Is it a fancy name for a back office gig? I see a posting where the Business Analyst answers questions from clients on how to use the company’s software and also reconciles accounts.
Yes BAs work from FO to BO. It all depends on what projects and department you will be working for.
not sure about the US, but in the UK/oz a BA is often a qualified accountant with good project management skills. usually in the back to middle office, although they may occaisionally be used in the front for system implementation etc. below is a spec for one thats fairly representative (per efinancial). as you can see its very project focused: Plan and conduct detailed analysis of business processes and systems Gather and investigate business requirements in relation to proposed business processes and/or system enhancements Assist with the preparation of effective documentation including requirements, scope, functional specifications and testing documentation Work closely with IT and business stakeholders in identifying business solutions and potential issues Establish and maintain strong working relationships with IT and business units across the organisation Tracking and reporting status of work and escalate as appropriate Our client is a specialist investment manager with over $100 billion in funds under management. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent group they operate independently with a pure investment focus, but benefit from the resources of the parent. As a Business Analyst you will be required to take an active role in partnering with the business to develop relevant asset class, team, channel, client and product profitability information; and achieve product and client profit improvements by performing financial analysis on products and making recommendations on courses of action to relevant stakeholders.
Agree with djjk1, I am moving into a BA role to support the portfolio managers for their work. It is all project driven and has an element of supporting the business so the everything is BAU.
over here (Canada) BA is mostly a management information systems type job with a business focus liaising between IT implementations and business functions… translating business requirements into technical specifications and working to improve and refine the sytem… there will probably be a lot of ad hoc assignments too
BA is my title, and I work on corp strat and M&A. There are other BAs in the company that are in IT. So the title doesn’t mean too much. reconciling accounts = back office
I guess it depends on where you work and what business you support. I’m a BA for a trading firm working in the IT department. I deal with the FO mostly. Sometimes deal with compliance and risk management to help them set up trading limits. Don’t do any reconciling of accounts. I could be working with quants on options pricing and volatility models 1 minute, and troubleshooting a market data interface issue the next. At a strategic level, I work with traders to determine what new strategies they want to employ or different ways they want to view their risk, then I work with developers to implement this. Then there’s alot of testing to ensure the thing works.
It is worth it to take a Business Analyst job that pays 15-20% more than your current job even if it’s something you don’t want to do? Or is it best to stay at your current job and keep applying for something you want to do? My end goal is to work as an Investment Analyst for an asset management firm. Not sure if Business Analyst will get me closer to that goal. And not sure if job hopping would look good on my resume. Any advise would be welcome as I have until next week to accept the offer.
go for something that’ll get you closer to what you want. life’s too short to eff around
I was in a similar situation, not quite sure whether to wait for the right offer or accept to work as a BA to support the PM. The approach that I take is as both roles are supporting the PM, one is from investment perspective and the other is more project driven. If you do well as a BA and they like you, there is every chance for me to convert into an investemtn analyst. That is why I have accepted the offer to work on something that is not exactly what is an ideal role, believing that by working hard and performs, the door will open for me. Hope this helps.
Hi theKing. The Business Analyst role that I was offered is from Digital Shape Technologies. Not sure if there are any portfolio managers working there. The clients that I would be dealing with are fund of funds managers.
Oh, I see. Mine is slightly different situations, the job is within an AM firm. In this case, I would not quite sure what to suggest. Best of luck.
No, Business Analyst is a very well-paying and reputed job available today! With data science taking centre stage in most industry, good business analysts are needed to give progressive direction to a business. Usually for this position, working professionals get a special post-graduate degree to learn and nuances of the tools like Python, SAS , Tableau , & Power BI.