Deconstructing a BA job advert

I saw a job advert on Jobserve and it’s typical of adverts that fail to grasp what a senior business analyst should be able to do for a client.

Click here to read the advert before you proceed.

So what’s wrong with it? I’ll go down through it as […]

Businesses, you may need to fire some of your recruitment agencies

I am frequently contacted by recruitment agents who claim to have read my profile.

Today one contacted me with a job which the agent claimed matched my profile. The following are the mandatory skills. I have crossed out the ones I don’t have:

Certified System Architect on Pega PRPC V 5.x […]

What’s the difference between analysis and design?

Over the years I have been asked to participate in interviews where the candidate claimed to have analysis experience.

Sometimes the candidates were being interviewed for analysis roles, but often they were programming roles, but the candidate claimed to have significant analysis skills. My job was to test the validity of […]

Using Wordle to filter CVs

I have been reviewing CVs (resumés) for a client. The vacancy is for a Senior Business Analyst in the Pega domain. During the course of reading the CVs, I noticed that many of them, while they used the phrase “business analysis” throughout, had few or no examples of any tasks or achievements that […]

Interviewing Business Analysts

Someone recently asked the following questions on the IIBA discussion forum on LinkedIn:

What recruitment procedure is to be followed to identify real BA competencies? Are 15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes group interview enough? Is there any best practice BA selection procedure?

For your consideration, here is the […]

8 Simple Rules for Recruitment Agencies

Most of you who work in the world of software development are used to being contacted out of the blue by recruitment agencies.

I used to run a recruitment programme for a solutions provider, so I have dealt with agencies as a recruiter and as a job-seeker. Some are very good […]

To name and to shame?

I have little time and less respect for lazy recruitment agencies.

That is largely because I used to run a recruitment programme for a deliver centre within a global company and I know how much agencies get paid for a successful candidate.

At the time, I got tired of […]