Business Analyst Resume: 2023 Guide with 20+ Examples & Samples

Click here to directly go to the complete business analyst resume sample.

Creating a perfect business analyst resume can be a daunting task, especially if you are not updated with industry trends.

With this definitive guide coupled with recruiter-friendly business analyst resume examples, you can create one of your own!

And since studies show that the job opportunities for a business analyst job is expected to grow 14% from 2018 to 2028, now is the perfect time to send out those job applications.

Read on to get clarity on the following questions related to business analyst resume:

Roles & Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

The typical responsibilities of a business analyst is to analyze data and create business models as part of facilitating data-driven decision making.

They work with the IT team to develop innovative initiatives for improving business operations, optimize cost, and are responsible for leveraging data to forecast business growth, sales, and identify business trends etc.

Here is a typical job description of a business analyst:

Analyzing business process and identifying improvement opportunities for business growth.
Gain in-depth knowledge in business analysis technologies as part of automating various business processes.
Liaising with the stakeholders to present various data as part of encouraging data-driven decision making.
Coordinating with cross-functional teams to implement various process improvement initiatives.
Providing training to new recruits by complying with the company regulations.
Monitoring project timeline and following up with various team members for ensuring timely completion and delivery of projects.

Business Analyst Salary

Business_Analyst_Salary

Source

According to Indeed the average salary of a business analyst is $77,054 per year.

According to Glassdoor the Business analysts in the USA makes on an average $75,341 per year.

The maiden salary of a IT business analyst is approximately $69,631 per year according to PayScale.

Business Analyst Resume: Bullet Points

Most job candidates struggle with creating perfect one liner bullet points for their resumes.

You need to keep the following tips in mind to create the resume bullet points:

Create an action-result relationship in the resume bullet points
The bullet points in your resume should start with power verbs
Highlight important keywords and statistics in the bullet points

Here is a list of resume bullet points for business analyst profile:

Provided detailed reports and analyses of the data to management, business partners
Assisted the Senior Business Analyst in analyzing and reporting on the business performance of a global organization
Maintained communication with key clients to develop and deliver new business solutions
Ensured optimal performance of business units by analyzing and identifying opportunities for cost savings
Defined business requirements for the development of business intelligence application
Analyzed financial statements for the business and developed a comprehensive analysis of the company’s operating results
Conducted weekly meetings with stakeholders to review and discuss business needs

Best Format for Business Analyst Resume

Your Business Analyst resume will contain the following sections:

Name, job title, and contact details
Summary
Key skills
Professional experience
Educational qualification
Publications (optional)
Additional Sections (interests, hobbies, etc.)

However, your experience and job requirement will dictate which sections will be included in the business analyst resume.

Consequently, there can be 3 possible resume formats for you to choose from:

Reverse-chronological Resume

This format starts off with your current or last held profile, and travels back to your past employment, in reverse chronological order.

If you are a seasoned business analyst professional, then this format is ideal for you.

Functional Resume

In this format, you create a separate section in which you group your achievements under various skills. You then proceed to elaborate those skills by highlighting instances from your previous work profiles.

If you have taken a long career break from your business analysis profession or looking to change your industry, then this is the best resume format for you.

However, it is not ATS-friendly, since most ATS find it difficult to parse resumes belonging in this format. An ATS first scans the work profile and then looks for points underneath that, but if the same is missing, most of them will reject the application.

Also Read: How can I ensure my details are correctly included in the functional resume format?

Combination (Hybrid) Resume Format

As the name suggests, this resume format is the combination of functional resumes and reverse-chronological resumes. They can ideally be of 2 types:

Grouping under the professional experience section:
Here, we follow the reverse-chronological format which involves starting off with your present or last-held profile. But within each work profile, we create sub-headings around relevant skills which you picked up in that tenure.
Grouping of skills under a separate section: Instead of grouping relevant skills under the corresponding work profile, we create a separate section of Summary of Skills on the top.

You can go through the job description to find out important points that you need to highlight in your business analyst resume.

Also Read: How can you make most of the combination resume format?

Contact details hardly get any attention in a resume. It’s just your contact details, right?

