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.

SAS, Accenture, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Actuate, Bearing Point, Cognos, Protiviti, Business Objects and hundreds of other consultants and vendors have all jumped on board, ‘all-in’, behind the idea (and opportunity for money) of Business Intelligence.  Each provide their own information and spin on what it actually is… but at its core they would all likely agree that you must take internal data and information, analyze it to find trends, opportunities, and threats, and then use the information to make critical decisions throughout the organization.  Anything added onto that is simply increasing the scope of business intelligence (which is ok).

The tools to do this have certainly evolved, and some are downright incredible.  Business Objects, a tool that many readers are probably familiar with, has been improving their product for years, and power users can probably make that tool do incredible things.  But, you don’t have to be a power user to build some great reports and find information and trends that the naked eye could never detect.

It is important that a Business Intelligence program focus on doing work that will help the other areas of the business.  It is important to partner with marketing, sales, and operations, to ensure that the work performed is valuable and helpful.  Getting a quick-win with any of these groups helps in getting buy-in from them as well as other leaders and executives within the organization.

It is also recommended that the Business Intelligence group not be considered heavily ‘a part’ of the IT division.  Doing this can make it seem like BI is just another IT function, when in reality it should be a partnership between the business and IT to see what can be learned from the past, and what can be done to be smarter in the future.

When reviewing and analyzing different tools, it’s a great idea to include representatives from the various business areas to see the demonstrations of what can be done.  This will help give them great ideas for what you, using the tool, can do for them to make them better and smarter.  It will also help build a relationship and buy-in for the BI program.

For more information on the ‘theory of knowledge’, visit Sanskrit-iz-ed Meaning of the Word “epistemology” courtesy of the Common World Inheritage