So really sometimes I’ve had to do tasks heavy on QA and test reviews or documentation or may be even coordinating tasks between onsite and off-shored teams on an onsite-offshore model or may be just pure requirements facilitation tasks, and I found all these various roles aided me to have a all-round training and exposure to doing analysis work

Steve,
Great comments. I would agree that in many cases this situation can be avoided by some upfront analysis both of the written job description and then in the job interview. A job interview should really be a two way street to find out if a particular job is a good fit. I’ve had my fair share of wrong opportunities be presented as part of my consulting career as well.

D,
Thanks for sharing your story. It’s definitely difficult to make a decision when you aren’t getting complete information about the opportunity at hand. I would definitely agree that this is also a good time to engage in your own learning and look for ways to contribute to gain more experience in areas related to business analysis.

I’ve run into several instances where a BA was requested by way of a generic job description… I learned to take apart the descriptions by preparing 2 ways: 1) preparing my relevant experience to show how I can perform what’s listed; and 2) asking questions that try to pick apart the request to see if what is in the description is truly what is expected.

Sometimes all it takes is one experience such as this to really tune you into the fact that “Business Analyst” is sometimes used because the person requesting doesn’t know what else to call it within the context of the company standards. I had a consulting position early on in my BA career where I was doing production support work on a reporting team with very little analysis effort expended. As Laura points out, I talked to client management (and my own company management) about working on projects to really get the best value for what they were paying. It worked for a short time but eventually, with support of my company’s mgt, I moved on to a different assignment where I could use more of my skills and actually grow.

Cheers,
Steve

I’ve just concluded 18 months of the very same scenario. The 6 month contract role I was hired for was actually extended two times. There were two very attractive external opportunities offered during this time that I refused as I was in the midst of rolling my contract into a F/T position. I did have the conversations with management that you describe an was assured the BA work was ‘in the pipe’, yet the changes didn’t come. Then the F/T opportunity dissolved. I don’t fault management as there were other factors that influenced the change in focus. Restructuring, politics, etc. Perhaps in a situation like this where you find yourself with some time on your hands could be spent discovering areas in your department where help is needed and/or improvements could be made. It doesn’t hurt to offer your assistance especially if your suggestion has the potential to make management look good.
Use the time well; study the BABOK for ways to improve your situation…make it a WIN-WIN!