What can i do?

[Nav3333]

I’ll word it out this way;
1) I have an MBA in management & leadership (useless), MSc psychology (useless) and bachelor’s in psychology from Canadian university.  I want to do something that whether is like a glitch, my gpa for my schooling isnt that good but is their like any certificate or program that’ll help me get a job? For some reason after all the hunting i thought Harvard Business School online - business analysis certificate may help me become a business analyst? I’m not sure but it seems everything is too tough to get a job afterwards. Has anyone done any glitches that got them a good job?

[ss20ts]

Not sure how an MBA is useless. I know people who are analysts who have an MBA. No degree or certificate will guarantee you a job. It's a tough job market in the US right now. What experience do you have? Your experience matters as much if not more than the degree. Many degrees are simply check boxes.

[helaurin]

I’ll word it out this way;
1) I have an MBA in management & leadership (useless), MSc psychology (useless) and bachelor’s in psychology from Canadian university.  I want to do something that whether is like a glitch, my gpa for my schooling isnt that good but is their like any certificate or program that’ll help me get a job? For some reason after all the hunting i thought Harvard Business School online - business analysis certificate may help me become a business analyst? I’m not sure but it seems everything is too tough to get a job afterwards. Has anyone done any glitches that got them a good job?

When you say you are thinking about becoming a business analyst, can you be more specific about the type of role you are envisioning? Some "business analysts" focus on evaluating businesses from a financial perspective, while others focus on determining the needs for process improvements, gathering and documenting requirements and turning those into functional specifications for IT staff/developers, etc., ensuring that the requirements are implemented, etc. 

I'm in the latter role; I'm currently a Senior Business Systems Analyst with a large employer.  What I can tell you that for this type of role, there is opportunity, but the nature of those opportunities has changed a lot in the past 15 years.  15-18 years ago, finding decent opportunities wasn't too difficult, and there were lots of "permanent" (direct hire) jobs available for those who didn't want to be on the contractor roulette wheel.  

Now, not so much. The job market for BA's primarily consists of either contractor jobs, or "temp to perm" jobs - where there is no guarantee of a temp job becoming a permanent job.  Direct-hire as a permanent employee jobs are much fewer than they used to be.  

This difference between contract and direct-hire/permanent jobs can be important; most contractor jobs either don't offer benefits (such as medical/dental/life) OR, if they do, they don't subsidize the cost much, if at all.  Most contract positions aren't going to offer anything towards retirement either.  Vacation, sick time, personal days - contractors typically don't receive pay when taking that time off.  

And then there is always the risk that the client will suddenly end a project, meaning you have to start interviewing again for your next temporary position, and in the meantime, you've got no $ coming in - not even a chance of a severance package, like you MIGHT get if you have held a position as a permanent employee for a decent length of time.   Something I have also seen, which I consider to be a pretty unethical move, is for a company to retroactively reduce the contracted hourly rate by a set percentage - AFTER the hours were worked - as a class, for every contractor at the company at that time.  Yes, that was legal. Don't ask me how but the company got away with it. 

So why would anyone ever go to a contractor role?  If you can afford the risk of not having steady income, don't necessarily need to carry benefits yourself (perhaps have a spouse who has it for the family), and interview well, you can end up getting a pretty wide range of experiences as a contractor which eventually can increase your marketability. 

Business Analysts who have an IIBA-certification tend to be more in-demand than those without an IIBA-certification.  Other certifications may be helpful as well; some companies want BAs who can also act as PM's.   If you have industry-specific knowledge/experience/skills, that can give you a leg up vs. the competition as well. So can having an IT background; before I transitioned into Business Analysis, I was a senior systems analyst/computer programmer for about 25 years, so I have an excellent understanding of the kinds of questions that developers will ask about any set of requirements. 

Look at the types of Business Analyst jobs that are advertised on LinkedIn, Dice, etc. and look carefully at the job requirements to get a sense of what will be helpful for you.

[bjcheung77]

Just go back from a month vacation and jet lagged... You want to provide more details and senior members would provide options that may work for you: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works