For the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging emails with David Gillies, IT Practice Manager, at Kern Search about the business analyst profession, the types of IT jobs he is seeing, and what his clients are looking for in IT leaders and business analysts. David kindly agreed to let me share some of the dialog we’ve been having, with the caveat that these are merely his opinions based on personal experiences. The lack of empirical evidence aside, I believe you’ll find his thoughts compelling.
What are you seeing in the technology job market?
In short, yes, companies are hiring. Who? People who make a difference. Merely stating that you did something is not enough. How well did you do it?
Hiring companies want to see dollar signs ($$$) and percentages (%) in your resume. In other words, tell them how much money you made the company, how much you saved the company, or how much better you made things (%)….which ultimately translates into $$$. Companies are looking for change agents. They are not merely looking to back-fill positions that are open. Candidates have to demonstrate….not tell….demonstrate their potential value to a hiring company.
Companies crave leadership right now. No company is hiring…or keeping around…highly paid individuals who basically “sit” on a group. They are not hiring managers, they are hiring leaders. I believe this market will bring that dynamic into a better alignment. You will see some ineffective, but highly paid individuals with high titles let go and come back as lower level managers…at lower salaries. Salaries commensurate with their value.
How do you see the roles of business analyst and project manager?
I am seeing that companies want individuals to take ownership of a project from beginning to end. Although a company might be looking to fill a project manager role, they need individuals with strong business analyst competencies. My concern is that in bypassing the project manager positions (which I don’t typically focus on in my practice), I will miss great opportunities for my business analyst candidates. The customer might have a job posting for a project manager, when in actuality they need a great BA with demonstrable PM skills.
I have come to realize that the best BAs possess leadership qualities and are probably well suited for project management. After all, who cares what methodologies you know, if you can’t get people to act? Useless.
What are your challenges in recruiting business analysts?
I take a pride in recruiting real game changers for my clients. My clients can find the BAs on job boards who are just happy existing but they would be compelled about hearing of BAs who take product ownership and really move things forward. A key challenge I have is in finding the individuals who live up to these expectations.
Ideally I want BA team leads…..or business analysts who aspire to some form of management / leadership. There is nothing that makes me feel better than a customer who calls me and says, “Find me a clone of [excellent hire]! She is awesome!!!”
What’s your perspective on professional certifications?
In my experience PMI or PMP does not get you the job, but it can effectively eliminate you from an opportunity to interview. If I have a strong relationship with a customer, it can be possible to get candidates without certifications the first interview but otherwise you are out of luck. It will take a lot of marketing to get the CBAP to have the clout of a PMP, but it’s a definite possibility.
Hi Laura,
I was reading this post with bated breath. It’s interesting that I’ve found things going right in the opposite direction. Exploring Job Boards and talking to recruiters I gained an impression that most of BA openings are needed to be filled with “tools users”. Almost all my attempts to talk about leadership and abilitiy to see/analyze and suggest change are failed. The essence of answers may be interpreted as: “You need to know Visio (or other software) to do what you told. Otherwise what I’d need you for? We have enough managers to do thinking. Or you think you’re smarter?”
So, the question remains: how smart people who CAN get others to act will be able to obtain a position where they could implement their creativity, analytical and people skills, broad management and customer relations experience as well as their eagerness to learn and practice modern methodologies if they were producing their results without using all array of modern tools? It seems like nobody want to wait while one gathered his or her proficiency with these tools…
Interesting insights, Yegor.
I definitely don’t classify David as a “normal” BA recruiter. And I see a lot of what you are seeing as well. What I love is how he is helping sell the role you describe to organizations and helping them see the value the BA mindset.
Laura/David,
I sign-up to what you posted to the extent that I (BA) pursued and passed the PRINCE2 Practitioner certification as, in my personal experience, only approximately 50% of PMs were selfless enough to sacrifice their egos for the good of the customer. In 3 out of 6 projects over 3 years I inherited responsibility for delivery (and I loved it) and the client was extremely grateful and rewarded me, which encouraged me to formalise my skills so that I could face up to PMs who were resting on their laurels.
I would like to emphasise that the other 50% were phenomenal individuals and we worked together as a team sharing work to suit the peaks and troughs of each other’s work loads.
I fear you are based in the USA whereas I am in Europe otherwise I would immediately put myself forward to be represented by David.
Yegor, I think that the listing of tools is merely a part of the selection process; why hire someone who doesn’t have Visio experience when there are a thousand who do?
At the same time, my observation is that, relevant business knowledge is the most important factor, and that is how it should be.
Yegor, I would also suggest that, at the interview stage, it is extremely important to focus on the job description and not to intimidate people too much; they could easily think, “Goodness, this person is going to rock the boat/outshine me/go off on tangents/etc.”
I have participated in the hiring process many times and one of my pet hates is someone who is being hired to do one job (be a BA) touting other skills (being a PM), especially when they are in their CV. To my mind, despite what I say above, one is either a BA or a PM; my BA performance certainly suffered when I was covering for absent or ineffective PMs.
