The Better Business Analysis Institute presence.
The Better Business Analysis Podcast with Benjamin Walsh.
Hi everybody, and welcome back to the Better Business Analysis
Podcast with Benjamin Walsh. Now we're going to take a bit of
a side road and we're going to go all the way back to my most
common question. So some of you who are already
BAS this episode, half of it will be useful for you just
being straight up and for those who aren't BAS, this is going to
be 100% useful for you. So I will try and weave in
aspects here that are interesting for all my audience
and there should be some top tips.
So if you are ABA today, I want you to check this off some of
the points I bring up today and if you get 100% then you know
good on you. And if you are not abai want you
to write down all these things and I want you to work through
this list. So what am I talking about?
I am talking about effectively your guide to becoming a
business analyst. I've talked about this before in
different ways and shapes and form.
I'm going to try and walk you through what you would do today.
OK, So if today you are listening to this podcast, you
may be a listener, A listener who frequently listens to the
show. You may have been one of the
listeners who listened to my top podcast episodes, which are
always about how to become ABA generally.
And if you are ABA, then I want you, like I said, to figure out
if you've done all these things and if you haven't done all
these things. This might be something that you
can focus on now, especially if you are out of work.
So if you're out of work, it is a good time to go back and go.
What gaps have I developed or have I never filled along my
career journey? And it is now the time for me to
train and to upskill and to go back and maybe refine what I
learnt and do on the fly. Learnt, you know, the the, the
school of Hard Knocks they call it, you know, you've just learnt
as you've gone. And like any sports game, if
you're involved in any sport, the first thing that a
performance coach will do is they will.
You will be told to unlearn what you're doing.
In order to get better you need to unlearn first.
Start with a blank piece of paper.
Follow some of the best techniques that exist in 2024
and then you know and then you and then apply your knowledge
that you've learned and then you excel to be even better instead
of just flatlining in your development.
So we're going to decode the Path, your guide to becoming a
business analyst. So I'm going to welcome you,
future business analyst and existing business analyst,
through today's episode of The Career Crossroads.
I I imagine that you're fascinated by the word business
and data and processes and problem solving.
Do you dream of bridging the gap between business needs and
technology solutions? Becoming ABA a business analyst
is probably the perfect career fit.
Have you found this podcast through the mini different ways
on Apple podcast or Spotify, your favorite podcast app?
Then you know then you've made the first great step because
there aren't many BA podcasts out there.
Mainly because the PAS who do the podcast don't have anything
to talk about, whereas I'm trying to get you to learn with
me every day. So if it was just a podcast
about being ABA, then it wouldn't have many episodes.
Whereas we talk about different parts of business here on the
Better Business Analysis podcast and we focused on the better.
We focus on the fact that the world changes, that there are
new techniques that we need to look outside our field to bring
into our field. We need to define our field.
And so becoming ABA today is quite different to becoming ABA
10 years ago or even 25 years ago, which is the case my case
effectively coming out of school into their mindset.
There are so many pathways and business analysis.
We've talked about the spectrum. We've talked about the fact that
you know a data business analyst is quite different from an agile
business analyst who's different from ABA who's internal versus a
project versus a consultant and different to an enterprise BA.
But I've got you covered. Today we're going to explore how
to equip yourself with the right knowledge and skills.
No matter what your education background is.
I am going to try and talk about resources that you can get from
schooling you can get from university, but also just online
platforms, even LinkedIn. And I'll dip into ideally some
free options there, as well as some paid options.
And the paid options are going to limit down to you know, what
the average person should be able to afford if you're looking
at a career change. Any career change costs money
either in time either not working, searching for work.
But I guarantee you a return on investment for the training that
I recommend. When I say that, I mean that if
you do the training that I'm specifying, you're likely to get
ABA job and the BA job, if you've not been ABA before,
generally pays more than the average wage.
So you'll be able to pay back any training that you get
through your wages if you're successful in ABA role.
Now I'm going to put a big caveat here.
At the moment in New Zealand at least, the market has shrunk.
We've had a new government that they're really hot on cutting
costs, especially in the public service by 8% I think.
And that has meant that both government departments are
reducing staff numbers, but they are also looking to reduce cost.
