David, you’re right that it’s too bad we have to go to these extents, but we also have to see it from the leadership’s perspective – mapping competencies to an immediate business need. It’s the forwarding thinking manager that makes room in the organization for growth and new perspectives. Having an internal learning path, mentors, and specific knowledge transfer programs all enable leadership to look beyond the normal sources of talent.

However, as Scott described so well in his earlier post, taking the initiative on education is our own responsibility. Back then there was a corporate information center and library I could visit to perform research, get tutoring, and talk things through when I got stuck. I took it upon myself to learn Basic programming in that way and wrote a sophisticated [mainframe] macro to automatically calculate those pensions, based on social security earnings and other data pulled from the payroll system. That was so outside the scope of how other Benefits Analysts had tackled the problem that it got the attention of my boss in HR, who happened to lunch with the IT Department Head and bragged about it to him. Do you see the ripple effect?

Today there’s a wealth of public education and research available over the internet, special interest groups and discussion boards ready to collaborate, and many avenues to show your stuff by volunteering.

Great article! I transitioned from HR as well so I can relate to your quest. I addressed this in an article I wrote previously:

http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/new-business-analyst-position/

In addition to patience and persistence, a love of learning is also key to moving ahead…