[Become a BA #6] How to Get Rid of Your “Experience Gap” Once and For All

How are you doing on executing against your plan to build a BA experience? Is it easy-going? If so, please drop me a note, I’d love to hear what you are up to.

If you are feeling stuck, trust that you are not alone. Most BAs find building experiences the hardest part of becoming a business analyst.

So, before we move on to finding your inner BA, let’s take a step back and talk about some strategies for finding opportunities.

Dig deep into your current work opportunities

Take small steps to bridge your experience gap.

Because of the broad applicability of business analysis activities, nearly any position is ripe with opportunities to practice your being a BA. Core attributes of great BA work lie in communication and problem-solving. As you look around your organization, how many people communicate and problem solve day-to-day? Almost everyone! It stands to reason that in any role, you’ll have some opportunities to apply business analyst principles and practices.

In general, the best thing you can do is get yourself involved in a project – anything that involves change or building something new. You might be on a team or you might be working independently. As long as something is changing as the result of your work and the work you do has a start and an end (as opposed to continuing on indefinitely), you are on a project. Day-to-day operational roles that are fundamentally the same in day-in and day-out offer the least opportunities for project work and make it the most challenging to make a transition into business analysis.

Volunteer outside of your organization for a fresh perspective

There are also opportunities outside of your organization. Volunteering your time and smarts to help a non-profit organization opens doors toward accumulating BA experiences. It can be more challenging than you would think to donate your time! But by mixing some flexibility and passion, you are bound to turn up an opportunity in time.

Want to hear it from a professional seeking to become a business analyst? Two years ago Kimberley Heath was in your shoes. She had discovered business analysis and wanted to become a business analyst, but she lacked the real-world experience to qualify for most BA jobs.

Here’s what Kimberley Heath wrote in the Starting a Business Analyst Career forum.

“I took Laura’s advice and I made a call to a nonprofit organization in my city to be matched to opportunities where I could apply and hone my BA skills. Fortunately, I was given an opportunity very quickly, and have been working to document processes in the form of a training guide for this nonprofit. I love the work and I love the people. But more importantly, the e-book spelled out what I needed to do to put myself on the right path to landing a BA job.”

Kimberley repeated this success a second time. Now with a short BA contract under her belt, she was able to use the technique to step her career up a notch. She was kind enough to share that entire story in a Bridging the Gap blog post. Read it here.

Start small and find unexpected opportunities

The trick is not to wait for the “perfect” experience or until you have 100% confidence in your BA abilities. Neither of these is likely to happen any time soon. Start small. Take on a new challenge. Do your best. Reflect on what you learned and what you can do better next time. This is what the mid-level and senior-level business analysts do all the time. Why not start today?

Tackle your projects at home with new energy

Don’t overlook opportunities in your personal life. Anything from a home remodeling project to a decision to buy a new DVD player can provide ripe opportunities to build a BA experience.

Your next step

If you were stuck on the last lesson, take 3 minutes right now and write down one thing you can do this week. Don’t think about it too much. Just write down the first thing that pops into your head. Go back to lesson 5 to refresh your memory on building experiences, then craft a plan to make it happen.

If you weren’t stuck, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. Then make the most of your new experience by first, updating your resume, and second, finding your next opportunity. The trick is to make your next opportunity a bit bigger and more challenging than the last. That’s what will make it a step forward.

Take a minute to share your success (or get advice to overcome your frustrations) in the Starting a BA Career LinkedIn group.

Additional Bridging the Gap Resources

As always, wishing you the best in business analysis.

Best,

Laura Brandenburg, CBAP

Your Host, Bridging the Gap
Your Instructor, My Business Analysis Career

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