And they're nervous about the new government who hasn't really
come up with kind of, sorry, allowing them to do the usual
program planning where they take programs to treasury and get
funding reviewed and approved. Instead they're going through
line items and projects. And so as a result, the normal
funding cycle that we experience in New Zealand for the public
sector isn't there. And what's happening is that is
putting strain on contractor market, meaning there's a lot of
people out of work, good people out of work and they're starting
to flood the market a bit. And it means that there are less
jobs in the private sector right now.
And So what I'm trying to say is that supply, demand is higher
than supply when it comes to jobs and at least in the VA
space and other project members. So.
So that's the problem we're experiencing.
That's the why. But what are you going to do
about? How are you going to make
yourself better than the other candidates?
We're going to talk about that today.
And it starts with training, it starts with the right language,
it, it starts with being exposed, it starts with not
being stale. A few years ago when I was
working for Careers New Zealand, which then became the Tertiary
Education Commission or was assumed or eaten by them, I did
a lot of work on the career system in New Zealand.
The career system strategy, I get contacted from all around
the world still today about it was fascinating.
I loved it. And one of the stats that's
really important to know when you talk about people that are
out of work, and this is if you're sitting there and you're
out of work, this is a really important factor that you need
to be aware of. There is a six month kind of.
You have a six month period up into a Cliff, which means the
first six months, months in which you're experiencing
unemployment, especially if you're not busy doing other
things. You have a six month window if
you like, before your motivation drops completely.
And most people who have been unemployed for longer than six
months experience quite a different side of the moon to
the rest of us. And So what that means is they
get into depression. They don't feel good about
themselves. It's a terrible place to be.
So really if you're out of work today, if you've been out of
work for a while, then this is your chance to change your focus
to a new career path. If you if you're within that six
month window and get started today, I'm going to give you an
action at the end of this podcast, an action plan like I
said and do all these things and keep fresh, right.
So I want we've talked about the landscape and in New Zealand a
little bit, but I'm going to just talk about the BA landscape
as a whole, as a general whole. I think that one of the things
we can say without sorry without repeating what I've said on
other episodes. So we know that the role of ABA
is around analyzing business needs, identifying problems,
elicitating requirements, facilitating workshops, and and
ultimately coming up with solutions to these problems of
working with the team to come up with solutions.
And when we'll say solutions, we don't necessarily mean the end
product or technical solution. We mean how are we going to
solve these root causes and these problems and pain points
that we have identified. So an action plan, if you like.
So if you don't know what the role of the BA is, I'm going to
give you one free training course straight away, which is
happens our training course. It's a free course, very, very
simple. It is aimed at those who want to
know more about what ABA does. It is called Introduction to
Business. It's available on BBA dot
institute for free. Right now you don't pay
anything, you just sign up. You just do the course and you
are done and you'll get a certificate straight away.
That shows that you know at least what ABA does.
Or, and if you and if you if you're actually a BA and you're
still not sure what ABA does, this can happen.
Do the course. It's very simple.
So number one, that's your first action.
You can also Google what ABA does as well if you want.
I suggest that that course. The reason I created the
introduction is I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about
what ABA does. And so I think this is you're a
good starter. It's free, you can do that
straight away. There's there's no catch when I
say free. So that will help you understand
what ABA does. I'm not going to go deep into
that, but I I'm going to assume that you know what a BA does.
If you don't know, pause the podcast right now.
Go away. Your first action item is listen
more to these podcasts where I have to find what a BA does.
But go and do that 'cause right now, it won't take you very
long. Take you a couple hours Max.
Pause the podcast. Come back.
OK. So welcome back.
I assume you've gone and done that and now what you're doing
is now you know what ABA does, right?
So you know the definition. I'm not, again, I'm not going to
go into detail here. Now what we do talk about on the
introduction course and later in our certified business analysis
course, which are paid, but we'll talk about how you can get
those for next to nothing. What we've got here is that ABA
also what you need to realize is that in that landscape is the
BABAS are work across a large diverse amount of industries, OK
and specialization. So both the verticals, industry
verticals, so from academia down to farming, you know down to
e-commerce, BAS actually work across all those.
It's just the amount that that industry has kind of connected
with business analysis. But I would say that I have seen
B as work in areas that I wouldn't have thought that B as
a natural like banking is where we started or IT.
