As a business analyst, your job is to study the market and analyze the product lines and profitability of a business. You can then take that knowledge and help a business identify certain problems and come up with solutions.
Business analysts are important for the future of many businesses, they help with budgeting and predicting the market. Plus, they're helpful in identifying problems that business owners didn't even know existed.
In order to help businesses have brighter futures, you're going to need a bachelor's degree and probably some real world experience as well - let's say maybe 5 years. Basically, you've got to know what you're doing to become a business analyst.
Business Analyst Overview
Working as a Business Analyst
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a business analyst. For example, did you know that they make an average of $34.98 an hour? That's $72,753 a year!
What Does a Business Analyst Do
There are certain skills that many business analysts have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, analytical skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a business analyst, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.0% of business analysts included business process, while 12.3% of resumes included to-be, and 9.2% of resumes included user interface. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the business analyst job title. But what industry to start with? Most business analysts actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Business Analyst
If you're interested in becoming a business analyst, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 48.5% of business analysts have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 37.4% of business analysts have master's degrees. Even though most business analysts have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a business analyst. When we researched the most common majors for a business analyst, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on business analyst resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a business analyst. In fact, many business analyst jobs require experience in a role such as senior business analyst. Meanwhile, many business analysts also have previous career experience in roles such as systems analyst or project manager.
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Business Analyst Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of consultant you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title infrastructure project manager.
Business Analyst
Infrastructure Project Manager
11 Years
Director Project Management Office
13 Years
Product Owner
9 Years
Enterprise Project Manager
10 Years
Technical Delivery Manager
11 Years
Customer Relationship Management Manager
7 Years
Show More
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Business Analyst
Business Analysts in America make an average salary of $72,753 per year or $35 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $97,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $54,000 per year.
Average Salary
$72,753
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$52k
$103k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Computershare Business Systems Analyst Business Systems Analyst | Computershare Computershare | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $47,00001/30/2021 $47,000 |
County of El Dorado Business Systems Analyst I/II Business Systems Analyst I/II | County of El Dorado County of El Dorado | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $72,96201/30/2021 $72,962 |
Randstad Business Analyst Business Analyst | Randstad Randstad | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $79,30601/30/2021 $79,306 |
CTG Business Analyst Business Analyst | CTG CTG | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $83,48001/29/2021 $83,480 |
CTG Business Analyst Business Analyst | CTG CTG | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $83,48001/29/2021 $83,480 |
Calculate your salary
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Business Analyst Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Business Analyst. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Business Analyst Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Business Analyst resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Business Analysts
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
4. Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, ME • Public
In-State Tuition
$13,478
Enrollment
979
5. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
6. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Public
In-State Tuition
$7,309
Enrollment
9,142
7. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
8. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,308
Enrollment
6,819
9. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
In-State Tuition
$7,488
Enrollment
30,018
10. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,880
Enrollment
4,177
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For a Business Analyst
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.0% of business analysts listed business process on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and analytical skills are important as well.
- Business Process, 14.0%
- To-Be, 12.3%
- User Interface, 9.2%
- Test Scripts, 7.1%
- Project Management, 6.7%
- Other Skills, 50.7% See All Business Analyst Skills
Best States For a Business Analyst
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a business analyst. The best states for people in this position are New Hampshire, New Jersey, California, and Connecticut. Business analysts make the most in New Hampshire with an average salary of $81,470. Whereas in New Jersey and California, they would average $80,865 and $79,990, respectively. While business analysts would only make an average of $79,530 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Connecticut
Total Business Analyst Jobs:
717
Highest 10% Earn:
$111,000
Location Quotient:
1.25
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$79,530
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
Total Business Analyst Jobs:
1,583
Highest 10% Earn:
$113,000
Location Quotient:
1.13
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$80,865
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
Total Business Analyst Jobs:
2,982
Highest 10% Earn:
$107,000
Location Quotient:
1.65
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$77,053
Avg. Salary
How Do Business Analyst Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
Good stuff! • December +0000
5.0
Good stuff! • December +0000What do you like the most about working as Business Analyst?
Relationships with good people who are fully invested in solving problems. Show More3.0
Good • April +0000
3.0
Good • April +0000What do you like the most about working as Business Analyst?
It allows to the employees using their analytical skill Show MoreTop Business Analyst Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ business analysts and discovered their number of business analyst opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Capgemini was the best, especially with an average salary of $86,850. Wipro follows up with an average salary of $76,116, and then comes Tech Mahindra with an average of $77,919. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a business analyst. The employers include Varian Medical Systems, Navy Federal Credit Union, and TEKsystems