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A retired international sales exec and friend of the family suggested I change my title to "business analyst". He more or less claimed it's a catch-all job term for some one who analyzes the market. I explained I was more into outside/inside sales but he claimed that it could be tweaked into a BA role for my resume purposes.
So I asked my old neighbor who was an ex-CEO of a major Auto company. He very enthusiastically suggested I switch my job title and focus to business analyst primarily to get a job. His advice can be a bit...random...but he was the big cheese so maybe he had a point.
Needless to say I'm skeptical hence why I'm asking here.
Keep in mind I get tons of interviews; it's just I feel the majority have limited career paths and the ones I do want are pretty rare and/or very, very competitive(I lose out in the last round). That and the dreaded over qualification for any decent entry level job at $30-40k.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Titles can be taken many ways, especially vague ones like business analyst. We have that title at my work and it's an IT position that does user requirements definition, and works with programmers on system development and enhancement, including some SQL script work. Many of our analyst positions are more specific to the function, such as compensation analyst in HR, or budget analyst in finance.
A previous job I had was Management Analyst, and the work included work flow, policies and procedures, process improvement and performance metrics. I wouldn't consider inside/outside sales as experience that would help with any of those.
You need to be careful about what you put on resumes, interviewers will ask questions
that test you on it.
Titles can be taken many ways, especially vague ones like business analyst. We have that title at my work and it's an IT position that does user requirements definition, and works with programmers on system development and enhancement, including some SQL script work. Many of our analyst positions are more specific to the function, such as compensation analyst in HR, or budget analyst in finance.
A previous job I had was Management Analyst, and the work included work flow, policies and procedures, process improvement and performance metrics. I wouldn't consider inside/outside sales as experience that would help with any of those.
You need to be careful about what you put on resumes, interviewers will ask questions
that test you on it.
Thanks....what about generic "analyst"? I've seen alot of those wondering about such as "marketing" analyst and "product" analyst.
Everybody seems to be an analyst these days....any "city-data" analyst?
A business analyst analyzes a business function or problem and provides a solution.
Let's say you work at Bank of America and the company gets rated as having the worst customer service. Obviously, management has an issue with this and needs to resolve this. A business analyst will need to analyze the complaints and get to the heart of the problem. Maybe the call volume is so high that customers are literally waiting on the phone to talk to someone for hours at a time.
Now the business analyst needs to talk to industry experts, do research, etc. find solutions. One solution is setting up an email address so customers can email in questions rather than having to talk on the phone. Another is hire more people to answer phones. The business analyst basically has to find the problem, propose solutions, get management approval, and implement.
My company hires a lot of business analysts and it seems like they function as program managers for specific projects that the various departments do not have the manpower to complete themselves. I think it's crazy to bring in someone with no experience, and expect them to understand our needs, and bring the project to completion. Not all are successful. Some of the projects that have been brought in to the company under the guidance of the analysts have been complete disasters that we are stuck with, because too much time & money was invested. We then have to develop multiple work arounds. It's a big fat mess.
Titles are very meaningless. I look at what a person said they did on the job when reading the resume and pretty much ignore the title. You can change your title if you want, but I don't think it will make much of a difference. Better titles are what you give an employee when they want a promotion, but you don't want to give them more money.
Add "analyst" or "specialist" to any title and it sorta sounds important at a glance, but if you think about it for more than a second, it just sounds vague and made up.
I am a Business Analyst and it is a specific job function in IT where typically requirements are gathered from business stakeholders on software development projects. The BA, as we are called, interviews the business and derives the needs from the business, identifies a solution and documents all the technical components of the need on paper. It sounds easy but can be complex. Be careful using this title if this is not the type of job you are trying to attract or is the experience you have. Using this title is equivalent to using the title of " Brain Surgeon". This is not a universal job title with no meaning. It has meaning. I would suggest you use "Analyst" as the other posters have recommended since you have a sales background and it does not seem relative to that of a Business Analyst. Good Luck.
Suddenly switching your title to "business analyst" to appeal to more jobs is just meaningless business-buzzword nonsense. If you get hired by someone who has a very specific idea of what the word "analyst" means then you will be exposed as someone who had no idea what their title actually meant.
That is, unless you get a position high up enough that you can just tell people to "cultivate macro-market profit-based synergy" all day.
Suddenly switching your title to "business analyst" to appeal to more jobs is just meaningless business-buzzword nonsense. If you get hired by someone who has a very specific idea of what the word "analyst" means then you will be exposed as someone who had no idea what their title actually meant.
That is, unless you get a position high up enough that you can just tell people to "cultivate macro-market profit-based synergy" all day.
I was thinking the same.
Maybe B2B international sales analyst(fairly accurate)? Does that position even exist? Closet I can think of is trade officer however job search sites can distinguish between financial trade(boo!) and physical commodities.
Speaking of which...why do many financial service jobs?! Doesn't anybody sell physical wholesale anymore or trade things you can hold in your hand?
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for any decent entry level job at $30-40k.