Well, yes. And no.

There’s no point in spending weeks on your analyst resume if you end up including wrong information in the contact information section which will rob you off the job opportunity.

Here are a few things which you can keep in mind when it comes to this section:

Keep a profesional email-ID: That means no [email protected] or [email protected], instead make it johndoe@gmail(dot)com
No need to include your complete address. Simply mentioning the area and its code will suffice. For example: Waco, TX
Include your LinkedIn, Github, or Kaggle accounts if you have past projects which will bolster your chances of getting a job

Hiration pro tip:

Here is how you can include your contact information:

business-analyst-resume-header

Also read: How to properly include your contact details.

Draft a Business Analyst Resume Summary

If you were stuck on deciding what to write for a business analyst resume, a business analyst summary or an objective section, here is what you should know:

If you have a 3+ years of work experience, then write a business analyst summary,
If you have an entry level business analyst resume with less than 3 years of experience, you can add the objective section.

Example for business analyst summary:

Avoid this:

Business Analyst with a BA degree in Economics and 5+ years of experience in the e-commerce sector. Possessing excellent communication skills and looking a role which will utilize my leadership qualities.

Aaaaand…the recruiter drifted off to the last week’s episode of Game of Thrones in the middle of reading your objective statement. And who can blame the recruiter? This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Practice this:

6+ years experienced Business Analyst with a track record of leading teams in the retail sector to streamline operations and boost productivity by 45% for a Fortune 500 company. Adept at directing knowledge-transfer and preparing in-depth reports to facilitate sound decision-making by the senior leadership. Conceptualized process optimization initiatives to enhance profitability by 35%.

The first one stands nowhere in comparison to this. When you have only 6-10 seconds to grab the attention of the recruiter, you can’t rely on a generic profile summary and expect to get shortlisted. You need that X-factor.

Here is an example:

business-analyst-resume-summary

Also read: Tips on drafting a compelling resume summary

Business Analyst Resume: Professional Objective

You might be wondering if the second summary sounds somewhat unreal? What if you don’t have that much experience? What if you’re just starting out?

For an entry level business analyst resume with no experience or little experience, you can use an objective statement instead of a Business Analyst Summary.

Business Analyst Objective:

Finance graduate seeking a transition to a Business Analyst role at Facebook. Gained in-depth knowledge of Big Data to streamline supply chain and boost product sales by 56% for Facebook’s key products. Track record of leading teams and initiating measures to integrate business and technology.

It doesn’t matter if you have an entry-level business analyst resume or are an experienced manager. The key is to identify a problem which a prospective employer is stuck with, and demonstrate how you can utilize your skills and abilities in your entry level business analyst resume to solve that problem.

Add Relevant Business Analyst Skills

Many applicants commit the mistake of stuffing their resume with keywords without bothering to substantiate those skills in their Professional Experience section.

Business analyst profiles are highly nuanced and can differ from company to company. If you were a business analyst in 3 companies, the 4th company which you are targeting might expect a completely different set of skills.

The job description is your solution here. It gives an idea of what recruiters are looking for. You can then tailor your skills along the lines of their requirements.

To clarify this through an example, here’s a sample JD for a business analyst profile:

Acquiring and maintaining data from various sources
Carrying out regular data cleansing and standardization
Interpreting data and analyzing results using statistical techniques
Identifying, analyzing, and implementing trends or patterns in complex data sets
Generating useful reports and dashboards – Regular and Adhoc
Assisting management in strategic decision making
Setting up and maintaining automated data processes; essential skills: problem solving/analytical skills,
Attention to details, collaboration and teamwork; desirable Skills: communication, productivity, planning & organizing, building relationships

If you were to source a few significant skills from this JD, here’s how you can go about it:

KEY
SKILLS
Acquiring data from various sources and maintaining data:
Data Sourcing, Database Management

Carrying out regular data cleansing and standardization:
Data Sanitization, Data Standardization

Interpreting data and analyzing results using statistical techniques:
Statistical Methodologies, Data Interpretation

Generating useful reports and dashboards – Regular and Adhoc:
Reporting, Report Generation, Dashboard Management

Hiration pro tip:

Prioritize your professional/hard skills over soft skills. Anyone can use the JD to stuff their resume with keywords. But, your task is not to fool the ATS but to convince the recruiter. It’s always better if you are only using those keywords which are substantiated in your work profiles.

