Introduction-Branding as an Analyst

Landing up with a credit risk analyst job was not easy. Brushing up the memory with subject matter books, networking with friends in similar roles and sharpening the technical skills were all part of the preparations for the new job. Several rounds of interviews finally resulted in an offer and it felt like a long struggle has just ended. Several years into the job with no significant career progression brought up the question - How effective I am on the job ?

When we miss a promotion or a junior member leads a high visibility project, the first reaction is to complain about manager's favoritism. But mostly, its the lack of management's confidence on this person caused them to take an unfavorable decision and the responsibility of building the confidence with the management lies with the team member.

Establishing a brand as a good analyst require not only a good education background and the business knowledge but a mix of a number of hard and soft skills . I will be covering these required skills in a series of posts under this blog. I am sure many of my friends have deeper insights on this subject and I invite all of them to participate in this discussion.

These are the topics I plan to elaborate:

1. Job Description: Do the successful analysts match a standard job description?
2. Learning about the business. How to develop the domain knowledge ? What are the important metrics to remember?
3. Defining a Project - Asking right questions; Getting seniors to reduce the learning curve. Conducting informal meetings to get to the depth of the problem.
4. SAS Skills - What are the basic skills to learn ? How to manage the codes and projects in SAS Enterprise Guide. Where to find solution for most of your issues. How to develop a problem solver attitude as compared to a follower attitude.
5. Excel Skills- What are the skills you should learn. What features to use when ?
6. Statistical Skills - How to conduct Statistical research
7. Reporting Skills: How to develop reporting Skills; How to automate reports. How to use reporting as a stepping stone.
8. IT Skills - How to use IT skills as a great differentiator; How to work on the IT handicaps and what are the good skills to acquire.
9. How to improve the PowerPoint presentation skills. Conveying ideas to senior management.
10. Managing Expectations- Prioritization techniques in real life; Getting the big picture of the projects.
11. Ad-Hoc analysis- How to use Ad-Hoc projects to identify potential projects and be proactive.
12. How to Demonstrate you are a leader - Even when you have no direct reports.
13. How to align with the business goals and your managers goals ? How to stay visible to the management ?
14. Working with the peers. How to win their acceptability as a good analyst.
15. How to effectively communicate with peers and the management.

As and when I develop these topics, i am also planning to re-group some of them.