BI Career
This page deals with BI career related topics. Note - updates in progress
Business Intelligence career is a rewarding one, it gives you a chance to be in both worlds (Business and Technology), earnings are also on the higher side. I am not sure about other locations, In Germany a BI consultant charges around 100 to 150 Euros / Hour.
In general BI Professionals have better understanding and end to end view of the business than other technology professionals. BI is for improving business. As long as Businesses want to improve their Business, BI professionals will be in demand.
Work-life balance is similar/same as other careers in IT. In general, to add more, work-life balance of people in BI are Equal or better than those in the operational or core development teams. Why? because, largely the work carried out by the BI teams are strategic and generally you have more time to make decisions for the next move than you have for fixing issues in the operational systems that keeps the business running. The operational systems are usually required to be available 100% of the time whereas the Analytics platform is used mostly during Business Working hours so a downtime is comparatively not a problem. I hope this gives a high level idea about the situation.
From my own experience, when I was around 3 years experienced in IT in BI in Retail Domain I had to make a choice due to restructuring of the organization. Option was to either stick to Retail Domain and work on Java/ .net or continue to work on BI but for different Domains based on project requirements. I chose BI and this has given me amazing opportunities including the opportunity to understand several domains ( Retail, Energy, Fleet Management, Finance - card issuing ) in good level of detail.
Almost all Businesses are now becoming data-driven business. Businesses have already realized that Data is the new Gold and that Data is an asset. BI was earlier used only by the big companies but now with all the latest happenings ( Cloud BI, open source and Free softwares) , the total cost of implementing BI solutions is coming down and the smart medium/small companies are increasingly using BI solutions. And hence to remain competitive almost all Businesses have to include BI as part of its Business. BI market can only get bigger and bigger. Note that people use different words like Big data analytics, Analytics and so on. All of these (where intelligence is derived from data) also comes under the umbrella term Business Intelligence.
Starting role
ETL Developer or BI Report Developer is a good role to start a career in BI.
In general to become a junior level developer in one of these tools (ETL or Reporting Tool) you need at the least 6 months of project experience and to master the tool several years of experience in multiple projects.
Domain or industry
Again based on my own experience of working in various domains like Retail, CPG, Fleet Management, Gas Upstream, Energy Trading and Finance - Card Issuing on BI projects I have to admit that every industry provides enough challenges and opportunities. If I must choose one out of the above I would choose Retail. The data volume is huge, Industry is mature, also as we all are customers of some Retail shop it's easy to connect to this industry than any other from my point of view. If you get to work for a Retail chain that has 1000’s of shops across the world in a BI position that would be an amazing opportunity.
Career path for BI professionals
Possibilities are too many, couple of examples given below, to reduce number of words I will avoid using Senior titles ( ex Senior ETL Developer), you can assume these are also options.
ETL Developer/BI Report Developer/ Data Modeller/ DWBI Tester/BI Analyst/Data Analyst ——→ BI BA/ Team Lead/ Head of BI/ BI Architect/ BI consultant/Principal data analyst ——— > CIO / CDO (chief data officer)
BI Team member——-> gain Business knowledge ——-> move to Business functions
Difference between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Consultant
Job titles are not used in the same way across companies and geographies.
In general, BI Analyst is a user of the BI Reporting and Analysis Tool. He creates reports, analyzes trends and patterns, shares insights with management. On the other hand, A BI Consultant is a specialist, mostly external, he could be playing any of the roles depending on the project needs and match of his skills. Example A BI Consultant could play BI Architect role for the project or ETL Developer or Report Developer or Dimensional Modeler etc.
Difference between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Business Analyst
As people usually get confused between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Business Analyst and use these two titles interchangeably I would like to first clarify these two titles with simple words at a high level and then provide the key skills.
Business Intelligence Analyst - One of the main users of the BI solution. Analyzes data, creates reports, finds trends and patterns and shares findings with management. Mostly business focused and part of a Business Team. ETL or Data Warehousing knowledge is not required.
Key skills - Domain knowledge, Business Knowledge, BI Reporting and Analysis Tool experience and Analytical skills.
Business Intelligence Business Analyst ( BIBA) - Techno-functional role. Involved in gathering BI requirements from stakeholders, analysis of BI requirements, translating functional requirements to technical requirements, conducting pre UAT’s ( user acceptance testing) and setup UAT. Additionally may also create reports, understand trends and patterns and share with management, however this is not the core responsibility. Is part of the BI Team with both domain and technical knowledge.
Key skills - BI Requirements elicitation and management, Data Warehousing and ETL concepts, BI Reporting and Analysis Tool experience, Data Modelling (usually Dimensional Modelling) experience and stakeholder management.
Career path for a BI BA
I was a BI BA before I become a BI Team Lead, various paths are there, I will avoid Senior designations example Senior BI BA
BI BA → BI Team Lead/Head/Principal BI Product Owner → Head (Chief) of Enterprise BI →CIO/CDO
BI BA → BI Team Lead/Head/Principal BI Product Owner → BI Consultant
BI BA → get to know Business really well → Switch to fully Business side roles → grow in Business side roles
BI BA → get interested in Technical side and get skilled → BI Architect — > Principal BI Architect
Future prospects for ETL developers
In general, ETL Developers are in good demand. If you are using ETL Tool in a Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence project then you already start getting good Business Knowledge compared to working in a Data Migration project using an ETL Tool. So there is also possibility to move to domain specific technology consulting or even move to fully Business side role.
Some of the skills usually expected from experienced candidates are given below
Business Intelligence career is a rewarding one, it gives you a chance to be in both worlds (Business and Technology), earnings are also on the higher side. I am not sure about other locations, In Germany a BI consultant charges around 100 to 150 Euros / Hour.