But farming is huge. You know there's there's
obviously web, web development companies that have B as
internally. So you've got internal external
B as you've got consultants, you've got ones who contract.
So what's really cool about the job is being ABA and you
experience this more as a contractor.
But of course you can actually probably get ABA role within an
industry that you're a passionate about.
So you're a passionate about gaming.
You could probably be ABA within a gaming industry if you're
passionate about farming and sheep and animals.
You can probably get ABA job you know with the SPCA or or your
local farming Co-op or the the at least the organization that
provides technology solutions to farmers.
If you're interested in sport, you know that your local
football team. I know the Super Bowl's coming
up. For those who are big fans,
there will be B as all the way through the, you know, NFL.
There will be a company like that within the director,
organization or with organizations that support them.
BA opportunities. So not only can you be ABA, you
can also work on projects that might be, you know, related to
your hobby and and and areas that you're passionate about.
So it's not just about, you know, being ABA so you can get a
bit more cash. You also have the opportunity to
work in industries that you like.
I, for example, talked about career planning, and I'm
extremely passionate about education and the job cycle and
getting people who want to work into work and the right work and
for them to just feel better about what they do every day.
Because work is such a big part of what we have to do in this
kind of capitalist society we live in.
And so, you know, unfortunately, that is the equation.
And so you may as well spend time generating the money that
you have to have to live doing something that you like as
opposed to doing something you don't like.
So action #2 is if you're doing something you don't like today,
or you're working in an industry you don't like and you're an
existing BA, get out of it, OK? If you don't like the job you're
doing, you know, look, look at your market, look at the BA
roles in your area, go on LinkedIn, look at your area, see
if there are BA roles available and you'll see on Sikh, which is
a a search product in New Zealand or LinkedIn online for
the job market Or trade me jobs in New Zealand.
And there will be hundreds of others in the US and the uki.
Think Sikhs in the UKI can't remember the US ones off the top
of my head. Just do a search for business
analysts in your area. Just look at the jobs, search
your area, do that. Just have a look.
Search for business analysts in your area and you want it to be
in your area. Because I strongly believe that
BA role should be in person remote BA roles.
I question whether or not you can do that, right.
So I'm not saying you can't work remotely.
I'm just saying that after you've built relationships and
worked with users and people directly, customers directly,
you might have an opportunity to do that.
But the BA role is generally in person.
So look around an accessible area.
So don't look in, if you're living in LA, don't look in New
York. But more likely you live in, I
don't know, New Mexico, maybe don't look in Texas, look at New
Mexico. If you're in in New Mexico, then
search around that area. So have a look, see how many
there are listed. Just put Business analysis
analyst in there. Then if you do find jobs, have a
look and see if they mention the word senior or they mention the
word intermediate or junior. They might just say BA and they
might say graduate BA. These are the type of jobs that
you're looking for. So if you are sorry, I guess it
depends on where you're at in your journey, but the fact that
they have those available the whole breadth is great because
then you know that your area is looking for talent at different
levels. If there are graduate B as or
intermediate BA roles or just BA roles where they said you're
with a general gist of what ABA is and it doesn't say senior or
millions of years of experience, then and you're haven't become
ABA yet. The other roles that you want to
aim for, if you are ABA, existing BA, then have a look
for other industries that you're interested in.
List down some of the companies you want to work for.
I for example in New Zealand and I'll mention some companies,
they're New Zealand based companies so you may not know
about them in the US apart from one of these.
And I'll try and mention some equivalents in the US but I I
remember I was between jobs and it happens often when you're in
contracting. I was between jobs because my
contract had finished and I hadn't actively looked for
another contract. And for me that's, you know, the
right kind of unemployment. And I was pretty confident I
could get work because the market was still buzzing and I
so I felt like I had the right attributes and I felt like I had
the opportunity be a little bit fussy with where I wanted to
work. So I listed down five companies
that I wanted to work for in New Zealand.
I'm not willing to to kind of travel overseas anymore.
I've done that. I wasn't willing to kind of move
cities either even within New Zealand and you that might be
different for you. So if you are willing to move
for a job then then open your eyes to looking around because
like we said, work is a big part of your life.
