Technical business analyst skills for your resume and career

The most important key to success in business (global or domestic) lies in building relationships (with consumers, allies, government agents, suppliers, and others) based on trust, mutual respect, and a keen understanding of the motivations behind stakeholders' actions. What do they value, what turns on their after-burners and what cultural realities most influence stakeholders' behavior? Successful international business professionals tend to demonstrate a keen sense of curiosity, creativity, adventure, problem-solving alternatives and are driven to continuously upgrade their education and learning about our changing global business environment.

The ability to measure and compare (quantitatively) those dimensions of an international business environment (i.e., market potential, political and legal considerations, infrastructure realities, economic growth, and cultural nuances) that lead to a relative ranking of promising international markets is a technical skill that is critical to global business success. This requires an intimate knowledge and ability to use world-class databases found in world-class university libraries like VCU's (e.g., data-based such as globalEDGE, Business Source Complete, EIU Country Reports, Passport GMID, BCC Research, Uniworld Online, IBISWorld, etc.). This represents the hard/technical skills needed to complement one's historical and contemporary knowledge of global business realities, in conjunction with the soft skills needed by professionals if they are to truly have a long and successful career.

Any time a graduate intentionally takes time off before beginning work, they should focus on activities and experiences that contribute to personal growth and professional development. This could take the form of volunteer service for a charity or community, working as an intern to gain first-hand professional experience, expand career networks, or even travel to new and different destinations that allow for learning about unique places and cultures.

As remote and flexible work continues to penetrate industries across the country, daily office check-in conversations and hallway chatter are rare. New employees should be prepared to bring to the table analytical skills to gather, review, and synthesize information for further review, clarification, and report outs.

New employees should be prepared to communicate well and often, not only expressing expectations of what they need to complete their work but also to frequently updating supervisors and coworkers. Quickly learning the communication preferences and style of a supervisor and organization will set a new employee up for success in any industry.

Compared to a year ago, employers have far more experience recruiting, onboarding, and working with employees in a virtual space. And many employers will continue to offer remote work given how successful it has been for many organizations. As a result, for many positions, applicants no longer need to be 'anchored to place' when applying to positions.