I am very passionate about existing business relationships and how they can be impacted by strategy development. This is what led me to major in Economics for my undergraduate study. I wanted to get an overview of how the different systems in the market work and their relationships with each other. I recently completed my undergraduate studies in my hometown and graduated from Ohio State University with a major in Economics.
After completion of my Bachelor’s degree, I realized that I needed to increase my business knowledge in order to acquire an in-depth understanding of how a business runs, and the factors that impact its success. This led me to pursue a Master of Commerce at the University of New South Wales located in Sydney. I plan to major in business analysis. Business analysis will give me the ability to use the available information to come up with ways of improving business processes.
My Career aspirations
Once I am done with my studies, I would like to become a Business Analyst. With the current volatility in the business world today, many companies are introducing a business analyst role in their organizations. The role of the business analyst is to act as a liaison between the leadership of the organization and the rest of the departments, in terms of strategic initiatives. Using the available data and information, business analysts normally study the market requirements and communicate these to the relevant stakeholders in order to achieve profitability, a competitive edge and the strategic goals of the company. Business analysts also help in coming up with a forecast of the resources that a company may need in the future in order to remain responsive to their customer needs without reducing their profitability.
Over time, I hope to build on my business analysis skills and get promotions to head the strategy division of a company in the future. If possible, I would like to hold this position for a multinational corporation. Heading such a corporation will involve having huge investments in strategy development and adaptability due to market volatility. I would like to take up such a challenge.
Existing skills gap
Currently, I have a degree in Economics. This degree has given me an in-depth understanding of the working mechanism of the economy. In addition, based on my SWOB analysis and conducting self-awareness tests as stipulated by Robins and Hunsaker (2014), I have good communication and interpersonal skills. In addition, I am able to easily come up with creative ideas. However, I have no major work experience. Therefore, I lack practical knowledge.
In order to become a successful business analyst, I would need to acquire certain skills. I may need to acquire some technical business analysis skills (Brandenburg 2018). This includes the use of Microsoft Excel to do analysis and modeling. Depending on my job requirement, I may require to take a further step and learn how to use some analysis software. In addition, I will need to have very good verbal and written communications skills (Brandenburg 2018). One of the major roles of a business analyst is to report on the findings and give recommendations on the best course of action. Finally, for a business analyst to be successful, they need to have a good understanding of the economy, industry and the market that the business is operating in, as well as the nature of the business that they are working for. In order to succeed in this role, I would need to have an education on business analysis, and acquire all the relevant skills of a business analysts that I am lacking such as modeling, software knowledge, and written communication skills.
How I am working on addressing this skills gap
My first plan of action in addressing the skills gap is pursuing a Master of Commerce, with a major in business analysis. Undertaking this study will equip me with the skills required to work with big data in order to come up with useful information. These include Information Technology (IT) skills, financial literacy skills, business interpretation skills as well as professional soft skills. This course will also give me insight on the strategy development and implementation skills.
In order to set myself apart from other people in the job market, I will also need to learn how to use a data analysis and visualization software. These skills will also improve my employability and increase the chances of making this job a reality (Erickson 2008). I am interested in learning how to use SQL, Looker, and Qlik. I have chosen these three based on my research on the business analysis job advertisements posted online. Therefore, these options may change with the changes in the job requirement markets, and depending on the specific organization I target to work in. Over time, I could add on the data analysis skill set depending on the career requirements that may arise.
SMART goals set to achieve these aspirations
My immediate short-term goal is to complete my Master of Commerce degree. I would like to specifically major in Business analysis. I will work hard to ensure that I excel in the coursework in order to complete the programme in the stipulated one and a half years. This course will give me the educational background needed to become a business analyst.
Once I am done with the Master’s degree, I will embark on building up on my data analytics skills. I would like to do two data analysis courses immediately after the completion of my Master’s degree coursework. These include SQL and Qlik. I will start with SQL; after which I will then embark on Qlik. These two courses are short in nature and may require a month to complete each course.
I will be concurrently searching for a job as I do the courses. Once I get a job, I will continuously stay abreast of the market requirements and continually do relevant data analysis and leadership courses in order to further improve on my skills. These will help me go up the corporate ladder and become a successful head of strategy.
REFERENCES
Erickson, T. 2008, “Align the Practical Realities: Generation Y–Shaping Your Personal
Career Strategy” from Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work. Harvard
Business School Press, Harvard MA
Robbins, S.P. and Hunsaker, P.L. 2014, “Self-Awareness: A Point of Departure” from
Training in Interpersonal Skills. Pearson, Harlow
Brandenburg, L. 2018, “What Business Analyst Skills are Important for a New BA?” from We’ll Help You Start Your Business Analyst Career. Accessed from https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/business-analyst-skills-important/