Also read: Find out more skills to add in your resume

Technical Skills

A resume for Business Analyst is incomplete without a technical skills section. You can divide your Skills section into managerial/professional skills and technical skills.

Like with all other sections, for your technical skills as well, the JD is the ideal way to proceed. But the only way this section differs from the rest is that you can go over and beyond what is mentioned in the JD when it comes to technical skills.

There can be two ways to present your Technical Skills. The first one is:

Technical Skills: MySQL, Mainframe, HTML, Microsoft Office Suite, SAS, Crystal Reports

However, if you have many technical skills, you can choose a different route.

The ideal way is to group all your Technical Skills under relevant sub-headings. This is how you can represent the skills mentioned above in an alternative way:

TECHNICAL
SKILLS
Languages:
HTML, C, C++, SQL, R, Python

MySQL Tools:
Crystal Reports

Databases:
DataBox, BluePrint

This makes it easy for the recruiter to scan this section for useful information. As and when you work on your technical proficiency, you can classify your technical skills under different sub-headings as well.

Here is how you can add business analyst skills to your resume:

business-analyst-resume-skills

Professional Experience: Business Analyst Resume

This is the sine qua non of your analyst resume. How you frame points in this section determines whether you make the cut or not.

It’s essential that you maintain a balance between the jargon and overall meaning to make sure that a recruiter going through your resume will be able to extract relevant information.

A rule of thumb is to go for only those methodologies and techniques which are listed in the JD.

It’s the quantifiable impact which pulls you ahead of the game. Here’s how you can do it:

Cause-effect Relationship: The Princeton Formula

While you are framing points in this section, you can rely on the Princeton formula to establish a concrete cause-effect relation in each point of your business analyst resume. Simply put,

A + P + R = A (Action Verb + Project + Result = Accomplishment)

The reason for why this formula works is it creates a parallal relation between your actions and accomplishments.

The how is as important as the what.

Here’s what we are talking about:

Avoid this:

Analyzed the production process to resolve issues and reduce deviations

Rephrase it as:

Practice this:

“Meticulously scrutinized the production process to identify 20+ issues on a weekly basis and spearheaded the QA function to achieve a reduction in deviation by 25%”

Applying this formula in all the points, while making sure that no point exceeds one line, will ensure that you weed out all the fluff and are left with only what’s relevant. Doing so will elevate your business analyst resume instantly!

Start Your Sentences With Action Words

Recruiters are tired of using dry old verbs in every resume. Nowadays, everyone is “managing” everything. But you can mix and match with several power verbs to add an oomph-factor to your resume.

To give a very brief idea of the impact which power verbs can deliver:

Standard Verb
Power Verb

Led a team
Spearheaded a team

Completed a project
Executed a project

Reduced costs
Achieved a cost reduction

Also read: How to make your resume interesting with power verbs

Group & Highlight Relevant Terms

There’s no point in framing immaculate points if the recruiter is still going to gloss over them.

How do you avoid that in your business analyst resume?

Let us go through an example to provide better clarity here.

Collaborated with Developers to review testing of changes & Unix script manual run
Conducted scoping of problems & performed root cause analysis to generate targeted business insights for clients
Led a team of 3 Business Analysts & effectively trained ~20 members on Mainframe, SQL, Unix and other internal tools
Coordinated with key clients and initiated measures to understand their requirements for delivering effective solutions
Drafted & reviewed business-related documentation including mapping & validated BRDs as per client requirements
Created Process Maps to illustrate & communicate work flows for teams and other internal/external stakeholders
Executed Quality Analysis for mainframe jobs & collated querying results from Sybase to conduct further analysis

Now, these points more or less follow the Princeton formula, but for a recruiter scanning your business analyst resume, it only looks like a bland wall of text.

