Mr T - good luck with all your applcations. I spent 20 years at EY, the last 12 of which in London, so safe to say I know them well. I managed to work with some very senior partners (one of whom is now the COO). I was never in audit, or tax for that matter, but I may still be able to help - PM me if so. Have some mates at BDO and they are a decent outfit too.
cheers
Originally posted by @MrTrampoline
Got any companies you’d recommend at all? Business analyst seems pretty vague and I’d assume that you’d have to be an expert in whatever sector they’d specialise in. I’d be happy to earn even £23-24k in all honesty. Main thing is getting my foot on the ladder somehow.
EDIT: Done my application for BDO. Got rejected from Mazars as I failed their situational judgement test. Same thing for the Civil Service fast stream. Asked for extenuating circumstances (280 UCAS) for the national audit office but they put me through to a survey where I had to fill in a bunch of details about my family background. (race/gender/sexuality and whatnot) as ‘contextual information’ - so we can forget about that I guess.
Did the tests for KPMG and (the maths, certainly) was fucking hard, os that could go either way. Having said that, I’m pretty sure anyone would find it pretty damn hard as well. EY got back to me with an automated email and said they’ve received unprecedented numbers of applications etc. and they’ll get back to me when they can.
KPMG’s is meant to be an absolute bitch to see how you respond under pressure - the pass mark for the maths test is about 10/40 because they know that unless you’re rainman you can’t do 40 questions in the same amount of time everyone else gives you to do 20 of a similar difficulty. Don’t worry about it and good luck with EY - I mean if they gave me a job you should be fine, you’re much more prepared for it than I was last year!
This sounds fucking incredible; but how am I not going to get blown the fuck out by the competition? There aren’t many jobs that I think are beyond me (hope that doesn’t sound too arrogant), but there’s surely going to be people applying to those positions with stellar A-levels/degrees and tonnes of internships and whatnot and possibly experience, aren’t there? Either way I’ll give it a crack and have a look at what’s out there.
This topic is temporarily closed for 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
Just have a look through these:
On it like a car bonnet (or will be - just gonna rattle off my application to RSM first) - but thanks!
Wonder why I got downvoted for that? Did I say slag again by accident?
no. you got down voted because i spend my life reading CV’s that say ‘i personally blah blah balh 100m this, 200m that’ when, if fact the person concerned was a part of a project that did some change. get over yourself love.
Top tip for an aspiring business analyst would be either:
Know the business inside out - have a load of IP that makes you uniquely positioned to understand how things could / should work around here; or
be very analytical - have a proven approach that enables you to systematically disect a business problem and produce recommendations that people will recognise / embrace.
Seen a shed load of ‘BAs’ down the years that cant do either. They dont last long…
It was an example of the different projects you can be on the amount they can be worth. Nothing like a patronising twat like you taking it the wrong way though. I’ll change it though:
“Personally I’ve been the Lead and only analyst on an International Supply Chain System that’s worth £180m a year to the company, and an International Wholesale System worth a further £100m.”
Any decent analyst should be able to go into any company and do the job. Yes, having business knowledge is good, but having a knowledge of industry best practice is as important to ensure that the business is trying to run itself in the correct way and suggesting new working practices.
Seen a shed load of analysts down the year that can’t do that. They don’t last long…
Cherts I’ve had a look through a few of the jobs on your link but I really struggle to see how I’ve got a hope in hell of getting anywhere close. I’ve got experience in business journalism but lord knows I haven’t got half of the skills they’re asking for here!
I mean, I can research what a business analyst does but I haven’t got a shred of applicable experience. There’s no way I wouldn’t be beaten by literally one other competitor for the job!
why would someone who’s smashng 280m+ out of the park for their clients be bothered what i think?
mr trampoline - good BA’s are good at business (domain expertise) or good at analysis (anlytical, naturally curious, skeptical). or both. i’d suggest that if you dont know what it is, or dont have the natural characteristics, ytou domnt bet your career on it.
I think I’m going to be a Business analyst. Should I move to London?
The latter most definitely describes me. I’m confident its nothing I couldn’t learn; but surely, learn I must? It really sounds like the sort of thing I’d need to undertake an internship for or have some kind of an introduction to. I know McKinsey have a BA graduate scheme but they’re after AAB from your A-levels minimum.
I just can’t wrap my head around how this isn’t a very senior role by it’s very nature…or indeed what the entry-level equivalent is.
Best be quick.
I know you call yourselves different things, Cherts, but for me, it’s all about the relationship. Anyone bridging studio and outside world is doing the same job, imo. I’ve seen it called Business Analyst, Project Manager, Account Manager. It’s not mutually exclusive and people wear different hats. You can be a BA and a PM at the same time. You likely will be if your firm doesn’t have a separate PM function and you have responsibility for managing one or more projects.
Whatever you call yourself, I know that there’s friction between techies and yourselves, and as I’ve said before, I think it’s largely unjustified, yet entirely predictable.
I moved from a situation where I had very good (even if I thought it intrusive) project management, into a situation where I had none, and had to deal directly with the client. I’ve also been in situations where the person in the middle merely forwards everything they get, unfiltered. That’s just as bad.
I know we’ve had our jokes about this in the past, but I’ve got a ton of respect for those that can perform that bridging role well. You’ll rarely have problems with your seniors unless you or they are totally shit, but junior developers are always going to consider you as persons that know less than you do.
Technically, they’re right. Inevitably, they’ll see the value of having someone keeping the rain off their backs while they’re trying to complete a project in a storm.
These jobs all sound a bit shit, tbh.