And if that, if you don't have any dependents, if you don't
have a, you know a partner, a wife a husband and kids that are
that are might that are like, you know have have their choices
about where they want to live, you're not the sole provider in
the family then you know look, look overseas, look, look
outside your area for me that that that isn't an option.
I'm quite happy in my house with my family and my cats and my
dog. Now for me that was, you know
that limited me to the area I live in which is Wellington in
New Zealand, the capital city. And so I looked at companies
that were based or the headquarters were based in
Wellington and I write down 5. So.
So I know the headquarters of these areas have actually
changed, but they had offices within Wellington, so one was 0.
So you may have heard of 0. It's an accounting software,
it's quite big. It was bankrolled by Peter
Thiel, who is an interesting character, good friends with
Elon Musk. It was bankrolled by him.
But effectively I think head office has moved to the US now
because I want to break in there, but it's basically a SAS
product for your accounting and it's it was developed in New
Zealand. That was one company that I knew
had a really good culture and I thought, well you know maybe I
could dabble in doing a role there.
Now they I just contacted them. I literally went on to the
website, they didn't have any particular role for me and I
contacted them and said hey, do you have any roles in this area?
And the they kind of they came back really honest and they
said, and sorry I didn't just say, hey, do you have any jobs I
wrote why I wanted to work for them.
I explained what my background was and what I thought I could
provide to them. OK.
So just be clear. I templated a little bit across
the companies I worked for, but I really was honest about why
their company, I was interested in their company.
Now I got a really great reply. But effectively they were
letting me know that the type of role I wanted would pay X amount
of dollars. And that X amount of dollars
unfortunately for me was below what I need to kind of survive
in my in, you know, in the expenses I've acquired and the
mortgage I've acquired and the and the cost that I acquired.
So my earning potential was more in other places, quite a lot
more actually. They said, look, we would love
to have you. This is kind of what we pay for
those roles, unless you would consider this kind of role.
And you know, they gave me some choices and I actually contacted
Shizzi's in New Zealand as well. I've got a similar kind of reply
and a couple of other companies. So the equivalent for you might
be Google. You know, they might get a lot
of interest. Microsoft, for example, Apple,
there might be some bigger companies, but you might have
some small great companies in the US that are looking to hire.
So don't, don't, don't hold back, not just contacting them,
especially if you're out of work, explain the training and
upskilling that you've done. So I think the other thing that
you need to do if you are not ABA today is talk about
transferable skills. I'll take some knowledge that I
acquired from when I did career planning and then as there are a
number of transferable skills, look up transferable skills if
you don't know what they are. They're things like
communication, critical thinking and problem solving now.
Communication, presentation, ability, facilitation,
workshopping, critical thinking, problem solving, documentation,
working with software, these are all skills that you could have
if you're managers today. You could have developed these
skills you know perfectly within a warehouse manager.
Now I will transfer across to being ABA.
If you did presentations as a sales manager for a small
plumbing firm that you know, I don't know, provided custom
tubing and piping, but you were able to speak in front of an
audience and present and sell with a PowerPoint presentation
in a clear, concise way, that's you know, that's huge when it
comes to being ABA. I'm also going to go on a side
note, talk about who I hire as ABA.
Most of the BA hires that I've made across my career are not
always the ones who have the best CVS or the most amount of
years as ABA. I've hired people that have, you
know, a range from those who have come out with a degree in
BA, which, and there aren't many options in New Zealand, by the
way, like a master's degree, but offered by like two or three
providers. I've hired people that are
straight from grads who know nothing about it.
So they've they're graduates who have come to a summer of tech
program. I've hired them as junior BAS.
I've hired people who were nurses.
I've hired people that were people from the army ex cops.
I've hired people that have, you know, from a music or arts
background. I've hired, you know, a whole
range of people who are from different walks of life.
Generally, if you're from a trade, I don't see a lot of
people apply. I would hire someone from a
trade because I think some of the abilities can be
transferable. But a lot of people in trades,
you know, may not like the idea of working in an office or may
think there's a huge step. I don't believe so.
My best friend is is a is a tradie and he has some of the
abilities that I would love to hire if he wanted to be ABA.
