Today we meet Anna, a business analyst who has been journeying with Bridging the Gap since 2017!
What we love about Anna’s story is how she found herself performing various aspects of a business analyst career before joining the Bridging the Gap program. Despite facing career uncertainty and layoffs, her decision to join the program only increased her passion for business analysis, while empowering her to champion other BAs who were learning alongside of her.
In this interview, you’ll discover how:
- The program built on Anna’s experience, while also providing a new layer of depth and knowledge to some of her favorite aspects of business analysis.
- Anna realized a new sense of confidence as a more polished BA which opened the door for her to mentor junior BAs and even start pursuing a career in Business Architecture.
- The feedback she received during her time in the program gave her the guardrails needed to truly execute excellent work for her organization.
Laura Brandenburg: Hello, I’m Laura Brandenburg from Bridging the Gap and I am so excited to be here today with Anna, who was a participant in the recent session of the Business Analyst Blueprint. And iis here to talk a little bit about her business analysis career journey and her experience with the program. Anna, thank you so, so much for being here.
Anna: Thank you for having me, Laura. It’s always a pleasure.
Laura Brandenburg: We got to connect quite a bit through your session and through a lot of the office hours calls. I’m just really excited to hear even more of your story and your positive vibe. You always bring so much positive energy. So why don’t you just get us started and share a little bit about where you were at before you found Bridging the Gap or before you started The Blueprint. Where were you at in your career? What were you looking for professionally?
Anna: I’m glad that you ordered it that way, because in my career, prior to business analysis, I had my undergrad in HR. I didn’t get an HR job. I jumped into billing and ended up working for an IT MSP (managed service provider). They weren’t too established. I have a natural hustle or a go-getter attitude, and I wanted to help them develop some sort of foundation on how things work because no processes were documented. What everyone did was in their brains, so nothing was in a repository. Myself and another young lady that I worked with, we worked together to develop a knowledge base for all the processes. And then when mergers happened, she and I were the primary ones putting over all of the data from one system to another.
In 2017, I came across Bridging the Gap on YouTube because I was brought with the project on implementing Salesforce. Now, I know that Bridging the Gap doesn’t have much to do with Salesforce, but I was looking for ways to get more organized, and I saw where Salesforce had a business analyst, not a career path at the time, but it was an element that business analysts should learn, so to speak.
And so I googled “learn business analysis” and came across Bridging the Gap. I’ve been hooked ever since. I followed you on LinkedIn and subscribed to Bridging the Gap’s YouTube channel because your knowledge has been helpful.
At the IT managed service provider employer where I was working, I helped with project coordination. And there was an element to one of your videos – I cannot recall the exact one – that I was able to apply to my own career in that time.
And after being laid off from that company, business analysis was the way that I really wanted to go. Because at that company there wasn’t a role for BA and so I was doing a project coordination work because there just wasn’t a BA role available at the time.
After I was laid off, I went to different clients and added more tools in my toolbelt. Eight years later, up until now, I’ve finished The Blueprint program. I was able to become a more polished business analyst. I’m also aiding junior business analyst as well.
That background with Bridging the Gap and Laura’s information has really helped solidify my career as a BA for sure.
Laura Brandenburg: It’s so interesting that you talk back to 2017, where it sounds like you were really doing business analysis under an HR title. Right. But then you joined the program in 2023. Obviously you learned a lot of things along the way. But then there was something that shifted when you chose to join The Blueprint program now.
Anna: For clarity, my degree was in HR and my specialization was HR, but the position itself, was IT project coordination or project management. And so the reason why I joined in 2023: I’m making more money now, so I’m able to afford the program. Also I had an employer who believed in me. So having that support of someone saying, “Hey, Anna – do it, go for it; this is why we need you here.”
Laura Brandenburg: Sometimes I think just all the things have to fall into place, right. So did your employer end up paying for the program?
Anna: Yes.
Laura Brandenburg: You funded it at first and then your employer covered it. That happens a lot. What how did that unfold for you?
Anna: We are paying a pretty penny, but like I said, it is well worth it. I said to my employer, “Hey, I’m interested in this program and here’s the details.” But I got an email that the deadline’s approaching to enroll. So I made a quick decision to join the program. And I went back to my employer, and we were able to smooth it out. So like I said, that employer support goes a long way for sure.
Laura Brandenburg: For sure. It sounds like you brought a lot of business analysis experience into the program, but like what changed as you went through it or what were some of the key experiences for you? Did you work on a specific project? Did you apply it to different projects?
Anna: Being exposed to the different elements that The Blueprint provides within business analysis really helped me. I was able to not necessarily have one module that we went over apply to every project that I’ve worked on. But during the program – yes, I was working on projects. Yes, I was applying what I’ve learned in each module to those projects.
