Does the business’ current strategy align with the company’s value and goals? Do all technology integrations and data documentation systems provide optimal solutions? You’re there to support other data analysts in making sure all this–and more–is covered!
But you might still have some questions about your resume. How do you highlight your qualifications and merits without overdoing it? How can you make your resume stand out?
We’ve got this! With these three entry-level business analyst resumes and seasoned advice we’ve put together after years of helping people in your field, you’ll be ready to roll.
What Matters Most: Your Skills Section & Job Experience
Think hard! In terms of your skills, I mean. Business analysis is a pretty technical field, so you’ll want to focus on hard skills for your resume. Save softer interpersonal abilities for rounding off your experience section.
You want your skills list to be extremely relevant to your profession, so leave out anything generic that could be applied broadly across most fields. In other words, ditch stuff like “communication” and “data entry”.
The best skills you can list will be software-related, so spell everything out by name. I meant it when I said “specific.” Don’t leave the recruiter with any questions about your skills besides “That’s awesome! What did you do with that?”
Check out some examples:
Best Entry Level Business Analyst Skills
- Linear Regressions
- Logistic Regressions
- MS Excel
- Matplotlib
- Tableau
- Problem-solving
- Data Research
- Google Sheets
- Bilingual (Spanish)
Sample Entry Level Business Analyst Work Experience Bullet Points
Okay, so maybe there was one “exception” in there. Being bilingual doesn’t necessarily relate to business analysis on its own, but it provides something invaluable for your resume: Unique context!
Recruiters want to see unique examples of how you’ve applied your set of skills within your field. Or, if your prior experiences weren’t in business analysis, they want to see your ability to analyze and hand-pick experiences that utilized overlapping skills and made more versatile within your field.
And don’t forget: You’ve got to back those claims up! Just like an Excel spreadsheet, your resume is going to look awfully blank without numbers to quantify your statements. Include quantifiable metrics of the impact you’ve had with your skills.
Here’s what I mean:
- Managed customer accounts and suggested improved organization methods that reduced time spent retrieving information by 13%
- Compiled data with data visualization techniques and Excel, working with senior analysts to infer meaningful insights that improved organizational processes for several companies, saving a total of 90 manual work hours per month
- Responded to multi-line phone system, directing calls with wait times less than 90 seconds, improving satisfaction ratings by 11%
- Performed in-depth research and analysis to help 14+ Fortune 1000 companies surpass their competitors by 7% or more
- Drafted client reports with supervision from senior analysts, receiving 99% positive feedback for alignment with client goals
Top 5 Tips For Your Entry Level Business Analyst Resume
- Include niche skills
- We’re not talking about specificity this time–although that’s always important! Think of skills, like bilingual abilities or less-common software tools like Orcanos or ReQtest, that demonstrate a unique specialization in your field and include them.
- More on context:
- If you’re struggling to find a good way to mix up your metrics, look to context! Remember how we said that the best home for your soft skills was actually your experience section? Take the opportunity to work interpersonal abilities like teamwork and receptiveness to feedback into your experience points.
- Metrics really do matter
- Try to use a variety of metrics if you can! Different types of quantifiable data like percentage-based improvements, error reduction rates, and decreased manual work hours can all measure your impact. Use all that data to show your merits and keep things fresh!
- Customize every time
- Yep: Customize your resume for every job application! Don’t worry, though, it takes less work than you might think. Just revisit the job ad and use those sharp analytical skills to pick out key values, objectives, and word choices to reflect in your resume. Switch these out each time, and your efforts will show!
- Try to streamline
- It can be tough when you have to pack context, technical operations, writing tone, and metrics all into one bullet point . . . but try your best to keep each point brief! One line of text per point is ideal, and two is generally the max.
Keep it to one page or less. recruiters don’t spend long skimming resumes for the first time–in fact, they’ll only spend a few seconds on average. So make sure you work all that good stuff onto one page!
If you’re making a notable shift within your industry or aiming for a totally new role, then your resume might benefit from an objective statement. If you include one, make sure you mention special skills and how they’ll benefit the company you’re applying to.
If you’ve just graduated, or if you’ve taken independent classes, include anything that’s relevant to your field! Credentials are credentials, after all, and showing the initiative to complete and reference relevant courses only boosts your desirability.