However, I wouldn't recommend you be stuck in an office all
day. And he he, you know is in a
lucky enough position in some ways that he gets to travel and
get out of it. So you know, you have to you
have to appreciate the office life when you're ABA.
Now if you are young, if you were actually still at school,
I'm not going to assume that you're an old fart like me.
You know then and you're still at school or or you your child
is interested in this path at the moment.
Then you know things like maths, statistics, Economics and
Business management are the subjects you want to focus on.
I would say that the other thing you should do and and you can do
this at any age too, is join a club and do activities.
Toastmasters, if you're happen to be involved in some community
group, church group, take the opportunity to present there.
That's a small step interaction with other people faking it
until you make it. If you you know autistic for
example, and you find it hard to communicate with other people
that hold you back, or you're just naturally shy and and
you're in a position where you can deal with people you know,
an environment where there's people and activities, then then
push yourself in that direction. Fake, you know, networking but
join a club, because in a club you're forced to talk to each
other. That's better than just going to
a networking event and introducing yourself.
If you do activities you know, go on to some websites like meet
up, join a hobby group you like, anything like that will help.
And if you are involved in a group already, then ask for
opportunities to present, to do award ceremonies, to organize
something and to be able to communicate as much as possible.
If you're confident at that yet, like I said, join Toastmasters.
Record yourself on YouTube. You can do it.
I watched the documentary the other day on Mr. Beast, probably
the most famous YouTube out there.
Young guy in his 20s. You don't have Mr. Beast as then
Google Mr. Beast and he was talking about the fact that he
was very shy at school. I hated the school because he
was shy and what he could do though is record himself in
front of a video and some of the stuff early stuff was quite
cringy but he just fake fake fake recorded himself on YouTube
and posted it online and then he created community from there and
you know he obviously is a a multi millionaire now provides
entertainment but you can tell that he's someone by just
looking at him that he's faked it until he has made it now.
So so just that's a top tip just record yourself, post something
on YouTube, If you're passionate about cats then maybe just post
a video about you talking about your cats anything.
It's not even about the views or who even sees it.
The fact that you have taken the step to record yourself and put
yourself out there is amazing. If you feel confident about
talking about a topic, tell me, message me, message me on
LinkedIn and let's get you on the show and let's talk about
something you can do out of a passion and I'll link it back to
business analysis. I'm happy to help out here if
you feel like that that's the push you need in order to be a
great BA. Now if you're at higher
education, if you've if you've finished school and either you
are looking at changing a roles or a changer, you've been out of
work for a while or you are going to study at uni or
college. In the US they call it then
computer science, Data Analysis, project management and business
management are great skills or area subjects to do.
At higher education tertiary, we call it tertiary education
courses. You can go and look at some of
those. You can look at adult courses,
night courses to study at those areas.
Obviously if you are like you you're looking to go back and
study and get a a full degree. If you found that on those job
ads, a degree is a you know a minimum requirement which I hate
by the way. I'd never look at people's
degrees but well that's not true unless it's ABA degree and and I
know that that is their experience.
I look at it but I would not hire someone over a degree
versus someone who has had many years on complex projects.
You know, it doesn't matter to me that what I do like about a
degree, and and this is true, is that you have stuck to something
outside of school in your adult life for 3-4 years.
The fact that someone has to make a commitment for three to
four years to something, that is the impressive part about the
university, OK? And I've continued to learn.
Now, if you've joined the army, if you've been in the army for a
long time, then that again, is a great skill.
You're you've got discipline. You have to communicate.
You're under pressure, so, so don't be scared about promoting
that when you've or you know, place, force or whatever it is
where you've been forced to do some training for a long, long
period of time. That's a great way to you know,
that's a way great way to talk about transferable skills and
your ability to have commitment. You do need that commitment side
you do need. The ABA is not a fly in the
night kind of career path. It is something that you need in
depth experience to get better and to get paid more and to
excel you and you know it's consistent learning in the BA
field. Just coming back to the Army
Defence Force reference, I know this happens in New Zealand, but
if you are in the army or you've got children in the army and you
and they're looking at becoming ABA, then of course you have the
opportunity to study via the army generally as well.
