Much like business administration, business management and other types of business programs, business analytics jobs run the gamut from database administrator to data scientist and everything in between.
According to a recent study by India Jobs, data science is the fastest-growing job field in India. Companies ranging from manufacturing to retail to healthcare are all becoming technology companies, and the need for skilled data analysts has never been greater.
Fortunately, there exist new and innovative programs across India to help with this pressing need. You can now go beyond just a business analyst course to get the full benefits of a BA certification in less time than you may think. As compared to the scope of an MBA in business analytics, these programs stand much ahead in terms of quality of education, reasonable fee structures, duration of the course, and industry exposure among others.
Why Choose Business Analytics?
Consider a career in business analytics or business intelligence for the following reasons:
The supply is far from being saturated: A recent report by burning glass technologies, business higher education forum, and IBM found that data science and analytics jobs remain open for an average of 45 days, which is a much longer duration than the market average. Businesses in all industries today need skilled data professionals, but there are not enough with the right skills to satisfy this demand.
The skills apply across industries: Analytics can be and is being applied to many industries, including sports, manufacturing, banking, insurance, education, entertainment, and so on.
It is a highly dynamic career opportunity: Business analysts and business intelligence professionals have no dull days at work. These professionals face challenges every day and constantly learn and upgrade themselves.
Exploring Career Options in Business Analytics
The use of data, statistical analysis, quantitative methods, and computer-based models to help managers gain improved business insight and make better decisions is the job of a business analyst.
Business analytics will mine existing data to unearth, interpret, and integrate meaningful insights into a company. A career as a business analyst requires proficiency in programs such as Perl, SQL, VBScript, .NET, and more.
Here are a few career paths in Business Analytics you can choose from:
Reporting – These roles are mainly concerned with the event that happened instead of why it happened. A lot of the reporting roles are now automated, but companies still prefer human eyes on their organization to unearth insights on what’s happening and to report incidents.
Intermediate Analytics – A majority of professionals begin their journey with analytics in these roles. An intermediate analytics professional will get to understand all about analytics and the business. You might be tasked with creating an algorithm that accepts or rejects credit card applications based on the customer risk profile, or you might find yourself deciding the optimum pricing of products in an e-commerce setting.
Strategy – As an analytics professional in a strategic role, you will be responsible for defining the right business strategy by looking at the data of how the company has been operating, the profit they have been deriving, and so on. The bottom line for you would be to maximize business revenue by changing or implementing strategies.
Data Scientist – You can specialize in any of the following- NLP, speech analytics, image or video processing- to become a data scientist. These roles demand that you stay abreast with the latest technologies and be able to explain complex business and data models in simpler terms.
Check out the free course on analytics in risk and upskill in the statistics domain.
Here are a few of the best high-paying business analytics jobs worth pursuing with the right kind of business analyst training:
6 Types of Jobs in Business Analytics
1. Data Scientist
A data scientist collects and interprets data using qualitative analysis. From their analyses, they can predict, evaluate and share information that impacts a variety of departments and operations within the company. They often use technologies such as SQL, R, SAS and Python, so getting data analyst certification in these areas will help you tackle even the most complex data sets with ease.
Data scientists analyse large and complex data sets and leverage a wide range of machine-learning and visualization tools to help them coalesce such information into a more meaningful form.
What does a Data Scientist do?
– Identify data sources and automate data gathering processes
– Drive evaluation and pre-processing of structured and unstructured data sets
– Discover trends and patterns in the large data pools
– Build Machine Learning models and algorithms
– Use data visualization techniques to represent valuable information
– Achieve and measure business value by proposing strategies and solutions for business challenges
– Identify business challenges to be solved
– Collaborate with product and engineering teams and other stakeholders
The timing has never been better to pursue a career as a data scientist. Many well-known companies are starting to set up the foundations for data sciences in these emerging markets, including Walmart, PayPal, Mercedes-Benz and more. Research from the Everest Group shows that India holds as much as 50% of the global market in analytics services, and as the need for skilled data scientists rises, so does the global demand.
As data science tools are always changing and evolving, you’ll need to be adaptive and pragmatic about using different tools to solve varied problems. In short, a data scientist helps give both form and function to the information collected, so that the company, in turn, can make impactful decisions with measurable results.
Read Also: Top 5 Technical Skills you need to be a Data Scientist
2. Data Analyst
A data analyst interprets data to analyze results for a specific business problem or bottleneck that needs to be solved. It is different from the role of a data scientist, as they are involved in identifying and solving critical business problems that might add immense value if solved. Even though the tools and practices used by both data scientists and data analysts could be the same, the scope of the problems addressed by each of them is very different.
Now that we have established, how the role of a data scientist is different from that of a data analyst, here is a brief description of the job of a data analyst.
What does a Data Analyst do?
– Data interpretation and analysis using statistical techniques
– Improve statistical efficiency and quality along with implementing databases, data collection tools, and data analytics strategies
– Data acquisition and database management
– Pattern recognition in complex data sets
– Data filtering and cleaning by reviewing regularly
– Identifying process improvement techniques and tools
– Analytics reporting
3. Data Engineer
Today’s companies make considerable investments in data, and the data engineer is the person who builds, upgrades, maintains and tests the infrastructure to ensure it can handle algorithms thought up by the aforementioned data scientists.
What does a Data Engineer do?
