Why is Business Analytics a Good Career Option?

Digitization is the buzzword these days. From the biggest tech companies in the world to the local grocery store next street, technology and data have become the engine oil for businesses across sectors.

In such a scenario, the ability to analyze and channelize such a vast amount of data in the right direction is what makes you stand apart in the crowd.

And this is where Business Analytics comes into the picture.

Every hour, 6 billion connected devices generate hundreds of terabytes of data. Each set of data is critical and needs to be analysed correctly to give an organisation a competitive edge.

Business Analysts possess the ability to sift through, analyse, understand, and extract this data to derive meaningful insights. With this article, we will get the answer for “is business analytics a good career?”

At the beginning, you might think “why business analytics as a career”. But, the past few years have seen Analytics go mainstream.

More and more companies are leveraging this gold mine to further their reach, improve efficiency, boost sales, and introduce new solutions and services.

Besides, the big data is also helping them to speed up their decision-making process and resolve structural setbacks.

This trend is expected to grow stronger in the next several years, thereby making Business Analytics one of the most sought-after skills.

According to recent research ‘Analytics India Industry Study‘, the Indian Analytics industry is growing at a rate of 23.8% annually, and this figure will double by the year 2020.

If we refer to various industry studies, Business Analytics careers are among the most lucrative career options in terms of salary and growth.

In fact, ‘Data Scientist’ has consistently featured in Glassdoor’s “25 Best Jobs in America” for the past couple of years.

You may also like to read: Evolution of Business Analytics | Business Analytics Future

Demand more than the supply

Though the demand for Analytics is going up, there is a huge deficit on the supply side.

Notably, this is happening globally and is not restricted to any one geography.

According to the EMC Digital Universe Study, 1.7 MB of new data will be created every second for every human being on the Earth by the year 2020.

But, do we have the resources to utilise this data.

Big data promises big things, but only if organisations have the right skilled force which knows what to do with it.

A 2017 McKinsey report stated that the US would face a shortage of about 1.9 million data scientists and analysts in next two years.

This is equally true for India too. Thus the need for proficient, and competent Business Analytics professionals is stronger than ever. 

Businesses need to know what they want to extract out of the data, and then how they’re going to use it to inform their decisions.

High demand means higher pay packages and a variety of options.

A career in Business Analytics

The appeal of an Analytics career, however, is not just limited to a high salary. The dynamic nature of the job where one gets to help businesses seek answers of challenging questions and problems has its own kick for many job seekers.

Every BA project is new in itself, bringing a new set of challenges and many learning business analytics career opportunities to grow as a professional.

No wonder, the Harvard Business Review labeled Analytics as the “Sexiest job of the 21st Century”.

Thus there cannot be a better time to start one’s career in this domain but now.

Interestingly, one may start with their business analytics careers after taking a Business Analytics course from basic level without any advanced knowledge of programming or statistics.

It’s even suitable for candidates from a non-technical background.

Correct analysis and forecasting directly impact an organisation’s customer satisfaction, market share, profitability, and other key success factors, making it one of the high visibility roles in the corporate world.

Career options in Business Analytics

Since analytics can be put to use in varied industries over a spectrum of roles, there exist a plethora of business analytics career opportunities in sectors like Banking, Retail, Textile, Healthcare, Automotive, etc.

Based on one’s interests and skills, an individual can also choose to specialise in more advanced streams like Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Here are some roles which a person specialized in Analytics can choose from;

• Big Data Analytics Architect
• Big Data Engineer
• Financial Analyst
• Marketing Analytics Manager
• Business Intelligence and Analytics Consultant
• Analytics Associate Metrics and Analytics Specialist Database Administrator
• Fraud Analyst
• Retail Sales Analyst
• Statistician
• Data Scientist
• Data Visualization Analyst etc.

At the dawn of the 21st century, many new jobs and career options emerged, which were non-existent earlier. But hardly any other career option can compete with Business Analytics when it comes to high-paced growth, creating significant business impact and exciting business analytics career opportunities in the day-to-day work. We hope by now you got the insight for “why business analytics as a career”.

You may also like to read:

1. Do You Know the Differences Between Business Analytics and Data Analytics?

2. Best Ways to Learn Business Analytics

3. What Is an IT Business Analyst?