During my interview process I focused on how technology and marketing are becoming increasingly more and more integrated. I focused on how technology reflects business processes and the actual process to apply the solutions.

Thanks for sharing you and your mentee’s story Karie! It sounds like your mentee had a nearly ideal situation to become a BA…that is very close to my transition path. I became a BA based on my system and organizational knowledge and was allowed to learn BA on the first job.

I think as you become a senior BA, industry experience is less of a limiting factor. I am sure there are large numbers of jobs that neither of us would qualify for based on the industry experience requirements and a relatively small number that any specific industry experience would break open for us.

100% agree Dave. Long-term I think too much industry-specific focus can actually be a career liability for a BA….but it sure does help with getting started and job search!

Yes, SMEs do have just as much value to bring. But, you have to be careful after hiring them or else you might create a different problem. If not enough is done to develop their BA competencies, it can result in them not knowing how to go about eliciting, documenting, analyzing, verifying, validating, and / or managing requirements. While they can still add value, it becomes limited to specific types of projects.

In addition to bringing industry and system knowledge, she actually had a lot of BA skills/experience within her current and past positions that she wasn’t aware of. By helping to draw out both, she is well on her way to launching her “official” BA career.

I always struggled with this personally – as I’ve generally worked in the financial services industries, but never really for the exact same industry over time. I feel like I bring the skills and ability to learn quickly (and have thankfully had great success doing so), but yes, employers do look for industry-specific knowledge. This just goes to show that there is no “one way” to build a BA career. You can come at it from a variety of angles.