In general BI Professionals have better understanding and end to end view of the business than other technology professionals. BI is for improving business. As long as Businesses want to improve their Business, BI professionals will be in demand.
Work-life balance is similar/same as other careers in IT. In general, to add more, work-life balance of people in BI are Equal or better than those in the operational or core development teams. Why? because, largely the work carried out by the BI teams are strategic and generally you have more time to make decisions for the next move than you have for fixing issues in the operational systems that keeps the business running. The operational systems are usually required to be available 100% of the time whereas the Analytics platform is used mostly during Business Working hours so a downtime is comparatively not a problem. I hope this gives a high level idea about the situation.
From my own experience, when I was around 3 years experienced in IT in BI in Retail Domain I had to make a choice due to restructuring of the organization. Option was to either stick to Retail Domain and work on Java/ .net or continue to work on BI but for different Domains based on project requirements. I chose BI and this has given me amazing opportunities including the opportunity to understand several domains ( Retail, Energy, Fleet Management, Finance - card issuing ) in good level of detail.
Almost all Businesses are now becoming data-driven business. Businesses have already realized that Data is the new Gold and that Data is an asset. BI was earlier used only by the big companies but now with all the latest happenings ( Cloud BI, open source and Free softwares) , the total cost of implementing BI solutions is coming down and the smart medium/small companies are increasingly using BI solutions. And hence to remain competitive almost all Businesses have to include BI as part of its Business. BI market can only get bigger and bigger. Note that people use different words like Big data analytics, Analytics and so on. All of these (where intelligence is derived from data) also comes under the umbrella term Business Intelligence.
Starting role
ETL Developer or BI Report Developer is a good role to start a career in BI.
In general to become a junior level developer in one of these tools (ETL or Reporting Tool) you need at the least 6 months of project experience and to master the tool several years of experience in multiple projects.
Domain or industry
Again based on my own experience of working in various domains like Retail, CPG, Fleet Management, Gas Upstream, Energy Trading and Finance - Card Issuing on BI projects I have to admit that every industry provides enough challenges and opportunities. If I must choose one out of the above I would choose Retail. The data volume is huge, Industry is mature, also as we all are customers of some Retail shop it's easy to connect to this industry than any other from my point of view. If you get to work for a Retail chain that has 1000’s of shops across the world in a BI position that would be an amazing opportunity.
Career path for BI professionals
Possibilities are too many, couple of examples given below, to reduce number of words I will avoid using Senior titles ( ex Senior ETL Developer), you can assume these are also options.
ETL Developer/BI Report Developer/ Data Modeller/ DWBI Tester/BI Analyst/Data Analyst ——→ BI BA/ Team Lead/ Head of BI/ BI Architect/ BI consultant/Principal data analyst ——— > CIO / CDO (chief data officer)
BI Team member——-> gain Business knowledge ——-> move to Business functions
Difference between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Consultant
Job titles are not used in the same way across companies and geographies.
In general, BI Analyst is a user of the BI Reporting and Analysis Tool. He creates reports, analyzes trends and patterns, shares insights with management. On the other hand, A BI Consultant is a specialist, mostly external, he could be playing any of the roles depending on the project needs and match of his skills. Example A BI Consultant could play BI Architect role for the project or ETL Developer or Report Developer or Dimensional Modeler etc.
Difference between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Business Analyst
As people usually get confused between Business Intelligence Analyst and Business Intelligence Business Analyst and use these two titles interchangeably I would like to first clarify these two titles with simple words at a high level and then provide the key skills.
Business Intelligence Analyst - One of the main users of the BI solution. Analyzes data, creates reports, finds trends and patterns and shares findings with management. Mostly business focused and part of a Business Team. ETL or Data Warehousing knowledge is not required.
Key skills - Domain knowledge, Business Knowledge, BI Reporting and Analysis Tool experience and Analytical skills.
Business Intelligence Business Analyst ( BIBA) - Techno-functional role. Involved in gathering BI requirements from stakeholders, analysis of BI requirements, translating functional requirements to technical requirements, conducting pre UAT’s ( user acceptance testing) and setup UAT. Additionally may also create reports, understand trends and patterns and share with management, however this is not the core responsibility. Is part of the BI Team with both domain and technical knowledge.
Key skills - BI Requirements elicitation and management, Data Warehousing and ETL concepts, BI Reporting and Analysis Tool experience, Data Modelling (usually Dimensional Modelling) experience and stakeholder management.
Career path for a BI BA
I was a BI BA before I become a BI Team Lead, various paths are there, I will avoid Senior designations example Senior BI BA
BI BA → BI Team Lead/Head/Principal BI Product Owner → Head (Chief) of Enterprise BI →CIO/CDO
BI BA → BI Team Lead/Head/Principal BI Product Owner → BI Consultant
BI BA → get to know Business really well → Switch to fully Business side roles → grow in Business side roles
BI BA → get interested in Technical side and get skilled → BI Architect — > Principal BI Architect
Future prospects for ETL developers
In general, ETL Developers are in good demand. If you are using ETL Tool in a Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence project then you already start getting good Business Knowledge compared to working in a Data Migration project using an ETL Tool. So there is also possibility to move to domain specific technology consulting or even move to fully Business side role.
Some of the skills usually expected from experienced candidates are given below
- SQL
- PL/SQL
- Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
- Databases
- Data Modelling ( Mainly Dimensional Modeling)
- One BI Reporting Tool would be an advantage
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment. It will be posted after checks.