SIX MONTHS WORKING ONSITE AS A BUSINESS ANALYST

Good day Data enthusiasts, It has been a while. In this blog, I’ll be writing a summary of some of the things I have learnt during my six months working onsite as a business analyst.

The first thing I will document is that to every advantage, there will be a disadvantage in most cases. In these six months, I have learnt so many things that I know I might not have learnt in a remote setting. There is this thing that onsite working does for you especially in the early stages of your career, it paces you and makes you interact with people that can assist in developing you.

In the first week of resumption at my current place of work, I felt I knew nothing in terms of real-life experience despite the fact that I had interned remotely for six months. Of course, I knew the skills and tools to use but I just felt that there were gaps that needed to be filled.

In the space of three weeks after resumption, I made sure to fill any obvious gap in my skill set through researching and personal learning. I can boldly say that even after six months, I am still learning and I am still gaining new experience through challenges I face.

Some of the few things I have learnt so far are:

1. Always document your process: Try to document steps you use to achieve a particular result for future use. I have a book where I document how I did some things that gave me difficulties. This has always helped me whenever I come across similar situations.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions: When I newly resumed, I was very ignorant of the terms I heard staff members use, but with consistency in asking questions, I have been able to understand most of these things. The more you ask questions and become knowledgeable, the more you will also be able to question why some things are done and if possible, invent new ways to do them.
3. Don’t falsify reports or data: It has always been a habit for me to always provide accurate reports. If you feel there is a discrepancy in your data or report, always call the attention of your head or team lead so that adequate action can be taken. Also, in cases whereby you have submitted a report to the management and you discover that there was error in data computation and report generation, always revert with the correct information after fixing it. It is better to give an updated report than to mislead the entire organization.
4. Try to personally develop yourself: This is something that could be very difficult especially in an onsite environment. This is why I stated at the beginning of the article, that “to every advantage, there will be a disadvantage in most cases”. It took me a long time to be able to balance this. If you don’t upskill, you will become ignorant of new trends and emerging technologies and in the long run, you could be displaced from your field.
5. Learn how to interact with people: This is the last point I will state, however, it is a very important point. People management is a very important skill that every individual should have no matter the field you belong to. People may want to frustrate you and make things unbearable most especially in the early stages of your career but you have to stay focused. If you allow people to manipulate your actions, you might not go far in your career.

Thanks for reading.