How to Become a Junior Business Analyst? Top 9 Skills to Master Business Analytics

Who is a Business Analyst?
Skills You Need to Start Your Career as a Business Analyst
What do Junior Business Analysts do?
Career Scope as a Business Analyst
How to Become a Junior Business Analyst?
FAQs for Junior Business Analysts
Kickstart Your Career as a Business Analyst with Emeritus

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A junior business analyst is the unsung hero of operations and production. They undertake complex tasks in different domains daily, while working under the shadow of experienced analysts. Now, with more and more organizations relying on data-driven decision-making, junior analysts straddle also the line between the technical and non-technical. Furthermore, they optimize company operations by delivering fresh data perspectives and upgrading current operations infrastructure. This blog sheds light on all the essential hard and soft skills that will help entry-level analysts shine.

Who is a Business Analyst?

Business Analysts (BA) document the systems and processes of companies to pinpoint areas that require enhancement. They also utilize data analytics to close the divide between IT and business and streamline operations to generate value at every stage of production. Consequently, they provide sustainable business solutions by examining the details of crucial business operations, assessing stakeholder relationships, and detecting efficiency problems in operations.

Skills You Need to Start Your Career as a Business Analyst

A junior business analyst requires the following skills to excel at their jobs:

Hard Skills

Requirements Documentation

A junior business analyst essentially assists senior analysts in executing their job. Their role, therefore, is to succinctly describe clients’ needs for a project. This entails documenting and maintaining meticulous descriptions of business requirements. Minute observations from junior analysts enable project managers and senior analysts to avoid loopholes in the requirements, thus preventing future complications. To perform this role well, junior business analysts should be adept at:

Streamlining project goals
Aligning client needs with business objectives
Reducing organizational clutter
Simplifying cross-team communication

ALSO READ: 10 Most Popular Business Analysis Techniques Used by Professionals

Knowledge of Process Improvement

Junior Business Analyst Junior analysts will be better equipped to analyze business requirements if they have a thorough understanding of the different processes involved in the production chain. However, the processes are different for different sectors and require domain-specific knowledge. Here is how junior analysts can help with the production and operations processes:

Suggest data-driven recommendations on improving production processes after consulting with senior business analysts
Provide a structured framework for managing a project
Provide a realistic idea of different business requirements
Help strategize the five phases of the business lifecycle—launch, growth, shake-out, maturity, and decline
Delegate responsibilities to professionals from different domains

Knowledge of SQL and Statistical Analysis

The business analysis deals with data-driven recommendations to improve current business processes. This means that a junior business analyst should know the basics of SQL such as handling relational databases and undertaking statistical analysis. Moreover, SQL, being an indispensable part of relational databases, helps access large amounts of data at its original location. It is also a favorite among data analysts because of the easily understandable syntax. On the other hand, statistical analysis helps businesses identify patterns from consumer data, and understand their needs. It is also extremely important for finding potential markets and predicting sales.

Business Intelligence (BI) Tools

BI tools play an essential role in sifting through tons of unstructured data. This also includes coming up with accurate visualizations via graphs, charts, etc. What’s more, companies in turn can increase their competitive advantage by leveraging the robust analytical faculties of predictive analysis. Here are some reasons to use BI tools:

An accurate understanding of clients’ needs
Getting directly actionable insights
Data is highly sophisticated and efficient
Boosts production operations
Promotes a strong understanding of current business goals among the stakeholders

ALSO READ: Business Intelligence vs. Business Analytics: How to Distinguish Easily

IT Knowledge

A junior business analyst functions as a liaison between development teams and their business counterparts, as their technical expertise is wide and diverse. A junior business analyst must thus master the following:

Data analytics: Understand the applications of four types of data analysis
Programming: Master the basics of R, Python, or C++
Machine learning: Learn the basic applications of supervised and unsupervised machine learning, and reinforcement learning
MS Office Suite: Knowledge of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is a must

Database Design

Intelligent database designs determine the efficiency of storing and retrieving information from the central database. Therefore, a junior analyst’s importance lies in improving the scalability of databases and preventing data redundancy or inconsistencies.

Soft Skills

Creative Problem-Solving

A junior business analyst may not take the final call on company decisions, but they do juggle decisions on daily minor operations. These decisions are governed by conditions specific to the situation, project scope, and stakeholders’ needs. Thus, the growth of a creative problem-solving mindset is important to reframe strategies daily. This is how you can enhance that skill:

Empathize with the speakers narrating their problems through active listening
Reframe problems into answerable questions
Use a successful framework to prioritize needs

Strong Analytical Skills

Analytical skills refer to the ability to investigate a problem with a logical, unbiased approach. Further, it is often related to critical thinking and can be enhanced as follows:

Introspecting on past decisions
Observing more by reading between the lines
Developing the art of learning
Mastering problem-solving as a discipline
Studying decision-making styles of successful leaders

Research

Research is one of the most indispensable soft skills for a junior business analyst. First, it portrays you as a good problem solver to your employers. Secondly, good research skills ensure you get closer to the challenge at hand, find unique approaches to solve said problems, and drive home effective solutions.

What do Junior Business Analysts do?

An entry-level business analyst has the following responsibilities:

Investigate business functions and optimize operations
Relay data stories to nontechnical stakeholders
Verify and optimize workflows and production processes
Assist senior analysts in integrating modern technology and improving existing business processes
Support the collection, analysis, cleaning, and classification of company data

ALSO READ: Learn How to Earn a Lucrative Salary as a Business Analyst

Career Scope as a Business Analyst

Business analysts will witness a rise in demand in the ongoing decade, as the employment of management analysts is projected to grow 11% from 2021 to 2031. Moreover, with increasing digital transformation, analysts will also attract lucrative salary packages. A 2023 Glassdoor report states that the annual salary of an entry-level business analyst in the U.S. is $70,536.