– Develop and maintain architectures
– Align these architectures with the business requirements
– Develop data acquisition processes
– Improve data quality
– Identify ways to ensure data efficiency and reliability
– Work with large data sets to address business problems
– Deploy required machine learning and statistical methods into functioning
– Perform predictive and prescriptive modelling
– Discover tasks and activities that can be automated
– Engage with stakeholders to update and explain analytics initiatives
The good news is that the need for data engineers spans many different types of industries. As much as 46% of all data analytics and data engineering jobs originate from the banking and financial sector, but business analyst jobs can be found in e-commerce, media, retail, and entertainment industries as well.
The best business analytics courses in India provide in-depth knowledge of the tools required to become a proficient data engineer, including getting hands-on training in Hive, NoSQL, R, Ruby, Java, C++, and Matlab. Many data engineers are also expected to have experience working with popular data APIs and ETL tools as well.
4. Database Administrator
The database administrator oversees the use and proper functioning of enterprise databases. They also manage the backup and recovery of business-critical information. It doesn’t sound like much on the surface, but when you realize that everything about the business’ operation relies on properly functioning databases, you’ll see just how critical this job is.
Learning about data backup and recovery, as well as security and disaster management, are crucial to moving up in this field. You’ll also want to have a proficient understanding of business analyst courses like data modelling and design.
The best part is, that the market for database administrators is wide open. Bangalore accounts for around 25% of business analyst jobs according to an India Jobs survey, while Delhi isn’t far behind, with 22%.
What does a Database Administrator do?
– Build high-quality database systems
– Design the database according to the users’ information needs
– Enable data distribution to the right users, maintaining an appropriate format and timeline
– Enable Data Backup and Use high-speed transaction recovery techniques
– Provide quick responses to queries and minimize database downtime
– Provide required training and support to users
– Document and enforce database policies
– Outline database standards and procedures for a smooth and organized functioning
– Ensure data security, privacy, and integrity
– Monitor database performance and implement changes
Read Also: 5 Mistakes Aspiring Business Analysts Make
5. Data Architect
The data architect is responsible for creating the blueprints that help with data management, thereby allowing the databases to be centralized, integrated and protected. The data architects provide the data engineers with the tools and platforms they need to be able to carry out their tests with accuracy and precision.
Data architects typically have experience in data modelling and data warehousing, as well as extraction, transformation, and load (ETL). Proficiency in technologies like Hive, Pig and Spark is often required.
If you’re looking for a job as a data architect, you’ll be glad to know that captive centers, GICs, and back offices have seen the highest analytics growth in India in recent years. Over half of all analytics demand is found in captive centres and even though they typically use analytics for their internal use (and thus spread the data to their respective global businesses), they nevertheless need knowledgeable data architects to help them manage it all.
What does a data architect do?
– Develop database solutions
– Install information systems and ensure the functionality
– Understand and ensure structural requirements for new software or applications
– Data Migration
– Design data models and flowcharts
– Optimize database systems
– Provide MIS (Management Information System) support
– Improve system performance by testing, troubleshooting, and integration of new elements
6. Analytics Manager
Last, but certainly not the least, is the analytics manager. An analytics manager oversees all the aforementioned operations and assigns duties to the respective team leaders based on needs and qualifications. Analytics managers are typically well-versed in technologies like SAS, R, and SQL.
But beyond the technical requirements, analytics managers also need to have good interpersonal and social skills as well as good leadership qualities. They need to be creative, “outside the box” thinkers who can easily manage a team with far-reaching abilities and skills.
What does an Analytics Manager do?
– Understand business requirements, goals, and objectives
– Align analytics strategies for effective data analysis and reporting
– Source, configure, and implement analytics solutions
– Lead a team of data analysts
– Oversee operations to rectify discrepancies and ensure quality as per set standards
– Collate reports from various teams and sources
– Build systems for data analysis to draw actionable business insights
– Building robust and highly functional systems to interpret data and improve performance
– Keep track of industry news and trends
Exploring Business Intelligence
BI leverages software and services to convert data into intelligence that informs an organization’s tactical and strategic business decisions. BI tools access and analyze data and present findings in the form of reports, dashboards, graphs, summaries, maps, and charts, providing users with a detailed view of the state of the business.
Here are a few career paths in Business Intelligence you can choose out of:
Business Intelligence Analyst – A BI analyst is responsible for developing a comprehensive understanding of business processes, production systems, data warehouses, and departmental databases. They work in cross-functional teams to help create awareness around BI tools and assist in demonstrating BI solutions.
Business Intelligence Project Manager – A BI project manager’s primary responsibility is the overall success of reporting data deliverables. These people coordinate with internal teams to build and deploy data warehouses, portals, and apps. They also identify gaps in the business and develop appropriate solutions.
Business Intelligence Developer – BI developers design relevant solutions to meet client requirements. They also develop ETL to support data integration requirements. A BI developer is also responsible to manage database applications in DB2, Oracle, or SQL Server.
Business Intelligence Administrator – BI administrators use database management systems to determine more effective ways to leverage data for analysis and presentation. Since BI systems help businesses make informed decisions, BI admins are also responsible for generating standard and custom reports that summarize the available data.
Business Intelligence Consultant – BI consultants work to help organizations learn new strategies to manage their data. Consultants improve the existing software or implement new systems to improve a company’s operational efficiency.
Getting Started with a Business Analytics Job
You may be surprised to learn that over half of those recruiting for business analytics jobs are looking for candidates with less than five years of experience. On the flip-side, there’s also a definite surge in the need for senior analytics professionals as well – reaching a high of 20% in 2017.
The scope of business analytics is expanding and companies both large and small are scrambling to hire qualified individuals with the right set of data literacy skills. Now is the perfect time to leverage the rewarding career opportunities that span business analytics and other types of analytics jobs.
Proper business analyst training helps teach these tools using cloud-based software, hands-on teachings and online mentor-ship from around the world.
