The Early Stages Of Your Business Analyst Resume
How do you make your business analyst resume more marketable? Do you broaden your work experiences? Do you ask your boss for more responsibilty? Do you take training classes? Do you try to get your CBAP certification?
The answer is yes! Your marketable qualifications are created by combining your knowledge and experience. The key is be able to objectively look at what you bring to the table and determine what areas need to be strengthened. If you have a difficult time determining your areas of weakness then ask someone you trust who is familiar with the industry to give you an honest appraisal.
The 1st step in being able to get a clear picture of the marketability of your resume is to do a rough draft. Once you are able to see your training, education and work experience laid out on paper, it’s easier to assess what your strengths are and what areas need to be improved.
The IIBA states that there are 3 categories of business analysts: the Generalist, the Specialist and the Hybrid. After taking an objective look at your strengths and weaknesses, determine which category you fall into. Initially you will need to craft your business analyst resume to play to the strengths of your category. However you need to be flexible. Once you determine the requirements of a specific position that you are after, you can tweak your resume to better meet these requirements. If you are looking for another resource to help you write your resume, check out Resume Magic, 4th Ed: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer (Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer)
The next step after creating a rough draft is to make sure you keep it front of mind. Most people will craft their resume, and then it sits on their hard drive gathering the proverbial dust. The most important part of crafting a marketable resume that the majority fail to do is to make your resume a living, working document. When most people need to update their resume when looking for a new position, they sit staring at their computer trying to come up with whatever relevant work experiences and training they’ve had over the past few years that would make their resume look good. However, if you are constantly thinking about how your work experience, achievements and training can improve your resume, and then immediately update your resume, you will be amazed at how awesome you look when the time comes to actually use it!
The Meat And Potatoes Of Your Business Analyst Resume
Next, let’s consider the contents of your resume. To make yourself more marketable, you will need to make sure to highlight both your technical skills (SGL, Agile, OOAD, etc.) as well as your people skills (communication, facilitation, leadership and conflict resolution for example). Highlighting both sets of skills will allow you to appeal to all three types of interviewers that you could potentially come across. Let’s look at those types:
The 1st type of interviewer is primarily concerned with your technical knowledge and expertise. He or she looks for what training, credentials and business analyst certificates you have. Letters after your name signify to this interviewer that you are thouroughly knowledgable in your field of expertise. It also means that you are committed enough to your career to spend extra time and money on it.
However, the polar opposite to the previous interviewer is one who doesn’t put much stock at all in the initials after your name. To this interviewer, all the certifications simply mean that you are good at passing tests. They want to know 1) how have your skills/training benefited your current organization (in terms of tangible results) and 2) how will you be a benefit to their organization?
The 3rd type is one who will put emphasis on both aspects. A well rounded resume will satisfy all 3 types of interviewer.
Next evaluate your technical training. As we all know, there are tons of options out there. If you have passed the CBAP or possibly the CCBA then you obviously have a leg up on the competition. Check out this post on passing the CBAP if you are in the process of getting certified or you can check out some of the excellent training courses over at the BA Mentor.
If you don’t have these designations then start with the training that you have received. However, don’t stop there. To really stand out from the crowd, you must show how you’ve taken your training and applied it in a business setting. For example, if you have taken classes in Agile but have never applied it in a work environment, how’s a prospective employer to know if you are truly proficient in it?
On the flip side, if you can show how you’ve taken that training and applied it in your current position and then show the results from this application, then that kind of achievement has real meaning for your prospective employer. Also, if you are considering shelling out money for some new training in order to make your resume look better, then consider if you will be able to apply it in your current position. If not, then maybe you should 
consider a different type of training. However if think you will be able to immediately apply your new knowledge, then that can truly become a marketable qualification.
As mentioned, the other component in assessing your marketability is your work experiences. Now most people will list their positions/responsibilities and leave it at that. If you want to separate yourself from the crowd, you must do more than that! You must dig deeper into each responsibility and relate it to a skill or competency that you possess.
For example, if you know a lot about Agile, it’s not enough to just list it as a skill. Instead list examples of situations where you used your Agile skills to benefit the organization. The more tangible the results, the better. Similarly, if one of your soft skills is facilitation, then list specific examples of how you led projects and what the outcome was.
Hopefully, you will now feel more in control and more confident in your resume. If you have any tips you’d like to add, then please by all means, post them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear what others have to say.
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