Jennifer Sharp worked as a Technical Author, Report Writer, Knowledgebase Analyst, and System Admin before finding her first role as a Business Analyst. She began looking at what processes she could map and understand from soup to nuts. Her manager gave her the opportunity to use these, which gave her examples of filling the BA role without actually having the BA title.
This created an opportunity for her to move into a Senior BA role at a Fortune 500 company. The interview for this job came about because the hiring manager was good friends with a co-worker from 3 years ago, someone that praised her work highly. Jennifer also incorporated suggestions from Laura into an updated resume and got a comment about how impressive it was.
Jennifer says that if you really feel the calling to be a BA, reach high for the opportunities and start fulfilling the role even if it is only for your own enjoyment. While her current manager was sad to see her go, she also absolutely understood how much I loved the BA tasks and why I was leaving to pursue it.
We checked in with Jennifer at the end of 2012 and she had this to say about her new job.
Thanks for checking in! The contract job was supposed to be 6 weeks, but they have extended me to 10 months! What has been great about it is that I have not gone two weeks without someone else contacting me about a role. It looks like while the economy may still be sluggish, even Florida has BA roles opening up quite often. I attribute a large part of that success to the resume assistance you provided.
I like that the role is never just one thing (i.e. creating a process flow). That was what I was brought on to do, but now I am getting involved in Web design, training, testing, and all various other areas. I am kept busy and the work is extremely rewarding. I am so glad I found your site and am grateful for all the useful information your classes provided.
Join me in congratulating Jennifer in her BA career success!
Find Jennifer Sharp on LinkedIn or on her personal website.