How do you transform this section into something which might actually be useful for the recruiter? Here’s how:

Team Management & Business Communication

Led a team of 3 Business Analysts & effectively trained ~20 members on Mainframe, SQL, Unix and other internal tools
Created Process Maps to illustrate & communicate work flows for teams and other internal/external stakeholders
Collaborated with Developers to review testing of changes & Unix script manual run

Client Relationship Management

Conducted scoping of problems & performed root cause analysis to generate targeted business insights for clients
Coordinated with key clients and initiated measures to understand their requirements for delivering effective solutions

Quality Assurance & Documentation

Executed Quality Analysis for mainframe jobs & collated querying results from Sybase to conduct further analysis
Drafted & reviewed business-related documentation including mapping & validated BRDs as per client requirements

BAM!

It’s not an ugly wall of text anymore. The points remained the same – merely classifying them into relevant sub-headings made a world of difference.

To take it a notch further, bold important phrases and words within each point to make the recruiter’s job even easier, and give your business analyst resume a facelift!

Here is an ideal professional experience section you will land with, after following our golden tips:

business-analyst-resume-professional-experience

Include Your Educational Details in Business Analyst Resume

The education section is also often underrated like the personal details section we talked about earlier.

It’s just the Education section, right? Jot down the degrees and you are done?

No.

Each and every section in a resume is prime real estate and it’s up to you to make the most judicious use of it. You can mention only the degrees and there won’t be anything wrong with it, or you can take it a step further.

BA – Economics (Hons.) | University of New York | May ’17

This is pretty much how the Education section should look like in an experienced Business Analyst resume. However, there’s a lot more you can do with an entry-level business analyst resume to utilize the years you spent studying.

BA – Economics (Hons.) | University of Syracuse | ’14 – ’17 | GPA 3.9/4.0

Excelled in modules on Analytics and Financial Management
Established the EcoSoc Quiz Club & organized its first ever State-level Quiz Contest which saw the participation of 80+ colleges and 300+ teams
Organized a Symposium on ‘Socio-economic Challenges of the 21st Century’ for the Economics Society of UoS
Won the 1st Prize in the Inter-college Debate Competition on ‘Government Bailouts – Boon or Bane?’ out of 70+ participants.

Here is what the education section of an experienced professional looks like:

business-analyst-resume-education

Additionally, if there’s a certain overlap in some modules/coursework which you studied in college and the profile which you are targeting, include that as well.

Hiration pro tip:

Mention the GPA only if it’s higher than 3.5. Consider skipping it if it is lower.

Add Projects in Your Business Analyst Resume

A project section should not include generic project description in the business analyst resume. Instead it should include specific details of your contribution along with statics in the project section.

Here are some tips to write Project section in the resume:

Create a new section in the resume and name it as “Key Projects” or “Academic Projects”
Enter your projects by number such as Project 1, Project 2, etc.
For each project, write tech stacks & date of project completion
Write your contribution & accomplishments with suitable numbers in single line bullet points.

Business Analyst Resume Project Example:

Project 1: Predicting the Success of an Upcoming Movie | Tech Stack: Oracle, JavaScript, PHP
Objective: Developed a business analysis model to predict success of an upcoming movie by analyzing historical data of the success rate of production house, actors, and directors

Business Analyst Resume: Certifications

Acquiring business analysis certifications are the best way if you want to get ahead in your career.

When mentioning the certifications on your resume always make sure that:

The certification is valid in the country you are applying for the job.
Make sure that the certificate will not expire at the time of interviewing for the job

Here are some common certification course for Business Analysts:

Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)
IIBA Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)
IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
IIBA Certification in Business Data Analytics (CBDA)
IQBBA Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst (CFLBA)
PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PBA)

Here is the format to write the business analyst resume certification:

Certification | Certifying Authority | Date

Here is how a certification section looks like in a business analyst resume:

business-analyst-resume-certification

Extracurricular Activities: Business Analyst Resume

Many people shy away from listing their high-school/college achievements. Sure, you don’t have to reserve a separate page for those long-gone achievements in your business analyst resume.

