How To Become a Business Analyst in 5 Steps [2024 Guide]

Crisp suits, busy days, and boardroom meetings might be the first things that come to mind when you think about the business sector. What most businesses also have in common is the need to analyze data for decision-making purposes. If that interests you, you’re probably wondering how to become a Business Analyst.

Business Analysts, sometimes called Data Analysts, work in various industries and are responsible for many tasks. Regardless of a Business Analyst’s level of seniority or what market they’re in, their main goal is to identify and define solutions that will help a business thrive. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know to make this in-demand career your next move.

1. Gain a Relevant Education

Business Analysts (BAs) work behind the scenes to provide management with the information and data they need to make sound decisions. A Business Analyst, sometimes called a Business Intelligence Analyst, uses data to improve business operations and the products and services offered. Business Analysts must conduct extensive research into the company to determine the issues they face and find suitable solutions.

The first step to becoming a Business Analyst is to earn a Bachelor’s Degree. If you’re applying to colleges, consider some of these common majors for Business Analysts:

• Computer Science
• Business Administration
• Finance
• Business Analytics
• Accounting

A business-related education is helpful, but if you already have a Bachelor’s Degree in an unrelated field, you can gain experience in helpful courses by pursuing post-secondary education, practical work experience, or Certificate courses.

2. Familiarize Yourself With Essential Tools 

Data analytics is a technical and creative career where you’ll need familiarity with various tools to succeed. Whether you teach yourself or take some classes, you should learn how to use these essential programs and coding languages:

• Tableau
• Microsoft Excel
• R
• Python
• MySQL

This isn’t an exhaustive list of programs, but it’s an excellent place to start if you’re feeling lost. Once you grasp a few of these programs and languages, learning new software will be a bit easier, and you’ll have some practical skills to discuss for job interviews.

3. Earn Certificates

Certificates are a great way to demonstrate your mastery of business analytics and your dedication to continued learning. Here are some common Certificates and how you can earn them:

• Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA): A beginner’s Certificate earned through the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).
• Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering Foundation Level (CPRE-FL): A beginner’s Certificate earned through the International Requirements Engineering Board. 
• Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst (CFLBA): A beginner’s Certificate targeted for professionals who want to work in tech earned through the International Qualification Board for Business Analysts.

These Certificate programs are for beginners as they don’t require any work experience in business analytics. Each institute also offers more advanced certificates as you progress if you’re looking for career development opportunities.

4. Build a Portfolio

Regardless of whether you have work experience as a Business Analyst, creating a portfolio you can share with potential employers is essential. If you can’t share real projects from a previous position, you can create a portfolio from publicly available data sets. You can include projects such as exploratory data analysis (EDA), sentiment analysis, and data visualization to flex your skills and share them on your website or in a PDF. 

5. Get Professional Experience

Now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to start applying for positions as a Business Analyst. There are many careers under the business analysis umbrella. Some keywords or positions to look out for might be:

• Systems Analyst
• Process Analyst
• Product Manager
• Data Analyst

Once you have an idea of what type of Analyst positions you’d like to consider, you can reach out to recruiters and start applying to job postings to get your job search started.

Business Analyst Responsibilities

Many responsibilities fall under your job description as a Business Analyst. Below are some examples:

• Analysis: You’ll be required to run complex analyses to help identify key metrics. This goes hand in hand with reporting and will produce the necessary information for creating the report. Your job is to help the company understand itself better.
• Reporting: It’s essential to be able to report on key data and key performance indicators (KPIs) from your analysis. This may involve manually running analysis to calculate metrics or copying and pasting values from a dashboard.
• Presenting:  You should know how to put together solid and engaging presentations and have the proper skills to convey your complex findings so that every stakeholder understands your reports.
• Help with decision-making:  A data-driven organization will lean heavily on its Business Analysts’ findings to help guide strategy. Since you’ll be living in the numbers, there’s no one better at helping to guide these decisions than you.
• Dashboard development:  You may be required to learn new tools like Tableau or Google Data Studio to develop and update dashboards.
• Data collection:  You’ll be involved in the data collection process of the company. This may involve testing out new tools and systems, working on projects with data engineers, or connecting different systems the company uses.

Top Skills for Business Analysts

How can you know if business analytics is for you? Here are some qualities that might draw you to this career:

• Analytic: You love deciphering complex data and breaking it down to the root of problems and successes.
• Communicative: You enjoy presenting and breaking down data for audiences in a way that’s digestible and accessible
• Decisive: You’re confident in your decisions and can give recommendations based on your data.
• Creative: You can effectively create visuals that demonstrate your ideas and make them easier to understand.
• Detailed: You know that, when dealing with data, one wrong number can make a difference between telling a positive or negative story.
• Technical: You understand that a database is important because Business Analysts are intermediaries between technical and non-technical people.

If these qualities sound like you, you might want to consider a career in data analytics, where these qualities will be rewarded. 

Business Analyst Salary

According to the Government of Canada, the hourly wage for a Business Analyst ranges from $33.04 to $53.38. This translates to roughly $69,000 to $111,000 per year, though the average annual salary for a Business Analyst is just under $75,000 in Canada. Here’s the median hourly rate per province and territory:

Business Analyst Job Description

Though there are many different aspects to the role, Business Analysts are generally responsible for gathering research, presenting solutions, and then implementing these solutions in the form of new or adapted technology. In the process, a Business Analyst might need to do the following:

• Analyze and model data to produce conclusions.
• Communicate with colleagues to understand the needs of the business.
• Support staff as solutions are implemented.
• Evaluate the impact of changes made.
• Work with stakeholders to understand the service or product provided.
• Conduct surveys, workshops, and tests.
• Create suggestions and solutions for strategic and operational changes.
• Write reports to present to stakeholders.
• Consider the opportunities and risks of these suggestions.
• Communicate with senior management about introducing recommendations to the business.
• Invent systems or processes necessary to implement these changes or alter existing systems.

Reading through Business Analyst job postings is helpful because it helps you identify common themes so you can optimize your resume to book more interviews.

Jump-start Your Business Analyst Career With Robertson

If learning about business processes, understanding and deciphering data, and solving complex problems seem up your alley, then becoming a Business Analyst may be the career for you. At Robertson, we offer Introduction to Data Analysis, a micro-course that will be very helpful in getting you started down this career path.

If you’re ready to take a deep dive into data analytics education, our partnership with Assiniboine Community College offers a Data Analyst Advance Diploma prepare you to enter the workforce as a Business Analyst.