Business Analyst in Pharma (analysis, application, applications, job)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am a pharmacist working in a company (not in retail anymore).
I am looking for options to change job profile eventually to Business Analyst (couple of yrs down the lane).
The problem is, I have no knowledge about this field and would like to know more.
I did google around and look at many posted job descriptions, but no concrete answer.
I do not want to be in sales, mainly in business side.
I do know one job profile can be on IT side, as I can be end user for pharma software. I am learning SQL for that .
Well, you're on the right track--you should probably figure out what a business analyst does before deciding you'd like to become one
I would say the best approach is to talk to people who are already in the field. Network within your company, outside your company (the IIBA, or International Institute of Business Analysis looks like a good resource, maybe see if they have a local chapter in your area?), and maybe check out LinkedIn to see if there are people willing to answer questions you may have.
I'm not personally in this field, but this is what I would do if I was looking to make a career change.
Generally the BA is the person between the I/T team and the business side of the company. They are often a senior programmer or application architect who has a strong business acumen. The ability to communicate with both sides "in their langauge" so to speak is critical.
Other skills a good BA has are good time management and strong business writing as well as proficiency in Visio and MS Project. Generally a BA has managed I/T projects as a team leader prior to making the jump to the business side.
I am curious here, software designed for pharmacists work, both in retail n corporate, must have some roles for Pharmacist too, as they r the end user. How can they just rely on IT project mgr ?
You don't need to know your product inside and out to do well in the field... i.e. i'm a business analyst working in application development for a scientific government agency, and my background is law. Your experience in Pharm would be helpful, especially if you're familiar with major applications....but you probably don't want to limit yourself to just Pharm software. Especially in a BA role, you want to show versatility (that you can do the job for a wide range of disciplines).
You really need to be able to learn quickly, identify your users' requirements and needs, and be able to communicate them clearly to the developers (and the other way around, of course.... you can't "tech-speak" the customer).
One of my friends is a BA in a pharma. I don't know too much about it, but his focus is data base systems. Annerk seems to be on point. He knows several programming languages and works on projects. I don't know how this ties into the business end of things, but obviously it does. He got his start in QA documentation.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
