Business Analyst Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Business Analyst position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Business Analyst may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Business Analyst and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Business Analyst jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Business Analyst or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

10

Job Skills

TopJob Skills

Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Business Analyst positions. The top three keywords make up 48.19% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Business Analyst, Technical, and Analysis shares stack up against the share from resumes. Collaboration, Communication Skills and Business Process are still quite important, but a smaller sliceof the employer Business Analyst job postings with their combined total of 24.99%. At 26.82%, Documentation, Project Management, Innovation, and Facilitation appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Business Analyst skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

10

Job Skills

TopJob Skills

Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Business Analyst positions. The top three keywords represent 39.07% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Business Analyst, Analysis, and SQL match up to employer job descriptions. Technical, Project Management, and Microsoft Excel represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Business Analyst with 27.48% of the total. At 33.44%, Collaboration, Documentation, Business Process, and MS Office appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Business Analyst skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Business Analyst as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Business Analyst job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Business Analyst on their resumes.

Top Business Analyst Skills

Skills Required by Employers
Share

Business Analyst
25.79%

Technical
11.32%

Analysis
11.08%

Collaboration
8.62%

Communication Skills
8.34%

Business Process
8.03%

Documentation
7.77%

Project Management
6.93%

Innovation
6.42%

Facilitation
5.70%

Skills Listed by Employees
Share

Business Analyst
16.39%

Analysis
12.31%

SQL
10.37%

Technical
9.45%

Project Management
9.29%

Microsoft Excel
8.74%

Collaboration
8.64%

Documentation
8.49%

Business Process
8.23%

MS Office
8.08%

Business Analyst Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Business Analyst positions. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Business Analyst job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.

Uncommon Keywords on Business Analyst Resumes

We did not find any skills or qualifications that were common on Business Analyst job descriptions, but uncommon on Business Analyst resumes.

Common Keywords on Business Analyst Resumes

Job Descriptions

Resumes

25%

50%

75%

100%

Innovation

Communication Skills

Auto Delivery

Detail Oriented

Business Analyst

Problem Solving Skills

Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the position of Business Analyst tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Innovation, Communication Skills, Auto Delivery, Detail Oriented, Business Analyst or Problem Solving Skills in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a candidate you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Business Analyst.

Uncommon Keywords on Business Analyst Job Descriptions

Job Descriptions

Resumes

25%

50%

75%

100%

Translation

Technical

Collaboration

Business Process

Documentation

Analysis

Facilitation

Project Management

Compliance

Customer Service

Data Analytics

Employer job listings infrequently list Translation, Technical, Collaboration, Business Process, Documentation, Analysis, Facilitation, Project Management, Compliance, Customer Service or Data Analytics as important skills or qualifications in Business Analyst job descriptions. Nevertheless, candidates mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Business Analyst position may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Business Analyst Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Business Analyst job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Innovation, Communication Skills, Auto Delivery, Detail Oriented, Business Analyst and Problem Solving Skills. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a position as a Business Analyst, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Business Analyst.

What are the least important Business Analyst job skills to have on my resume?

Although you’d probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Translation, Technical, Collaboration, Business Process, Documentation, Analysis and Facilitation may be something to reconsider. These 7 terms appear 2.26, 2.34, 2.81, 2.87, 3.06, 3.11 and 3.44 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for a Business Analyst role. This implies that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to get noticed by a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Business Analyst position?

• Innovation
• Communication Skills
• Auto Delivery
• Detail Oriented
• Business Analyst
• Problem Solving Skills

Finally people who held the position of a Business Analyst and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Business Analyst application:

• Translation
• Technical
• Collaboration
• Business Process
• Documentation
• Analysis
• Facilitation
• Project Management
• Compliance
• Customer Service
• Data Analytics

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Business Analyst. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:Finally people who held the position of a Business Analyst and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Business Analyst application:

Before applying for a Business Analyst job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Business Analyst. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!