Writing a Business Analyst CV

In an increasingly automated world, understanding and optimising the interaction between users and systems can only see the opportunities for business analysts grow and grow. With intense competition for jobs, it is vital to get your CV to stand out and secure that all important first interview.

Structuring your business analyst CV

Give yourself a 2-page format to work from. Keep your CV brief and punchy. Try to get all the most important information on the first page as this is where most attention will be given. Keep a logical flow of information. Start with your professional profile, then career history where you should focus on the most recent roles. Qualifications should generally go to the back of the CV.

Your professional profile

It is important for the reader to immediately see the relevance of your CV. You can create a headline ‘Business Analyst’ and you should certainly position yourself as a ‘business analyst’ in the first line of your profile. The rest of the profile is about creating a point of difference. What are the qualities that enable you to be a great BA? Say something original and different. Try not to fall back on recruitment clichés. Keep your profile to a short paragraph of no more than 4 or 5 lines.

Give specific achievements

As the role of a business analyst can vary it is important to describe the particular responsibilities you have and where you fit within the project team. More important is showing the reader the difference you make. Give specific examples of projects and how your expertise has been key in improving processes or procedures and the impacts this has had on the outputs and outcomes. Facts and figures always look great in a business analyst CV as they add a sense of concreteness.

Methodologies and technical skills

You can create a separate key skills section to show the reader your project management and technical skills. These could include methodologies like agile, waterfall or prince 2. Also include any technical skills like Excel, MATLAB, Power BI, SharePoint or Visio.

ATS systems

Your CV needs to work for two audiences. Firstly, it needs to get through applicant tracking system (ATS) filters which sift about 70% of CVs out of the equation. The secret to helping your CV pass these filters is to analyse the key words and phrases within the job description and person specification for the role you are applying for and weave these into your CV. You can also include them in a key technical skills section. Your second audience is of course the human reader and ultimately, they will be making the decision on calling you to interview. Having a well presented and coherent structure to your business analyst CV will make the reading process as easy as possible in enabling an employer to say ‘yes’ in calling you to interview.

This article is written by Neville Rose, Director of CV Writers. Please do connect with me via LinkedIn.

Check out our CV writing service with details of our packages that include LinkedIn profiles, cover letters and more. You can get things started with a Free CV review. I am also a qualified career counsellor and provide Career Counselling services for people looking to change career paths.