You might be wondering if someone with your career background can be successful in starting a business analyst career.
After working with thousands of business analyst professionals, I can almost guarantee that the answer is YES!
We’ve seen professionals from all different job roles and industries leverage their past experience to start business analyst careers.
What determines your success is whether or not you have the underlying competencies in communication and problem solving, and are willing to invest in learning the foundational business analyst skills.
Profiles of Some Common Backgrounds for Business Analysis
Each individual’s path into business analysis is unique and depends heavily on their skills and career experience. However, there are some broad generalizations that can be made about specific career path backgrounds, what transferable business analysis skills you are most likely to have, and what opportunities will help you quicken your path into business analysis.
We’ve profiled a few of the more common paths we see among our program participants in detail, and you can go to those tutorials by clicking below.
From Technical Writing to Business Analyst
From Software Developer to Business Analyst
From Customer Service to Business Analyst
From Project Manager to Business Analyst
From Software Tester to Business Analyst
And if you don’t see your path – not to worry! We’ve got dozens of more career backgrounds covered by specific case studies with actual business analysts who made the transition.
I hope you find a story that resonates with you and inspires you to take the next step on your journey. Even if there is not someone listed with your exact career background, you’ll be reassured by the wide variety of career backgrounds represented.
(Before I forget, if you are interested in learning about your best path forward into a business analyst career, check out our FREE Quick Start to Success workshop.)
Without further ado, onto the stories!
From Administrative Assistant to Business Analyst
Jami Moore transitioned from Administrative Assistant to Business Analyst by shadowing BAs, volunteering for stretch assignments, and finding a career sponsor. She then moved to a new company in a business analyst role, and that’s when her career really took off!
>> Click here to read the transcript <<
From Technical Writer to Lead Business Analyst and a $20K Salary Increase
Amelia McHenry went from reaching the ceiling of her Technical Writer role to a Lead Business Analyst Role making $90K/year in Brentwood, Tennessee. This move represented a $20K salary bump in less than a year.
Unemployed in the UK with a Background in Compliance – Lands 2 BA Job Offers
Perry McGuire held the title of business analyst, but was not fulfilling the full scope of business analyst work he found in his local job postings in Jersey, one of the British Islands. By going through each of the skill sets in The Business Analyst Blueprint® and applying them through volunteer work at a local non-profit, Perry boosted his practical business analyst skills and increased his confidence to apply for a broader range of business analyst positions.
From Research Assistant to Business Analyst in Just a Few Months
Thomas Clarke leveraged his participation in the BA Essentials Master Class from Bridging the Gap to learn how to apply more structure to his work, and engage with more confidence.
In this case study, Thomas reveals lots of juicy tidbits about how he made this transformation happen so quickly, and what the keys were to his success. It’s a short and sweet 15-minute interview – well worth your time to check out!
From Support Analyst to Business Analyst
in 4 Weeks at the British Red Cross
“During The Business Analyst Blueprint®, I held a workshop with people in the organization so that we could collaboratively document the business process, and then improve it. As a result of this words spread in the different teams. Not even the teams that I, necessarily, worked in, but the teams that are containing the people who I helped the workshop with. People were saying, “Oh, this is really good. It’s really good.”
And what happened was that I contacted the program manager for the project off the bunch of project lists that were related, and he introduced me to another, to a project manager who was thrilled when she heard that I wanted to do business analysis. She was looking for someone to help her. As a result, my manager approved that part of my role would be business analysis going forward. So, it wouldn’t just be support analysis, which was great because that’s what I wanted.”
– Roshni Dominic
“During The Business Analyst Blueprint®, I held a workshop with people in the organization so that we could collaboratively document the business process, and then improve it. As a result of this words spread in the different teams. Not even the teams that I, necessarily, worked in, but the teams that are containing the people who I helped the workshop with. People were saying, “Oh, this is really good. It’s really good.”>> Click here to listen to Roshni’s case study <<
From Software Development to Business Analyst – Landing Paid Contract Work Along the Way
Todd Fleming is from Somers Montana, which is near Kalispell, Montana, and leveraged his investment in The Business Analyst Blueprint® to land paid contract work with a past employer, and the opportunity to build up his on-the-job business analyst experience.
From Quality Assurance Engineer to ServiceNow Business Analyst
For Manuel Ninapaitan, it all started with updating his title in his email signature – which he had the confidence to do while in The Business Analyst Blueprint® program. Soon his manager asked him to take on a BA-like project. And a year later he was in his first official business analyst job role.
From Economist to IT Business Analyst
Kira Judge, from Saskatchewan, Canada, is a Senior Business Analyst with a background as an economist and business intelligence. She shares her journey to finding new confidence as a business analyst, and owning the value she provides to her organization, by building the technical skills that she needed in The Business Analyst Blueprint® program.
>>Click here to read the transcript<<
From Software Developer to Business Analyst to BTG Instructor
Learn how Disha Trivedi transitioned into a business analyst career from software development, and the career trajectory that’s led her to being an instructor with Bridging the Gap.
>>Click here to read the transcript<<
And There’s More…Career Backgrounds Galore!
While we don’t have videos and images for these success stories, we have many more interviews with business analysts who have shared their transition stories. Browse through them all to find one that resonates with you.
From Quality Assurance to Business Analyst (Laura Brandenburg)
From Sales Support to Quality Assurance to Business Analysis (Martin Pakpahan)
From Operations Support Analyst to Business Analyst (Natalya Polkhovsky)
From Applications Support Specialist to Business Analyst (Aniket Sharma)
Building BA Experience as a Software Developer (Dave Wolf)
From Programmer to Business Analyst: How to Snap Back from a Layoff after 35 Years with One Company (John Jones)
From Software Developer in an Informal Environment to Business Analyst (Michiel Erasmus)
From Software Developer to Business Analyst (Wendy Stookesberry)
From Desktop Support Technician to Business Analyst: A Journey-In-Progress (Rob Jowaises)
Landing a BA Job Just 7 Months Out of College (Eric)
Turning a Business Systems Analyst Internship into a Job Offer (Nelson Colon)
>>How to Learn the Foundational Business Analyst Skills
When you join The Business Analyst Blueprint® program, you’ll gain real world experience in the industry-standard techniques and business analysis processes. You’ll create work samples vetted by experienced instructors.
>> Click here for more information about The Blueprint <<
