Friends.. Capital Mkt.. Business Analyst OR C/C++ on UNIX

[t1s2010]

**Any views +/-/General are welcome. (I see lots of fights in this Job forum )

I will come to UK (London) in January. My spouse getting posting that time.
Thus, I am getting my T1 done as well for travel @January starting.

With January time-line:
I am PG in computer science with 6.5 yrs exp and working in finance (Equities, Derivative OMS, exch connectivity for broker/dealers) for total 4 years.
Out of 4 years, 2 years exp is as Business Analyst.
I don't have UK experience. I worked on US exchanges with US clients with good US customer/trader experience.

Earlier Dev exp is C/C++, sh scripting, SQL on UNIX of 4 years.


How should I approach jobs once I land in UK?
Should I try as a business analyst or a developer or a mix say support analyst?
'My preference is definitely as business analyst for career perspective, however if BA job is little difficult at the moment due to job situation, then I am open for tech roles'.

Any view is EXTREMELY welcome and BIG thanks right away

[kenfrapin]

Should I try as a business analyst or a developer or a mix say support analyst?

Ha ha ha...that's a good one - why do you think a Support Analyst is a MIX of a BA and Developer?
And did you write this post up in a hurry?

KP

[t1s2010]

@Kef.. yes, in hurry, I am doing it from office and don't want my other colleague to know it. loll


ok, and word 'Mix' is not the most appropriate in context, but you must have got my point. so 'dil pe mat le yaar..'

I was asking this question to focus on core areas to prepare for interviews in next few months.
so
1) if BA - then I will need to focus on RUP, as-is/would-be/excel/domain intensive
2) if Dev - then I seriously need to go in depth for CEP, sockets, posix and so on
3) if a mix - that would be a mix of domain and tech.

plz share thoughts..

[kenfrapin]

Ok then - well exposure in the Financial Markets is definitely a big plus but as you said its not in the UK so may not hold a lot of weight.
As your core strength is BA then you might as well stick with it. There is a constant demand of BAs and not many Asians come to the UK for BA roles. You may have a shot but all depends on how you do and how your profile weighs up - but in general, there are a lot of BA jobs

Next comes Support roles - no concept of mix of domain and tech - its just Operation roles. There arent too many of these around but this is not my speciality so I cannot comment. Pretty sure you may a slightly better chance securing a Support role than development but again, I cant say

Finally comes development - tis the most saturated of job roles as a lot of Asians come here targeting dev roles. Plus with a lot of outsourcing and consulting companies in the pic, the market is extremely tight and packages not great in dev jobs.

You do have more than 5 yrs exp with good exposure to the US markets so clubbing that with BA experience and a techie background, you can definitely look for BA, Design Architect, Solution Design kinda roles and if not then Ops or Dev roles - all the best

KP

[t1s2010]

I was searching few job sites and it seems, BAs are mostly contract roles.
What is your observation?

While trying BA role, it may be a plus point to have technical background.
In many openings, JD is with some SQL or scripting knowledge too.

Yes, core BA with intensive domain side is more for MBA and CAs.
I hope, my CFA level-1 at least give me little edge.

[kenfrapin]

core BA with intensive domain side is more for MBA and CAs

That's the mentality of Indian employers and is not relevant in the UK - you dont need an MBA/CA to be a BA and a majority of the BAs have neither in the UK

KP

[t1s2010]

Good to hear that KP. Thank you.

What do UK employers look into a BA?
Any skill set or tools, you heard about ?

[nks]

On the same note, how achievable is it to get BA role when your background has mostly been technical but with a reasonable exposure to customer handling in terms of validating and transforming requirements and liaising between all stakeholders. I can also put some weight with a distance learning MBA on my CV.
TIA,
nks

[kenfrapin]

On the same note, how achievable is it to get BA role when your background has mostly been technical but with a reasonable exposure to customer handling in terms of validating and transforming requirements and liaising between all stakeholders. I can also put some weight with a distance learning MBA on my CV.
TIA,
nks

As most senior and well paid perm BA roles require solid experience, chances are very less. An MBA, full time or distance, wont be of much use if there's no experience.
When it comes to contracting, it gets even more horrible - BA experience and that too in the right domain in the UK is very imp if a company pays you £400 a day for 3 months.
Most BAs are either home grown and pick up the skills within their company, build experience and then shift to contracting else start out as junior BAs straight out of college in the UK, spend many years gaining experience and then contract.

[t1s2010]

nks,

I would suggest, if you are looking for UK BA, try asking your current organization about your interest in it.

Like Kef said, I was asked by my director if I want to move to BA as they had one opening and they preferred internal candidate.

[aspirant99]

Good to hear that KP. Thank you.

What do UK employers look into a BA?
Any skill set or tools, you heard about ?

BAs can be categorised as domain BA, enterprise BA, functional BAs..it all depends what suits the organisation...IMO the following is considered mandatory besides experience in the area that you are applying for, working with visio, excel etc, analytical capabilities, understanding of UML, how to create BRDs, Func specs etc,one step further-- help out in integration testing and probably UAT.

Domain BAs-- domain understanding be it banking, healthcare, retail etc etc, for eg a retail BA will require knowledge about POS, retail supply chain , PCi compliance etc etc

Enterprise BAs---experience in understanding the business core and suggesting as to how & where to increase their productivity and profits.

Functional BAs--experience in tech & testing, project centric activities like BRDs, FS, approach etc etc..

and as explained already by members here MBA/Ca etc etc is not at all mandatory to secure a BA position..

Hope it helps.

Good luck for the hunt!!