excel, database software and potentially some programming languages to mine and manipulate information to identify opportunities.
Business Knowledge
Those in the Business Analyst career field understand business concepts such as Lean, Six Sigma, Agile Project Management, Big Data, MS Excel, and database tools (i.e. MS Access)
Possible Job Titles
- Business Analyst
- Project Manager
- Business Strategy Analyst
- Operations Analyst
- Procurement Manager
- Supplier Manager
Sample Job Description — Business Analyst
Please keep in mind the following job description is just one of many possible Business Analyst job descriptions.
You will work with internal business groups on process improvement projects designed to improve their business results. Your mission is to act as an internal consultant, proactively identifying and initiating projects that overhaul business methods (strategy, information technology, processes, change management, etc.). In this role, you will actively interface with your internal customers to conduct structured business analysis of work processes. You will play a key role in translating business problems into opportunities for improvement. Analysis, interdisciplinary program management, project management, and process reengineering will be key facets of your work. You will be responsible for solving business problems by leading complex projects from idea to implementation. You will provide project leadership to teams made up of personnel across many departments while you drive your projects to produce results. You will also work with outside vendors negotiating programs that produce desired results identified through your internal interactions. Strong analytical skills, structured critical thinking, excellent oral/written communication skills and proven indirect leadership skills are critical to your success. This position will enable you to utilize and combine both your business and technical abilities.
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