How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?

Are you a fresher and planning to become a Business Analyst, but stuck with the question, How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?. First of all Congratulations!. You are planning to choose the most demanding career. If you don’t know where to start your Business Analyst career, then this article is just for you. In this article, I will discuss everything related to Business Analyst. At the end of this article, you will get an answer to your question-How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?.

So, without wasting your time, let’s get started.

Hello, & Welcome!

In this blog, I am gonna tell you-

How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?

Before we move to the career path, let’s start from scratch. First, understand Who is Business Analyst and What they do?

Who is a Business Analyst?

A Business Analyst is the person who is responsible for company or organizations profit. The Business Analyst uses data to improve the productivity of a company. They check What are the business needs, what problems business is facing, and how to optimize its operations?

You will understand about business analyst more deeply in the next section. So, let’s see What Business Analyst do?

What Business Analyst do?

Business Analyst works as an intermediate between the customer team and the technology team. They gather requirements from the customer and convert into documents that the technology team can understand.

You can understand the whole working of Business Analyst with the help of this image.

Business Analyst communicates with the customer team as well as the technical team. The business analyst communicates with the customer team and find out the requirements and convert these requirements into the documents that are understandable by the technology team.

In short business analyst gather all requirements from the customer, convert into proper documents and forward to technical team.

I hope now you understand the whole working of Business Analyst. Now, let’s see roles and responsibilities of Business Analyst.

Roles and Responsibilities of Business Analyst

1. Requirements Gathering.
2. Requirements modeling.
3. Requirements documentation.
4. Change requests.
5. Functional Testing.
6. UAT Co-ordination.
7. Requirements communication with the technical team.
8. Clarifications with the technical team.

So, these are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Business Analyst. Many people get confused between the Business Analyst and Data Analyst. So, let me clear your confusion-

Business Analyst vs Data Analyst

Business Analyst focuses on the business side of things. That means they need to collect requirements from the customer, communicate with the stakeholder, negotiate with them. Their whole work is all around the business.

Business Analyst should have good communication and leadership skills. Why? because they have to communicate with customers and technical team.

Whereas the Data Analyst focuses on the data. They analyze the data and find useful insights from the data. Data Analyst should have good programming skills and statistical skills.

So, in short Data Analyst should have strong technical skills whereas Business Analyst should have strong communication and leadership skills. I hope, now you understand the basic difference between Business Analyst and data Analyst.

As you are planning to become a Business analyst, you are definitely curious about the salary of Business Analyst. so, let’s see in the next section.

Salary of Business Analyst

The salary depends upon the experience level. As your experience grow, your salary will also grow. According to the glassdoor, the average salary of Business Analyst in India- INR 700K / yr.

In USA, the average salary of Business Analyst- $ 68,346 / yr.

In UK, the average salary of Business Analyst- £ 40,000 / yr.

Interesting right?. Now let’s see what qualification you should have to start your career as a Business Analyst.

Qualification for Business Analyst

There is no specific degree is required for a Business Analyst. Only Undergraduate Degree or College Diploma is an entry point to become a Business Analyst. But you should have some required skills, that I will discuss in the next section.

If you have a computer science engineering degree, then it’s good for you. You can easily land into Business Analyst career.

If you have done an MBA or any other Business degree, then also its a good choice to become a Business Analyst. But you should have some technical skills too. For that, you can do some technical courses.

The most suitable combination is Engineering (CSE) + MBA. In this case, you have technical skills as well as business skills.

I hope, now you understood what qualification is required for Business Analyst role. Now, let’s move to the most important part, that is skills required for Business Analyst.

Skills required for Business Analyst

Let’s see the most important skills required for business analyst.

1. Communication Skills

As I mentioned earlier, that Business Analyst communicates with Customers or stakeholders and with the technical team as well. So, as a business analyst, you have to communicate much. That’s why you should have good communication skills.

At the customer side, you have to communicate for understanding the requirements. And then you have to describe these requirements to the technical team. So Business Analyst should have excellent communication skills.

Along with verbal communication, you should be good at writing. Because after understanding the requirements from the customer, business analysts write it down that is understandable by the technical team.

But, if you don’t have good communication skills, don’t worry. You can improve your communication with various methods. The easiest method is to enroll yourself in any communication course. There are lots of courses available, that help to improve your communication skills.

I would like to recommend the following course for improving communication skills-

• Improve Your English Communication Skills Specialization– This course is offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology. This program will help you to improve your professional communication in English for successful business interactions. This program has 4 courses focus on- writing emails, speaking at meetings and interviews, giving presentations, and networking online.

So, if you have good communication skills, it’s good. But if not, then you can improve your communication skills.

2. Problem-Solving skills

Business Analyst should have problem-solving skills. They should able to solve critical business problems and find the most suitable solution. Every time it’s not possible to deliver the business needs smoothly. There may be various problems that occurred at a different level. So, a business analyst should have the ability to deal with these problems.

3. Analytical Skills

Analytical skills are also important for a Business Analyst. Business Analyst analyzes the data and requirements and then take appropriate actions. They also analyze different solutions and find out which action should take. So, in order to perform all these tasks, business analysts should have good analytical skills.