So you know the credits you could use this might be a great
skill to have in addition to your kind of combat defense
skills that you're requiring. Whatever you're doing this this
could actually be quite a good parallel.
You know business, business administration, information
systems and data science and specialist BA programs might be
a great thing to study if they're paying for it.
So if you're if you get you know study credits, I would suggest
that great degree options. So when you did come out of your
time serving you are in a really, really good position and
you know those skills will be important and will grow as we
grow as a more information rich society.
You if you're not doing that or you are in the middle of a
degree then you want to try and choose some subjects that have
strong analytical and communication components.
So if you're doing an art degree right now, then try and look at
communication papers and maybe the ability to present.
You can also join internships and volunteer opportunities.
That's a great way. If you don't have a job today
and you're not getting work, or you're straight up being a grad
and no one wants to hire you because you've got no user
experience, do an internship, look for them and volunteer
volunteering to a charity for example.
Your skills that you've just learned as a grad is a fantastic
one of gaming experience and and potentially leapfrogging via
venue to other charities and then paid work.
So don't underestimate the volunteer side.
It could actually be your best way of doing it for six months
of non paid work. You know, living off, you know,
beans and cans and white bread and water and then that
experience could be enough for you to then get that internship
or that grad role. Now I talked about, you know,
where you're at in terms of, you know, deepening your experience
in terms of university or strong foundation.
But let's talk about online treasures here.
This is learning at your fingertips.
So everyone's doing this at the moment.
Younger people are better than us old farts in terms of
YouTube. You know, you go, I think I was
speaking the other day to a young, a younger child, and I
was saying, oh, do you know how to do that?
And I said, Nah, I just look on YouTube and I was thinking I'd
never do that. Like for for me, I might look at
YouTube as like a as like an additional complementary
learning activity. But man, I wouldn't go on
YouTube to learn how to, I don't know, hammer nail appropriately
into a piece of wood. I probably should because I've
never really been taught how to do that properly.
But I wouldn't think to do that. So YouTube is a fantastic tool
for learning if you know how to do it and you feel like that is
a method for you. But there's course here.
Course here is fantastic. I've done heaps of courses on
course here. I've been real cheap.
I've gone on there, done a free trial, you know, smashed down a
course. I didn't even need to pay for
the course that I did. Some of the best training was on
there from some of the universities actually in the US
and they were fantastic. There's obviously edx, which is
not so bad, but the interface of course is better.
Udemy and they offer some BA course and certifications.
I would say there's some good options to look at specialist
areas. In terms of BA specific courses,
you've got the IBA certifications which are a bit
dry and I will do some terrible self promotion.
I would suggest that the Certified Better Business
Analysis level one course that we offer is by far the best
level one course available that I have found or seen and if if
if that changes I'm going to make it, I'm going to make it
even better. It is a self-guided course.
There is there is learner training which is done in groups
or online. If you want to purchase that in
a group, get a bunch of buddies together or there's the
self-paced learning. Now safe pals say let me repeat
that self-paced learning is never the same as kind of
classroom interactive training. The I do think that a level one
course needs to be even better with the way in which you self
learn. But the the BBA Level One course
Certified Better Business Analysis Level One course is I
think one of the best courses online.
I know I'm totally blowing my own trumpet here that can give
you a full package day one how to be ABA.
Now you know we have our prices on online, but I'm going to at
the end of this podcast, if you keep listening, I'll send some
links through and offer a huge discount to you learners if you
want to do that course. I'm less worried about the time
and effort that goes into our tutors to mark as long as we
cover those costs. I'm more worried about the fact
that I really want strong BAS out there.
So that course is great and if you want to flavor to the kind
of learning system we use, the Introduction to BA course, the
free one, We use the same kind of learning platform, but the
trust me, the Certified Better Business Analysis Level One
course is a long course and should take you around if you're
doing it 2 to 4 hours a week, four, six weeks to complete.
You can crank that up and do it fast if you like, but there are
a lot of assignments and you know the idea is that you are
sweaty at the end of that course, you are sweating and
your brain is full and you are ready to be a great BA.
Also, if you do complete that course and I've seen your work,
then I'm happy or the Institute is happy.
It might not be me, but it'll be one of my staff will write you a
reference for a job that you're going for no problem because we
would have seen your work and of course involves you doing some
projects and so you know, that's one other.
