I am an MBA graduate in MIS, and I want to become a business
analyst but have no commercial experience. How can I gain the
relevant experience, or even land a trainee or junior
position?
Contact blue-chip firms directly
Peter Anthony
Business development director, Elan Computing
Don't worry about your level of commercial experience at the
moment, employers know that when hiring graduates, even MBA
graduates, most have little or no "real-world" experience. This is
balanced by the knowledge that becoming an MBA graduate in itself
shows a great level of dedication and determination.
Having little experience does have its benefits: by taking on a
fresh graduate, employers know that they can train them, from
scratch, in their own company's style.
You will have accrued many valuable transferable skills,
probably more than you think, that you can take from your MBA in
MIS into your new chosen field. For example, you will already be
familiar with business processes, what business benefits different
technologies can provide and what can be realistically achieved
with the IT infrastructure of a company. This will all be essential
knowledge when defining the commercial objectives of computer
systems in your new position.
I would suggest applying for a permanent business analyst role
in an established company that would provide you with a structured
environment to be trained up and gain hands-on experience as a
business analyst.
With an MBA, you will be in a very good position to secure a
position and training in one of the blue-chip consultancy or system
houses. The majority of the top consultancy firms have strong
graduate programmes and run very good graduate training courses. If
you want to apply for a position in one of these companies, I would
suggest contacting them directly.
Although you will be an ideal candidate to apply for the
permanent arena, you are not yet ready to approach the contract
market, as there is virtually no demand for junior staff. In order
to penetrate this market, you will probably need four to five
years' post qualification experience.
The panel: Apex, MSB International, Best International Group,
Computer Futures, Computer People, Elan, E-skills NTO, Monarch
Recruitment, Reed Computing