With the economic downturn of recent months, the release of the Gershon Review into ICT and a general slowdown in government spending as part of the normal election and budget cycle, I started to think about what skills and capabilities will be needed in teh future and what does this mean for the BA professional.
Lawrence Shatkin recently published “150 Recession Proof Jobs” and suggested that “the best recession-proof jobs are those that are least sensitive to economic downturn, and which have the highest combined scores for pay, projected workforce growth, and number of openings”.
Health-care has traditionally been as a recession proof career and in recent times IT has been seen the same way - that is until there is a large scale burst of the bubble (i.e. the last dotcom crash). So it was a good sign that in this US based analysis, IT jobs take the first three spots. The good news for BAs is that system analyst was the highest ranked job in the list of 150, with data communications analyst a close second. Shatkin’s top 10 jobs are listed below:
Job Category % Growth
1. Computer Systems Analyst 29 %
2. Network System and Data Communications Analyst 53%
3. Network and Computer System Administrators 27%
4. Registered Nurse 23%
5. Teachers 22%
6. Physical therapist 27%
7. Physicians and Surgeons 14%
8. Dental Hygienists 30%
9. Pharmacists 21%
10. Medical and health Services Management 16%
So why is it that System Analysts rank so high on the list?
Shatkin suggests that it is really a question about how collaborative the work is. Business Systems Analysts and Business need to work with the people who produce the information and with the people who are going to use it. BAs need to work in a collaborative fashion, preferably be on-site with the team or be someone who can communicate very easily with the people on-site. This communication and bridging skills is very pivotal in the project team and has a big impact on the overall success or failure of a project.
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