Another thing that you can can chuckle on your LinkedIn profile
now, LinkedIn Learning, which was Lyndacom before it was
acquired by LinkedIn Learning. I've mentioned this before, you
can get free LinkedIn Learning either through the trial but
also through your local library. I don't know that everywhere in
the world, but I'm pretty damn sure it's true.
If you go to your local library, sign up to your local library,
which shouldn't cost you a cent through their website, you
should be able to actually get free LinkedIn Learning.
It's. I knew it was a bit difficult to
kind of keep your learning on your profile, but but try it
out. There will be Google it, but
LinkedIn Learning has some great great courses on there I would
say. You know, I don't know if it
justifies the per month cost forever, but if you're out of
work, you know, and you're just doing the free month or like an
additional free month and then you cancel, it's worth it.
Same with Corsia. So Corsia, LinkedIn Learning are
by far my favorite for additional learning.
I have used it for specialist areas within business analysis
or those kind of sub areas like agile or product management or
just facilitation. Really, really, really good and
it won't cost you the earth. You might find some you know,
like I said free courses on YouTube as well and don't, don't
even though some of these courses and I feel, I do feel
this way. So don't don't feel like you're
the only one. Sometimes they feel a bit cheap,
don't they? Don't you think you know you do
an online course and you think there's people going to think
you know that I've just done a budget course now if the it's
really around the length of the course the depth of the course.
I have found that some LinkedIn learning that I've done.
You know I didn't feel overly proud of just pasting it on my
profile. I you don't have to post every
training you do on LinkedIn. Pretty obvious when someone's
out of work and they're in the training mindset and you get
50,000 notifications. I've completed a a training.
I would only do the ones that you feel like you.
You know you don't have to post those to your profile and annoy
everyone. So you don't have to do that by
the way, you can just add it to your profile.
But the other thing, and so you do want to do that by the way,
Add all your courses to your profile and any presentations
you've done. Make it a portfolio of your
work. What I would do is safely, if
you've done your certified Better Business analysis level
one course or your Introduction to Business analysis or a course
here course where you get a certification that's verified,
those are the ones you do want to post.
You do want to promote it. You want to talk about why you
did it and not just the certificate, why you did that,
and the fact you're looking for work and you're interested in
this, that's a join those communities.
That's a really good way of not only promoting your learning
that are that that is in depth learning, which does show your
skills. They're really the treasure of
online, not just the online crappy course.
You will be able to have other people talk about it, or you can
recommend the course, so use that as a networking
opportunity. And as you do that, you're
connected with mentors, teachers, you're following some
other B as you're seeing what their journey is, you're
connecting with other students on the course.
It's a good thing about course here, You know potential
employers are looking around here, or at least recruitment
agents. Join all the groups, the study
groups, the discussion groups. Make sure your profile is
showcasing those skills and the expertise.
One of the things that I do look for when looking at candidates
profiles on LinkedIn is how often they post.
Have they done any recent study? So if you've done recent study
for me, that's a tech. Yeah, there might be 20 techs
I'm looking for that's one of the 20.
And the fact that you've even tried to upskill, I find it even
more more attractive sometimes or more critical in the training
process. If I've seen ABA who has 1520
years of experience has worked at two places, I kind of think
they might be stale. Have they done into training And
when I gone through the profile and I see that you know Brian
has done a Six Sigma course or an introduction to BA course or
a process modeling BPMN course and posted on profile recently.
Then I know Brian is not you know is not stale.
Brian is is keeping up with his courses.
He he's identifying that as part of BA which is so big that you
know he's not as strong with BP men or never done BP men.
If they have examples of their work on their LinkedIn profile,
that is awesome. Hard to do sometimes if you're
doing work for corporations, but if you're doing some volunteer
work, maybe you could even ask that organization if it's OK if
they process non sensitive processed documentation online.
The other area I would say is when you're actively networking,
you're attending network events. That's a great way of finding an
area of interest that you're that you like.
I talked about like farming, maybe it's not even BA.
So you go into a farming event and then when people go, what do
you do? You go, well I'm, I'm a I'm ABA
or I've just learnt got my degree in BA or I've just done
my certified Better Business analysis course.