Therefore, the trick is to assert oneself as a “super” BA rather than crossing the boundaries of the role. Essentially, if one makes everyone else’s lives easier (and subtley raise people’s awareness of the fact) they will come to acknowledge one’s contribution and continue extending your contract.
Question for David; how does one emphasise the soft skills necessary to perform at such a level over a long period of time (high energy levels, ability to focus as well as consider the broader spectrum of a company’s strategy, positive “can do” attitude, personable, polite) in one’s CV and/or cover letter so as to secure the interview?
I have to agree with Yegor – the perception of BA jobs seems to be pretty technique/application/business process specific and require very specific experience.
Looking to David’s answer to the certification question, I wonder if the real value of the PMP is shifting discussion to results and away from the basic “what is a Gantt chart” question.
Michael,
Your thoughts are interesting and deserve some thought. Also, please understand that I by no means believe that I have all of the answers. I can just tell you how I run my business and discuss the types of individuals I try to work with. Some of my thoughts may take some time to distill…believe me, it is an education process with my clients as well.
First, I want to make a comment on one of your statements. See below.
“I have participated in the hiring process many times and one of my pet hates is someone who is being hired to do one job (be a BA) touting other skills (being a PM), especially when they are in their CV. To my mind, despite what I say above, one is either a BA or a PM; my BA performance certainly suffered when I was covering for absent or ineffective PMs.”
I completely agree. In my discussions with many BA’s the thought is that a good BA with PM skills can effectively manage their piece of the project…not the whole project. In other words, “drive to done” your particular piece. I agree that if a BA becomes the PM for the whole project…meaning all pieces…then the BA work must necessarily suffer. Not good.
A “super BA” in my opinion is a “Business Solutions Consultant”. These individuals SOLVE PROBLEMS…ANYWHERE. Here is where I answer your question directly.
When a BA says that they:
- lead/turned around an underperforming team that finished a project that was supposed to take 2 months but ran into 8 months, and after arrival the project was finished one month after the your arrival….after assessment and re-assigning roles (blah, blah, blah….)
- turned a team’s performance around from overwhelming criticism (3 out of a possible 10) from “clients”, to a team that achieved excellent feedback (9 out of possible 10 on survey).
- discovered a problem with Oracle invoicing module that took 30 days to procure a correct invoice and but only 2 days to procure a correct invoice after the BA’s team attacked the problem.
- brought in to assess and fix inventory issues in which inventory accuracy was estimated at only 85%….assessed problem and created/lead team that brought inventory to 99% accuracy.
You see? These are LEADERSHIP” attributes. Any hiring manager will appreciate the soft skills required to get these things done.
I am a firm believer that any company not considering BA’s for their open management positions are missing the boat. If a BA has the skills to get things done with people they have no managerial power over, this is true leadership. Just think what they could accomplish with these types of leadership skills, knowledge of both Business and IT, AND managerial authority.
Partly, I think that BA’s need to start thinking about themselves and their skill sets in a different way….as management prospects. and leaders. Nobody else is going to, unless the profession itself starts.
On that note, I realize there are plenty of BA’s out there who have no desire to manage or lead teams. The profession needs these types too. Not everybody can be a Chief. We need Indians too.
I ask every CIO/VP candidate I recruit their opinion on BA’s. To a man/woman, they value them highly and see them as going into management. I just had a conversation with a practice lead from a national professional services organization (IT and Finance & Accounting), and she expressed that her customers cringe when her BA’s have to go to other clients. Nothing gets done without good BA’s. Often clients want to hire the super BA’s but are unwilling/unable to get approval for the high salary.
I give so much attention to Business Solutions Consultants (“super BA’s”), because those are the individuals I am passionate about recruiting.
I agree with Yegor. All too often, I was asked about specific tools or methodologies as if their knowledge were the only (not even “main”, but “only”) characteristic of an employable BA.
As we all know, tools change, as do buzzwords; and learning to use a buzzword-compliant tool or methodology (often inappropriate for the problem at hand) is substantially easier than understanding the problem or being able to get the business people and the IT people to demonstrably speak the same language. How many times was I told by the “IT people” that the business people cannot and will not understand any business models anyway, and it is not worth trying. But in fact, business people can and do understand appropriately represented models, and it was very much worth trying: some of my business clients (including traders!) created excellent business models themselves.
A dirty little secret how I achieved that: at the meetings I run I have prohibited ANY discussions related to tools or methodologies; and, following Dijkstra, I used only what I could explain to the business audience on the back of a (business-size) envelope. Here is a counterexample: when at one of the meetings a high-level IT person introduced a use case diagram and started a discussion about the meaning of “extends”, the most important business client left the meeting in about 2 minutes, and it took me a serious diplomatic effort to retain the client and the project (this IT person never came to modeling meetings with this client again).
There are many stories of this kind… And a BA is not the same as a PM.