If you are looking for a career in data analytics, I would suggest that you take up a job in

one of the analytics companies - Mu Sigma, ZS associates, Fractal, Tredence, etc. These
companies mostly don't need any prerequisites for entry level analyst jobs and provide
great opportunities to learn the skills from scratch

If that's not possible for you, I would suggest you take the following progression to learn
data analytics in each of the key areas:

Maths

1. Basic statistics and data summarizing parameters like mean, median, mode,
central tendencies, distributions, etc.
2. Data integrity, comparison and tendency tests like t-test, z-test, f-test
3. Regression - Linear, Logistic, GLM, Mixed in that order
4. Advanced techniques like predictive modeling and prescriptive methods
Technology

1. Microsoft Excel: This is the Holy grail of analytics. Learn this in and out. From
simple formulae to the data analytics tool and dashboard in, you should learn it
all
2. VBA: This is an extension of Excel and though not used very extensively, can
help in making a lot of tasks in excel easier
3. SQL: This is the logical progression from Excel for handling larger data volumes
and also standardizing processes and creating code modules for repeated use
4. SAS/R: The next step will be one of these tools as they can help you do more
complex processing like regression and modeling
5. Tableau: This is almost the standard right now for data visualization and
dashboarding
6. Advanced technologies like Shiny, Hadoop, Hive, etc.
Business

1. Working of different verticals like Technology, Pharma, Healthcare, Retail,

Banking, etc.
2. Applications of analytics in each of these verticals
Hope this helps.

Edit 1: Adding some free useful links that you can use to study the above mentioned
things:

Some useful and free resources:

1. Free Statistics Book

2. Your Home for Data Science - Kaggle
3. SQL Tutorial - W3Schools
4. SQLZOO - SQL Practice
5. SAS Customer Support Knowledge Base and Community - Best place to learn
about a lot of the features
 6. Tableau Training & Tutorials - Free Tableau training videos
7. Learn Excel, Charting Online - Chandoo
8. Home - Analytics Vidhya - Stay up to date

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Which certification is the best for a BA

aspirant?
 Published on April 11, 2020

Status is reachable

Ranjith Kumar Gokul

Senior Business Analyst at iHorizons | Telecom | Digital Engagement | User Experience | CSM certified
3 articles Follow

Before we go any further, I would like to mention:

i) This article (similar to my previous article
– https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/misconceptions-role-business-analyst-
ranjith-kumar-gokul-csm/) confines to the role of IT Business Analyst.
ii) More so, this one would be highly useful for those who wish to make a career in Business
Analysis and are aspiring to find such a role(with no prior experience relevant to Business
Analysis).

Why go for a certification?

No matter which field or industry one works in; certifications play a major part in terms of
proving the credentials of the candidate, career growth (better pay, higher prospects of
promotion) and increase in chances of getting shortlisted for interviews.

Having said that, it’s not always necessary to vie for a certification without knowing the
value it may add to one’s profile; more so when there are a lot of certifications available and
none being easy on the pocket.

My analysis and the ensuing conclusion here might rub many people the wrong way.
Nonetheless, if it helps BA aspirants take an informed decision, the purpose is served.

Types of certifications:
Getting into the details, certifications can be broadly classified into 3:

1. Role-based: these help in getting evaluated and certified for a specific role.

Ex: PMP certification proves your ability as a PM and thus helps in furthering your career in
Project Management.

2. Domain based: If one is interested in a specific domain and wishes to continue working in
the same for a long-term, this type of certification would be hugely beneficial.

Ex: CFA or FRM for finance domain enthusiasts

3. Technology based: these are the most popular ones among the developers, SMEs and Tech
Architects; these help in establishing the competency in a specific programming language or
a tool.

Ex: Certifications like SCJP

By now, it should be evident that to further one’s career in the field of Business Analysis,
what may help initially is a role-based certification.

What are the different certifications for Business Analysis?