However, it can be a great testament to your soft skills in an entry level business analyst resume.

For people with 10+ years of professional experience, there’s very little meaning in listing out your achievements at under-graduate levels, unless they were plain awe-inspiring or something which still resonates with you.

For an entry level business analyst resume, you can mention a few significant extra-curricular achievements which you think might be relevant w.r.t the job that you are targeting.

For other non-relevant extra-curricular achievements, a bit of research and smart work can go a long way.

For example, you are targeting a particular MNC and on its website, you find that the company has a separate tennis team and they regularly play against other companies.

If you have experience in playing tennis in your college or universities you can add it to your resume.

Example:

EXTRACURRICULAR EXPERIENCE:

Team Captain | Tennis Team | University of Virginia | Jan ’19 – Feb ’20
Won 5 tournaments & trained new recruits

Business Analyst Resume Sample 1

A typical business analyst would love to stuff their resume with all the technical jargons they can muster.

And why wouldn’t they? The profile is a seamless integration of business and technology.

Here is one of our business analyst resume examples:

Tips & Guides

Rita Markle

Business Analyst

IIBA-certified business analyst skilled in forecasting sales & revenues while evaluating behavioral data to recommend strategies for improving user engagement & retention. Possesses diverse experience of conducting market research, generating reports on user behavior, and collaborating with the team & senior management to catapult business growth.

• Business Analysis & Strategy • Revenue Forecasting • Market Research • User Engagement & Retention

• Data Analysis • New Market Entry • Report Generation • Budget Forecasting • Tax Computation

Technical Skills: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, MS Office

Languages: English (Native), French (Fluent)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Revenue Forecasting & User Retention

Forecasting the quarterly

sales figures

and revenues to devise new

strategies

for the company
Continuously suggesting tweaks and new features for improving

engagement

by

29%

& user

retention

by

34%
Liaising with the

gaming team of 25

to bolster user engagement and indulge more children/adults into gaming

Research & Data Analysis

Conducting extensive research through

30+ white papers

and

published papers

by industry thought leaders
Analyzing

behavioral data

to interpret funnels, engagement, retention, conversion, etc.

Market Analysis & Reporting

Generating

5+ monthly reports

based on user behavior and presenting the findings to the

senior management
Operating market

research

to penetrate into the

European

and

South-Asian

markets
Assisting the senior business analysts in planning & executing the

launch

of 2 mobile games in the

Mexican market

Budgeting & Forecasting

Assisted in managing

50+ accounting transactions

in a day and reconciled

accounts payable

and receivable
Facilitated budget projections and prepared financial statements while aiding in concluding balance sheet and

P&L statements

Financial Statements & Taxation

Published financial statements within a stipulated time-frame and ensured timely

bank payments
Helped with computing taxes, preparing

tax returns

for

20+ clients

and auditing financial transactions & documents

EDUCATION

GPA:

3.8/4.0

Entry Certificate in Business Analysis

(ECBA)

| International Institute of Business Analysis (

IIBA

) | Nov ’20

Languages: English (native) and French (fluent)

Business Analyst Resume Sample 2

Based on all the above tips around Business Analyst resumes, here’s another one of the business analyst resume examples which you can refer to:

Sample-2

This business analyst resume sample will help you aggregate everything you have read in this guide on business analyst resumes so you can go ahead and make a killer resume for business.

Key Takeaways

To recap what we just talked about:

In most cases, a reverse-chronological resume format will triumph over all others. But just to avoid confusion, have a look at your own trajectory and see if a functional or combination resume format might serve your purpose better.
If you are an entry-level business analyst, you can go for an objective section on your resume. For all other cases, it’s better if you have a professional summary section instead.
Have a separate section for technical skills under your key skills section, while keeping both the subsets strictly in accordance with the job description.
Showcase you accomplishments and the impact which you were able to deliver. Additionally, highlighting and assigning sub-headings to each section will work wonders for your business analyst resume work experience section.

Go to Hiration resume builder and create a professional resume for yourself. Additionally, reach out to us at [email protected] and you can get 24/7 professional assistance with all your job & career-related queries.