<p>Does anyone have any insight on what a career in BA is like? I've done research and is supposed to be a growing fields. Is this a good job to get into? What type of eduction is required?</p>
<p>The term business analyst can be used in a variety of different contexts. There’s no way to answer this question without more background. Sorry.</p>
<p>When I say business analyst I’m referring to someone who looks at company info on company software or systems. Basically a data interpreter that gives info to top managment. I know this degree depends on the company and can also be called different names.</p>
<p>This is an extremely vague description and given that the term you’re using can refer to so many different things, it’s basically impossible to tell you whether it’s a good job to get into and what education is required.</p>
<p>The “business analyst” I’m familiar with is usually the lowest level of consultant at a management consulting firm. These are typically recent college graduates fresh out of undergrad. They work in the BA role for 2-3 years, usually before going off to get an MBA. The pay is decent - they usually bring in about $50,000 of base salary, and get bonuses. But it’s not intended to be a long-term job; in order to advance in the company they need to go get an MBA. Sometimes they can use their consulting experience in other firms, but as far as I know most do choose to go get that MBA eventually.</p>
<p>What you’re describing sounds like operations research, which is when certain employees use mathematical modeling and analytical techniques taken from statistics and engineering and apply to business decision-making. This usually requires some kind of quantitative undergraduate degree (engineering, math, statistics, computer science sometimes physics) and a master’s degree in operations research or some other kind of quantitative degree (often industrial engineering, sometimes another kind of engineering, math, computer science or statistics).</p>
<p>Yes, this is a lucrative field to get into - operations research analysts have a median salary of about $70,000. Although the BLS says that the job is experiencing average growth, it’s predicted that data-driven decision science will be one of the next big fields as far as need goes - as more data becomes available (due to social networking and increased technology to collect the data) and more businesses see the value in making decisions based on hard data.</p>
<p>[Operations</a> Research Analysts : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Math/Operations-research-analysts.htm]Operations”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Math/Operations-research-analysts.htm)</p>
<p>But it’s possible that that’s not exactly what you mean either. There are LOTS of jobs that “look at company info on company software,” depending on what you mean by that - market researchers, IT specialists, HR managers, so on and so forth. Many middle managers in different branches of different businesses examine data in their own department or field to give information to top management, and there are a lot of different fields that involve analyzing data (both quant and qual) and interpreting it for other people.</p>
<p>Thanks juilet for your response. I will look at the recommendation that you gave me.</p>
<p>this description sounds very similar to the role of a managerial accountant or internal accountant or even consultant for that matter, accounting can lead to many various fields in the business world and a BA would be one of them i imagine, consider going into accounting and sticking with internships that focus on this aspect of a business, even consider becoming a CMA</p>