Business Intelligence is the buzzword that has been anointed on the ideas of data analysis, data quality, and intelligent decision making. I don’t mean to trivialize Business Intelligence, because it is not trivial. I will say that it isn’t a particularly new idea, but that doesn’t make it bad. The good thing about assigning a buzz word to these ideas is that all of the vendors renew their focus on it, and that makes the tools and applications that much more powerful. Combining competent workers with great tools really supercharges these ideas and makes it feel like something we’ve never don’t before (or new).
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.