Posts tagged: employment

Career Advice: How to Improve Your Leadership Skills for Job or Business

Business career optionsBusiness analysts are leaders. They guide their teams towards the accomplishment of specific goals by using both technical and soft skills. And as leaders, they should not only relate to their teams, but must also help their team members to relate with one another. Besides, they should not simply organize and direct their teams, but must also be able to inspire and influence, connect and communicate. Here are ways of improving leadership skills.

For business analysts to lead groups of people successfully, they must first establish mutual sense of understanding and trust between themselves and the people they are leading. Therefore, as a business analyst, your first aspect of leadership development should be improving your ability to build real personal connection with people so they can trust you to help them build a culture of exceptional performance, accountability and integrity. Essential traits that will help you to connect with people include positivity, compassion, empathy, love and humility. Apart from building robust connections with people, you also need to communicate effectively so they understand your directions correctly and in a way that makes sense to them.

A business analyst profession is never always smooth sailing. Each day, you will have to deal with negatives and occasional obstacles. However, the way you handle those difficult circumstances and setbacks will speak volumes about your leadership. It is advisable to consider the positives in any difficult circumstances in order to avoid feeling so strongly about the issues. This way, you will be able to think clearly about the problems and solve them without having your emotions fog your logic.

Coaching is a structured learning that occurs over a period of time in which the coach trains you in leadership skills or set of tasks. Coaching has clear measurable goals and can help every business analyst to improve his/her leadership skills in an isolated one-off training (coaching) session. Leadership coaching is also an easier way of identifying your weaknesses and areas that need improvement as the training programs will allow you to make the right connections and apply your skills in real-life settings. You can opt for coaching sessions to improve your critical thinking skills, boost your confidence and improve your communication skills.

Mentoring refers to one-on-one relationships in which skills, knowledge and perspectives are shared. The training method improves both the skills of the mentor and the pupil, and unlike coaching, mentoring is an ongoing process. Mentoring programs allow budding business analysts to learn from the masters. During the training process, the analysts solicit advice from their seniors on steps of improving their leadership skills, have informal chats, ask for assistance in completing various projects, and build their skills under the watch of more experienced leaders.

Workshops, leadership books and group training sessions are also useful and cost-effective ways of improving leadership skills. During workshops and training, business analysts can engage in leadership tasks while accessing courses on personal and workplace effectiveness. The training sessions can also help them to learn the tricks of motivating others, demonstrating passion, maintaining exemplary standards of integrity and performance, and treating others with dignity and respect.

Feedback from fellow professionals, mentors and team members are invaluable in helping business analysts to know how effective they are as leaders. The analysts may also conduct honest self-assessments or talk to their friends and peers for critical perspectives on their leadership styles and approaches. Similarly, those in the business analyst profession can improve their leadership skills by networking with influential business leaders and emulating the leadership styles of successful business analysts. More information about this career is available at www.businessanalystcareerhq.com.

Making Money With Economics

Making money through economicsA college degree can go a long way to helping you gain a successful career you will love.  That being said it can be difficult to know what to major in. What kind of career can you get with your degree? What kind of growth exists in your field? Doing some career research in advance can help you decide what to major in today. We have looked at jobs with a math and sociology degree, now let’s look at a degree in economics.

While it may not initially sound like it, a degree in economics is a versatile tool that can open up numerous doors for you. Economic graduates can go on to work in numerous fields including business, consulting and even government.  In fact, one recent report showed economic majors ranked 4th out of 16 academic majors in starting salaries behind computer science, mathematics and engineering. Here are some possible fields.

Business Careers

The most common field for economic majors to work in is the business and corporate world.  While an economics degree doesn’t prepare you for a specific role it does help you understand business from a bigger picture which gets your foot in the door. Economics teaches reasoning and problem solving skills which are a valuable asset and can open doors to, management, marketing, finance and consulting.  It is also a good foundation for those who want to pursue a MBA. Pay various depending on education but a degree in economics has an average starting salary of $48,000 while the median salary for senior economist is $83,000.

Government Careers

Another huge employer for economic majors is the government on the state, local and federal level.  They often hire economic majors to help forecast economic conditions and evaluate their effect on budgets, monitor and evaluate agency operations and budgets and analyze different types of data. The Department of Labor and Commerce and weirdly enough the CIA, are all amongst the largest government economic employers. The added benefit is that you work on the government pay scale, which includes numerous holidays, time off and great benefits. The average government salary in this field is $108,010.

Public Policy Careers

If you love debating public issues and dissecting approaches to problem solving in areas ranging from health to national defense then a policy analyst position may be for you. Policy analysts compare and evaluate a wide range of public policy options to aid decision makers in the government. While you may think this involves working for the government most analyst work for private firms, often called think tanks that are hired out by the government.  Many of these positions require a post graduate degree but a bachelor’s may get your foot in the door. Analysts can make anywhere from $40,000 to $65,000 depending on experience and education.

So there you go. Three thrilling fields to work in with an economics degree. Check with online bachelor’s degrees for available courses.

Jeff Jordan writes in lives in Southern California. He writes about education  and schools such as Trident University.