Another thing for me that was big was getting that feedback because I’m a maverick. And so I like to do things my own way. That’s how clients in the past have been. But it was very, very educational when I would provide a deliverable in my own way, but then get the feedback like, “Hey, this isn’t what we talked about, this isn’t what was listed.”
So it’s a matter of adjusting yourself and having the flexibility to get out of your own way and do it the way the client wants it.
Laura Brandenburg: Is there a module that stands out to you?
Anna: Business Process Analysis. The first module. Mapping – that’s my forte. I love BPM and process mapping. That’s led me to work, essentially – that’s 60% of my job.
Whenever I get feedback that wasn’t aligned to the workbook standard, I was taking that like, “Hey, this is what I do”, but I realized this is coming from a good point. Let me do this the way that they needed done. Those new ways I’ve incorporated into my day to day career.
Laura Brandenburg: Obviously what you did was working because you were successful, but sometimes there’s just a little tweaks that make it easier or clearer, long term.
Because you brought this up, one of the things I love is that you were in our program and then you were also part of our membership for a while where we had the community together. And you were one of the few who have been active in not just posting things and sharing things to get feedback, but also to provide feedback to other people, which I just love witnessing.
How did that help you? Was that something that you just enjoy to do, or is that something that you also learn from a little bit later? What was your motivation around that?
Anna: The Blueprint program gave me the confidence to give my $0.02. I felt comfortable contributing to certain feedback requests and posts, or even during the office hours calls, because that that’s how I feel that business analysts should grow. And I feel like that’s how it’s grown by building off of one another. My parents say iron sharpens iron, so you only get better whenever you surround yourself with those who can make you better, essentially.
Laura Brandenburg: I want to also say, I appreciate you being the one who helped to build up other people, because it’s one thing to hear feedback from me, but also you often provided a slightly different take than I would, or you saw something that I would have missed. And so I think that’s true within the community too. Just having multiple eyes on your work is just so.
Anna: Appreciate that for sure.
Laura Brandenburg: So tell us: where are you at now?
Anna: Business analysis will always be something that I’m always going to carry with me. I’m always going to go back to. Currently, one, I am helping build other junior BAs. And, who knows, I may lead a team of BAs. Let’s put that into the atmosphere.
But I’m also going into a direction for business architecture, and that’s not really too much of a learning curve, but I feel like it’s a great route for me in terms of bringing business analysis on, in dealing with, decisions and applications, pieces of it as well.
Laura Brandenburg: So exciting. So you’re providing feedback to junior BAs already, building that leadership experience.
Anna: And being their cheerleader, yes.
Laura Brandenburg: How’s that going?
Anna: Fairly well. Just yesterday I was on a call with the PM and two other junior BAs and the PM was like, “Anna, do you want to do this?” And I said, “No, let’s let this other person do it. You got this. We’re all here together.” So just being that cheerleader for those who don’t have that inner cheerleader themselves.
Laura Brandenburg: That’s awesome. And I will say that often comes from being part of a community or part of a program that give you that confidence to know the structure that they need. So now you know the tools that they need to be successful. It’s really fulfilling for me to see people grow from the doer into the leader.
Anna: You may see them in your Bridging the Gap program.
Laura Brandenburg: I would obviously love to help them. Is there anything else that you would like to share with people who might want to follow in your footsteps in their career or are interested in joining the program?
Anna: So if you want to follow my career – have an open mind, ask plenty of questions, and be ready for whatever. Roll with the punches. Be susceptible to feedback, both positive and critical. But in terms of The Blueprint… do the program, do the program. It can be time consuming. And I should have done an earlier cohort that didn’t occur during the holidays.
I highly recommend it because it helped me become a more polished business analyst. It exposed me to areas that I wouldn’t necessarily touch as a functional business analyst, such as the ERDs and the system and the data items.
Getting more polished up in each of those areas is just giving me the confidence to want to do more.
Laura Brandenburg: You are on to now learning about business architecture and expanding on those skills. Those skills never go away. But yes, it is a bit of an intensive investment in time and energy, that’s for sure.
Anna: My last point that I’ll make is that within The Blueprint program, being around fellow business analysts or transitioning business analysts or just those who have an interest in business analysis, having a new network, new friendships, that can be valuable as well. Being in the membership community and getting those different contacts as well has been very beneficial to my career as a BA.
Laura Brandenburg: Well, thank you so, so much, Anna. I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. I’m looking forward to continuing to watch your journey. I know you are definitely a go-getter and you’ll be somewhere completely new and exciting. I appreciate that about you so much.
Anna: Thank you, Laura.
