BI aims to support intelligent decision making by analyzing past and current organizational data and running this information through predictive models that can help the organization make the right decisions and the right times.  Software from many companies makes this task much easier, so a doctorate’s degree isn’t required to be successful at producing this type of advanced modeling and analysis.  Most important is an understanding of the organization, some training with the tools, and the ability to be thorough in thoughtful in making sure your inputs are accurate.

A strong candidate for business intelligence jobs will some, if not all of the following traits:

• Experience working in a similar industry
• Experience in any of the following data management fields: data management, enterprise data management, data governance, metadata management, data quality, or data warehousing
• Project and/or program management
• “Big Picture” thinking – experience working outside of a single silo
• Cross-functional experience – working on projects with both the business and IT to accomplish a shared goal

There are many different things that you can do to position yourself well for jobs in this industry.  If you have even 1 or 2 of the bullets above, and can present your case well for why you’d be a good fit for a job you are interviewing for, you have a good chance at landing the job.

Although Business Intelligence is a fairly new term, the ideas behind it don’t seem to be particularly revolutionary or new.  As they say, “Everything old is new again”.  The trend in this industry is to stick cool ‘buzzwords’ onto things that many people have been doing for a very long time. So, even if you haven’t been in a ‘Business Intelligence Job’ all along, there is a very strong chance that you’ve been implementing its ideas and principles in jobs that are very similar.  So, your goal when trying to land a business intelligence job is to tightly relate your experience and education to the job description (and information about the job that people have provided or alluded to).

On this site, we’ve provided information, tips, and other resources that we’ve discovered for landing a business intelligence job.  Some of it may come as common sense to you, some won’t.  Please explore the site by clicking on the various links.  We want you to succeed in your plight for the perfect jobs… whether it is business intelligence or data management in the medical, banking, finance, government, or clinical research fields.

Even if you haven’t worked in a job where your title was ‘Business Intelligence Specialist/Analyst/Manager/Director’, that doesn’t mean you don’t have BI experience.  In fact, many of the common titles in today’s organizations will feel right at home in a BI shop.  For instance, ‘Business Specialist/Analyst’, ‘Data Warehouse Specialist/Analyst’, ‘Data Modeler’, ‘Data Quality Specialist/Analyst’, ‘Data Governance Specialist/Analyst’, and ‘Data Specialist/Analyst’ are all positions that generally have experience working in many of the same areas as a BI Specialist/Analyst would.

Just because this is the case doesn’t necessarily mean a hiring manager, or especially a recruiter, will understand this.  It is critical, in your hunt for a business intelligence job, that you help everyone along the way understand and know that your experience and education make you a perfect fit for the job.  This means that your cover letter, resume, and interview must all revolve around you explaining the tasks and principles that you worked with in your previous positions that closely relate to the job description the company has provided.

Another skill that will help you land a business intelligence job is project management.  If you have experience or training (or both) in leading a project, use this to your advantage by showing the interviewer that you are a leader.  Demonstrate to them that you can take an initiative and run with it. The people that are generally hiring for these types of positions love someone who can take an idea and run with it (because they generally have lots of ideas, but few leaders who can take them and bring them to fruition).  If you don’t have experience or education in this, get some.  Study for the CAPM (or the PMP if you have some experience already).  Take a course at your local community college.  Volunteer at a local charity to lead a new project or initiative that they have.  There is simply no excuse for not having training and/or experience in project management.

Finally, practice your interview!  In all of my experience as the interviewer and the interviewee, I have found that the candidates who generally develop the best relationship and rapport with the interviewer gets the job.  It is just simply not the case that interviewers always pick the most highly qualified person.  Its important that you come across as someone who will ‘fit in’; it is important that you come across as someone who the interviewer could have a great working relationship with them.  My best interview tip is to try to, at the right time, make the discussion turn a little more conversational and a little less Question, answer, question, answer.

There is also an influx of government money to help with this initiative, which is helping fuel the growth of job listings for these positions.  This provides an enormous opportunity for someone who either has prior experience in Clinical Data Management, or people with related experience.  Related experience can include anything from having worked in the medical field before, to have experience with data quality, data governance, master data management, or data warehousing.

The critical key is that you relate your prior experience to the job that you are applying for.  Generally, when you are applying, you will be provided with a job description.  It is imperative that you tailor not only your cover letter, but also your resume, so that you appear to be a perfect fit for the position. You are writing a custom, or at least semi-custom, cover letter for each job, right?

Tailoring your cover letter and resume means making sure you meet all of the ‘requirements’ as well as the ‘nice to haves’ in the job description.  Don’t lie… if you don’t have it, don’t make it up.  But, do be sure to think through all of your experience and ‘spin’ it so that it makes sense for what they are looking for.

In your interview, stress to the hiring managers that you are competent and able to complete the tasks that they have described.  It is always best to answer questions about your abilities by relating previous experience and education that you have.

Not only are there data management jobs in the medical arena, but also in the clinical trials and medical testing fields.  When applying, and interviewing, for jobs that have to do with clinical trials and medical testing, it is extremely important to emphasize your thoroughness and attention to detail.  Do this by explaining how you’ve done this in previous positions, have you’ve caught critical errors, fixed problems, had perfect reviews by auditors, and generally just saved the day.  The fields demand attention to detail and depend on your ability to keep perfect logs and ensure clean data.

The best places to look for these jobs appear to be Career Builder, Monster, and Craigslist.  There are some smaller job listing boards that come and go, so I would primarily focus and keep your eye on the big listing boards.  When you have exhausted all of the opportunities on those sites, target some specific large companies – they almost always have job listings on their own sites as well.  In addition to these jobs being hot, there are many other hot jobs such as roofing, cleaning, and others.  You can even get electrician training and start in a whole new career field.

Depending on the technical level of the job, your experience may or may not need to be tightly related to exactly what you will be doing.  I have found that the less technical the position, the more flexible a hiring manager will be in filling the position.  For instance, if the data management position you are applying for is heavily in the analysis field, experience as a business analyst is very closely related, and thus you would likely be a good fit for the position.  It is your job to convince the hiring manager that indeed your experience is relevant and closely related, and that you can walk right into the job with a solid understanding of what needs to be done.

You can do this by relating all of your past experience with the different items that are listed in the job description.  I also highly recommend that you use specific examples of how you performed a task, rather than speaking generally.  For instance, “I have a large amount of experience performing historical data analysis and data management.  I’ve been doing it for years” is not the best way to talk about this.  Instead, use a specific example to hammer the point home, such as, “I’ve been doing data analysis and management for many years.  A few years ago, my team and I used a data analysis tool to help us determine the best target market for our new product using industry trending and data.  Recently, we developed a model that uses historical data to help guide the decision making process for our marketing group”.  When you use strong scenarios, and demonstrate innovation and success, you become a memorable and desirable candidate to the hiring manager.

Data Management jobs also come in many different forms.  You can find jobs working directly for a company, or working for a consulting firm such as IBM, Accenture, KPMG and others to help perform data management tasks for their clients.  Additionally, there is no medium to large industry that does not have a need for data management.  From the obvious fields, such as medical, aerospace, and government, to the smaller industries such as professional sports, radio marketing, and online collaboration – all of these use and need data management. I suggest you seek out positions in fields that you are particularly interested in; doing this will ensure that you are enthusiastic about not just the job, but also the interview.  This will come across positively to the interviewer.  I wish you the best of luck in your hunt for a data management job.