So you know, I really want to be a role and then I go, oh that's
interesting, we're just, we just learn about BAS and we want one
down at our development company. So connect with those, connect
with experienced BA, Follow me on LinkedIn if you're not and
stay up to date with industry trends and software used by BAS
that changes often with AI. I'm still looking for the best
online process, a generation tool.
So basically if I just write my notes out, will it draw a
process diagram for a startup for 10:00?
I've got tools that do that, but then I need to export them and
then you know they're not integrated with tools like draw
dot IO or Vizio. I'm sure Microsoft hopefully
will add that into Copilot, but I'm still looking for that.
That's great tools that will save me time.
I love whiteboarding tools and what they can provide.
And I think that you need to remember that becoming ABA is
kind of a unique path to you. But what I do want you to do is
write down, right? If you're not ABA today, I want
you to write down 10 things. If you're ABA today, write down
three things. So if you're not ABA today, I
want to write down 10 things you're going to do in order to
get you to be a being ABA. I've mentioned some on this
podcast. Go back and listen 10 things
you're going to do to promote yourself so you can feel proud
to say I am ABA. And if you're not, if you're an
existing BA and you feel like some skills are rusty, write
down three areas that you feel like you're weak in and go and
get training for that. OK?
And that should include updating your LinkedIn profile to make
sure it's the best It has a photo and showcase some of your
work. Now, some of you will be
listening to this and it will be like I'm telling you how to suck
eggs here. But there's always something
that you can learn to be better. So if you think you're the bee's
knees, if you've covered off, you have the best LinkedIn
profile, you're networking, you're doing all the courses,
you've got your C back. You know, you've looked at the
certified Better Business analysis, label one course and
said, oh, I know everything in there.
I won't get any value from doing it.
Then what I suggest you do is go and look at some specialist
areas, OK. How does AI relate to business
analysis? What is the latest sensation in
data analysis? How is customer experience
changing? With some of the tools we've got
now into the collecting customer insights.
What is product management? How does AI relate to the tools
I use? What are the latest features of
some of the BA tools in JIRA and Muro that I can utilize on my
next engagement? Are my tools and templates in my
BA kit that I carry around old? Do I need to update them?
Do I need to look at the word of design thinking and integrate
some of the, you know, some of the tools that I've design and
design thinking and replace some of my old tools in terms of the
five whys or problem analysis? Do I need to introduce introduce
dialing canvas or a business model canvas into my toolkit?
You know, will I get benefit going and study business
analysis specialization courses on Corsia?
Do I need to do my CBAP? Do I want to do that for my IBA?
Think about some of those aspects.
If you're an existing BA and you feel like you've got everything
you need and I'm going to finish here now on this course, I hope
I've covered really the career crossroads.
I've decode helped you to decode the path which is sometimes
murky in terms of your guide of becoming ABA or a better BA.
So that's me today and I'm just going to finish with a word
around the certified Better Business Analysis level one
course, our Certified Better Business Analysis course, which
is available at BBA dot Institute today.
We we provided in different methods as I said, but there is
the online training course. OK.
Now the online training course is the most cost effective
option for you to become ABA. Now you can do that by going to
our website and looking up the certified bit of business
analysis, the one course under the BA training link.
Usually this is done in class over 2 days or the online
training is done over a six week, six week, six week period.
Sorry about that. Now the cost is 899 New Zealand
dollars, not U.S. dollars. So that's, I don't know what the
conversion rate and U.S. dollars, but I think it's around
600 US, not that much. If you contact me on LinkedIn
and tell me of course you're doing and we, I want to know the
story about you, why you're doing this course where you are
in your journey. Then I will provide you with a
voucher for 25% off, OK, 25% off there.
So if if you're in New Zealand, it's $900, then you know, you
can smack, let me do some math around $225 off there or $50 off
there. And in the US, you know it will
be the same, it will be the same percentage, 25% off.
I'll give you a voucher you can use to start the course today.
Then I'll give you 80 plus lessons, 16 assignments and
there will be a practice exam and a final exam as well as the
Certified Data Business Analyst Level 1 certification and
verification where you can share that on LinkedIn.
OK, team. Thanks for listening and I'll
see you next time.