Careers in Business or Data Analytics

[JumpyTheFrog]

The thread on careers as a librarian got me googling "careers for people who like to research" and I came across forum posts where people recommended business or data analytics. Does anyone here have career experience in either? A local college offers a degrees and certificates in business analytics and I am thinking about trying some classes. A few days ago I started a data analytics course MOOC from Columbia University to see if I like it enough to pay for some classes in the fall.

[Guest]

My husband's company hires a ton of business analysts. It's a solid career with decent pay. It depends on which industry you go into and where you are in the org. It can be a low six figures position around here at the right place with some experience.

[G5052]

That's what DH does, and what my oldest is going to school for. My oldest is an accounting major with an analytics minor. You do need the business background though.

 

Very, very employable in areas where there are government agencies and/or corporations who have enough of a budget to support this. The local community college has three branches, and they have someone in the business office whose sole job is data and analytics.

[JumpyTheFrog]

One thing I want to know is how much programming people do on the job. I started the process of becoming a programmer/web developer and realized that I didn't want to spend my entire day programming. I think I would be fine with it as a tool, but I don't want to spend eight hours per day doing it.

[JumpyTheFrog]

The other thing I realized about becoming a programmer is that it isn't something a person can become really, really good at unless they are doing it full-time.  It's not really a career suited for part-time study because there is so much to learn.

[JumpyTheFrog]

What, if any, industry certifications are employers looking for? The local college has classes that prepare students for two different SAS certification tests.

[Guest]

It's a common position here. Lots of jobs in oil and gas, financial and IT industries. They aren't as picky here on the degree type as the skill sets and being able to work with clients.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Other questions:

 

Is is a career people can do part-time? So many careers only seem to allow FT work.

 

Is telecommuting a common option, or are employees always expected to be at work?

[Guest]

What, if any, industry certifications are employers looking for? The local college has classes that prepare students for two different SAS certification tests.

I will ask my dh tonight what he's seen around here.

[Guest]

Other questions:

 

Is is a career people can do part-time? So many careers only seem to allow FT work.

 

Is telecommuting a common option, or are employees always expected to be at work?

FT to my knowledge, but I'm sure as with all companies there are exceptions.

 

I've noticed that telecommuting is a company culture/management specific thing. That's probably going to be highly variable. My husband is very anti work from home full time for his employees, whereas when I worked in management I was very pro WFH for my (most) of my employees when it was feasible. We have had many discussions on the topic because we don't agree at all on it.

[Anacharsis]

I have some understanding of the fields.

 

One important thing to note is that while Business Analysis and Business Analytics have similar names, they are unrelated disciples. Business Analysis grew out of Systems Analysis (which in turn grew out of Weapons Systems Analysis either during WWII or during the Cold War). Its main focus is in coaxing out appropriate requirements, as in large initiatives oftentimes people will realize in the middle (after spending millions) that while they are on target to make what they were planning to make, what they were planning to make isn't actually what they need, or is incompatible with the other things it must work with.

 

Business Analytics is a cousin of Business Intelligence. Some argue it is actually a new term for the same thing, the difference being that Business Intelligence as a discipline predates the IT tools that dominate today, while Business Analytics is not really possible without them. Others argue that Business Analytics is more exploratory (We have data, what could it mean?), while Business Intelligence is more applied (We have a problem, how can our data help us?)

 

Data Analytics is a child of statistics and programming. It takes statistical techniques and figures out how to translate them into tasks a computer can perform on large datasets, in a way that allows their translation to be used as part of a larger whole (in programming, the informal term for this is code that lacks "code smell"). It is not strictly business-centric, since there are many large datasets with no obvious commercial purpose.

 

I suppose where Business Analytics and Data Analytics meet would be in the tools. Data Analytics seems to veer a bit more into "let's build a better calculator first" territory.

 

Also worth noting is that all of the named fields currently have something growing on them, an opportunistic organism called "management faddism". :) On the one hand, this has helped tremendously in raising the visibility and demand of the fields. On the other hand, fields that allow themselves to be overwhelmed generally don't do very well in the long-run, as it tends to eat away at their educational integrity.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Anacharsis

[Arcadia]

I've noticed that telecommuting is a company culture/management specific thing. That's probably going to be highly variable.

I agree. It is very supervisor/boss dependent.

 

The business analysts hired where I used to work only care that work is done well and fast. A robot could have done it for all they care. They all have experience with Oracle, with data mining, with business intelligence. I could borrow a business analyst for a marketing event to sell supercomputers for data mining and their boss would just cross charge my boss for labor hours.

 

The business analyst at some firms do field work as well so not a desk bound job. It really depends on what is agreed in the employment contract. Business analyst in the same big company may not have the same job scope either.

 

Whether part time is feasible depends on the job scope. A former ex-colleague works the evening shift which ties with collaboration among international office. The kind when you end up often in a conference call from 8pm to 11pm PST because people in the Europe and Asia regional HQ were okay with those time slots.

 

A friend is a business analyst at Expedia, her first degree was in computer science and she has worked in multiple MNCs over two decades. She have to do some business travel. She is married witn no kids and enjoys her current job. Her hubby is in a similar job. They have worked for so long in the IT industry that their pay won't be a good indication of what to expect.

 

It is a field that is growing and people are needed but whether people can do the job well is another thing, as in the job fits the person and vice versa.

[ErinE]

I've done some business analytics though my expertise is in financial modeling. 

 

Be really good at Excel. Insanely good, a level of good that you often won't get in standard Excel certification classes unless they target a specialized field. Know formulas, macros, pivot tables, graphs, forms, shortcut keys, etc. Be comfortable with large amounts of data. I'd been working on Excel since its introduction and it's helped me greatly in several industries.  

 

Take a few programming classes so you understand computer logic.

 

Take a statistics class or two.

 

Take a technical writing class and practice technical writing. Analysts are often expected to summarize work they've done in emails, memorandums, or presentations. Good business writing is clear, concise, clean, and formulaic.  

 

Finally, as odd as it may sound, have a basic understanding of graphic design. Too often, outputs have too many graphics, are colored wrong, or use strange fonts. Standardized formatting, uncluttered presentation, pleasing colors, and consistent fonts help an analyst get noticed and put on projects.

Edited June 14, 2016 by ErinE