4. Technical Skills

If you are IT business analyst, then you should have some technical skills. These skills include knowledge of software and hardware, SQL, SDLC, Software life cycle, and much more. This knowledge is required because you can understand these terms while communicating with customers and technical team.

If you don’t have technical skills, you can learn from various sources. If you want to learn SQL, then this is the best course for you-

• Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization– This specialization program is offered by the Duke University. In this program, you will use powerful tools and methods such as Excel, Tableau, and MySQL to analyze data, create forecasts and models, design visualizations, and communicate your insights.

5. Negotiation Skills

Negotiation skills is important for business analyst. Because Business Analyst is the person who talk with the customers. So the goal of Business Analyst is to final the deal in more profitable manner. That’s why negotiation skills is required for Business Analyst.

Negotiation skill is an art, you can improve slowly. You can also enroll in any course, that will teach you some tactics for negotiation. I have chosen one course for you, I hope you will find it helpful.

• Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills– This course is offered by the University of Michigan. This course will teach you several strategies for negotiations.

6. Management Skills

Business Analyst has to perform various activities throughout the day. That’ why they should be able to manage all responsibilities effectively. These responsibilities includes gathering requirement, getting sign-offs, convert requirements into documents, testing, attending meetings, and managing the project as a whole. If, Business Analyst don’t have good management skills, he/she will face issues.

So, these are some most important skills for Business Analysts.It’s ok if you don’t have some skills. You can develop these skills by self or by joining any certification program.

Now, you understood all the details including skills required for business analyst. Now you may be thinking where to start. Right?. So, don’t worry i will explain the steps in the next section.

Steps to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience

1. As I mentioned that there is no specific degree is required for a Business Analyst. That means anyone can become a Business Analyst if they have an interest in this field.
2. So the next step is to gain some Business Analyst knowledge. That means start reading about Business Analyst. Read and understand how business analysts work in different domains. You can read articles related to a business analyst from IIBA.
3. Finalize the domain in which you want to become a Business Analyst. Domain knowledge is very important. Domain knowledge is business sector such as Manufacturing, Healthcare, Banking, Insurance, and so on.
4. After having a basic knowledge of Business Analyst, start applying for internships. Join any good internship and sharpen your skills. During the internship, you will learn how a business analyst works in real-life scenarios.
5. As an intern, give your best. This will create a chance that you will be hired with the same organization.
6. If not, then make a strong resume and start applying for a Business Analyst Job.

So, these are the some essential steps for getting your first job as a Business Analyst. Many people have a question-

Should I take any Certification Course for Business Analyst?

Yes. But it’s not compulsory. If you have good communication skills, technical skills, and business knowledge, then you can directly apply for a job. But if you want to learn these skills then you can go for certification programs. These certification will give better knowledge and better career plan.

Now, the next question is which certification is good for entry level business analyst?

If you are fresher, then you should go for ECBA (Entry Certificate in Business Analyst).

If you have 5-10 years of experience, then CBAP (Certificate Business Analyst Professional) is good for you.

You can also check out some online courses for Business Analyst- Online Course for Business Analyst You Should Know

Now, I would like to share some important resume tips-

Resume Tips

Your Resume is the first impression for any recruiters. No matter how much skilled you are, but if your resume is not attractive, sorry you will not get an interview call. That’s why, you shouldn’t ignore your Resume.

If you want that your resume will get more privilege than others, then you should keep these things in mind-

• Read the job profile and check what skills they require, then see how many skills you have. Suppose in the job description they mentioned Good Communication skills, and you have good communication skills, then definitely write “Good Communication skill” as the first skill. You can repeat the same for other skills too, just compare your skills and the skills written in Job Description. This tip will definitely help you.
• The template of your resume should be classic.
• Avoid templates with so many graphics. It gives a bad impression to the recruiter.
• Don’t hesitate about white spaces. That means don’t try to fill the full page with text. Leave some white space that looks clean.
• Don’t write a long text like a story. It should be precise and simple.
• As a fresher, you stuck in the Experience section. Many people skip the experience section. But don’t do that. You can mention internships in the experience section. you can also mention college projects and volunteer work that match the job description.
• After finalizing your resume, you need to check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Because of any grammar or spelling mistakes, your full work will be wasted. So thoroughly check for grammar and spelling before sending it to the company. You can check it on Grammarly.

I hope, now you got an answer to your question, “How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?”. Now it’s time to wrap up.

Conclusion

In this article “How to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience?”, I tried to give you a complete road map for Business Analyst Job. In this article, you have learned the following-

• Who is a Business Analyst?, What Business Analyst do? Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst.
• Business Analyst vs Data Analyst, Salary of Business Analyst, Qualification for Business Analyst.
• Skills required for Business Analyst, Steps to Become a Business Analyst with No Experience, Certification Course for Business Analyst?, and Resume Tips.

I hope now you are ready to become a Business Analyst and no one can beat you to become a Business Analyst. If you have any doubts or queries feel free to ask me in the comment section. I am here to help you.

All the Best for your Career!

Happy Learning!

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