Business Department

What type of skills will young Business Analysts need?

Considering the "entering the workforce" part of the question, students' critical success factor is the drive to secure one or two summer internships before completing their bachelor's degree in marketing. Training provides the student with real-world experience, including a better understanding of a particular field, which may or may not be a good fit for them, for example, despite initial thoughts that "I define work in minor league baseball marketing." Before I joined academia, I hired several recent grads. I can tell you that the "strong consideration stack" of resumes always included those with internships, with some candidates in that stack with lower GPAs than others who did not have training.

The tried and true skills employers continue to look for include the ability to use a framework for critical thinking and solving business problems (e.g., 5Cs or G-STIC), strong written and verbal communication skills, and an appreciation for the challenges of authentic leadership (building trust, checking your ego at the door, explaining "the why," and striving to achieve greatness, in themselves and those around them). While my colleagues and I have come to appreciate one of our students' favorites, Simon Sinek, we've also put them on to other authors like Peter Drucker, Dale Carnegie, Patrick Lencioni, and Jocko Willink to expand their thinking on leadership.

How do you envision technology impacting Business Analysts in the next 5 years?

COVID-19 has changed the business landscape dramatically.

In B2C marketing, this bodes well for larger companies who can keep pace with Amazon in meeting customer expectations. Anecdotally, I think mid-size retailers will be hardest hit, while large firms (that make the right moves) will survive. At the same time, I believe small, local retailers may well benefit, but they should have a digital presence, to attract customers, that demonstrates their unique knowledge and offerings.

To see how things may be changing in the B2B arena, I suggest readers have a look at Gartner's report, "The Future of Sales 2025", which points to leading firms adopting a rich, digital channel process, which comes as a result of not only COVID-19, but that offers benefits in-and-of-themselves, considering that younger buyers are involved in the process and with the more significant insights that can be garnered from the rich data sets that can arise.

All this means for students is that they must become familiar with the video meeting technologies, but that's only a part of it. They still need (perhaps, more than ever) the listening and speaking skills to be able to engage others-whether it's in person or on Zoom.

Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Business Analysts to find work opportunities?

When it comes to students with a passion and proven skills in social media marketing, events, or hospitality management, I think these opportunities can be found in nearly all medium to large metropolitan areas and smaller firms in smaller cities. The key here is to build and nurture your LinkedIn network. For B2B selling, a graduate may have fewer location options, especially if they have an interest in a particular field like medical or pharmaceutical sales; however, sales is genuinely an excellent area to get started, as many CEOs of companies either started in or had at least an early stint in sales. I also think this can be institution-dependent; at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, a fair number of our graduates seem to land in a handful of locations, including Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, California, and Pennsylvania.