A customary search for the list of certifications available for Business Analysts throws up the
following names:
Apart from these, there are lot more certifications offered by universities, b-schools and even
some training centers. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that all such certifications from lesser known
institutions are there for just one purpose: as money-minting machines for those
organizations. So, it goes without saying that such certifications are best avoided. For
example, there is an organization which charges ~Rs50,000 for BA course while the
certification offered by them is not recognized by any company.

Which one is the best certification for a Business Analyst profile?

If there’s any certification which is popular across the world for Business Analysis and gives
you an edge over others, it is CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional).

But you should note that CBAP is a professional level certification for Business Analysis and
surely not for beginner level. It is for those who have gained a lot of expertise (have worked
at least 5yrs as a Business Analyst) in this field and wish to boost their knowledge and prove
their proficiency.

Now, some of you might have a question about some training center promising to offer
CBAP level training and also help in getting that certificate (in spite of the candidate having
no prior BA work experience). Unfortunately, there are quite a few such centers (in India as
well as in the US) which offer such courses. It’s not at all a good practice to entertain such
courses, not just from ethical point of view but from your own career perspective (more on
this in the the answer to the last question of this article)

So, is there a certification for an entry level BA which can be helpful to get a job? ECBA
(Entry Certificate in business Analysis) comes close to fulfill the requirement but still falls
short. Having got introduced just a couple of years back (in Oct 2016), not many companies
or recruitment firms are aware of this certification. You needn’t just go by what I say.
Whenever you come across a job posting for a BA in LinkedIn or any job portal, take a look
at the ‘requirements’ and ‘qualifications’ section of that posting. You shouldn’t be surprised
that ECBA is not mentioned at all, not even as ‘mandatory’ or ‘preferred’ certification in any
(or almost 95%) of those postings.

So, is ECBA not worth going for?

Certifications help in certifying the knowledge that a candidate has in a specific topic.
Therefore, appearing for a certification should be preceded by thorough understanding of
what the role demands. One should initially focus on the roles and responsibilities of the role
and then plan to add on to it by taking up ECBA. Mere theoretical knowledge may help in
clearing the ECBA certification but wont help much during the interview process. In other
words, ECBA complements your understanding of the job and is not enough all by itself.

So, what should be the course of action in order to land up in a BA

role?
First focus on the essential part of the learning. And that involves knowing more on the
practical aspects of the job. Learn more on questions like:

What does a BA do?

What are the day-to-day activities?

How does the BA function in a Waterfall vs Agile project?

What are the challenges that a BA faces at work?

What is the skill-set that makes you a good BA?

What documents does a BA prepare?

Add on to these questions all the other aspects like career-growth for BA, tools used, roles
with similar skill-set requirement etc. Apart from helping you in the interview process, this
would also help you in knowing what to expect when you join as a BA in a company.

The information that you gather in this process itself would be helping you a lot in landing up
in a job of a Business Analyst. However, if you wish to increase your chances further, then
you can plan to take up ECBA certification.

To understand the role better, one can access relevant YouTube videos, browse through BA
related websites or join some classroom/online training which provides hands-on approach-
based training.

Why should one not opt for CBAP certification?

If a candidate, with no prior BA experience, appears for an interview with a CBAP
certification, it puts the interviewer in a dilemma. On one hand, the resume mentions prior
experience with less relevance to Business Analysis. Whereas, the candidate appears to be a
CBAP certified professional. These are two extremes which put the candidate in a soup. If the
candidate agrees that he has no prior BA experience, CBAP certification would turn out be a
dubiously secured one. Well, if resume is also tweaked to present the candidate as a
professional in Business Analysis, the questions posed by the interviewer would be at the
professional level which the candidate would surely find difficult to answer.
In other words. A BA aspirant appearing for an interview with a tag of ‘CBAP certified
professional’ is nothing short of screwing up the opportunity even before facing the
interview.