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Mr. Chanakya Sunku, business analyst at Government CIO, agreed to an interview to discuss his education, work experience, current work, and what a typical day consists of as a business analyst. Sunku gave me advice on how to make the best of interning, networking, and acquiring certification in order to pave a successful path in this industry.
Education
Sunku initially started off by majoring in biology at the University of Houston. In the summer of 2009, Sunku began interning at the Harris County Public Health Services to earn hours for his biology major. However, this internship allowed Sunku to work closely with the IT department on gathering the county’s data in relation to neighborhood disease control. Sunku’s ability to work with them exposed him to the IT world where he started to become interested in the field. His experience at the internship forever changed the path he wanted to pursue after college and thus began exploring opportunities in IT. So, upon graduation, Sunku took an online certification course for business analyst. This certification boosted the chances he had to join the field. He then did many mock-up interviews, completed sample BRDS, and RSDs, which helped him prepare for what this career had to offer and made him better equipped.
Work Experience
Soon after, Sunku landed his first job at a startup company in Temple, Arizona. There, his main priority was to prepare technical reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing information. It was a 9-5 job but one of the opportunities he had with this company was he was able to work closely with engineers and developers on reports. It was through one of his engineer colleagues did Sunku find an opening for a business analyst position in Jacksonville, Florida which offered great pay. After applying and interviewing, Sunku landed the job and worked there for about 3 years before joining his current company. Sunku has been working at his current company for about 5 years as a senior lead for product.
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Current Work and Typical Day
Most business analyst jobs are typically 9-5 blue collar jobs with various settings. However, Sunku is currently working his 9-5 job from home. Sunku’s typical day consists of back to back phone call meetings with businesses, SMEs, stakeholders and developers. These meetings consist of discussing ongoing and upcoming requirements for projects, the ability to meet deadlines, and scheduling the work that needs to be done according to priority. Sunku works closely with a team of about 9-10, depending on the duration of the project, to prepare PowerPoint presentations via video call to brief project milestones to executive directors. Specifically, as a lead, Sunku maintains project work in Rally and acts as a scrum master ensuring tasks are completed on time and document any roadblocks.
Career Advice
Sunku has come a long way from majoring in biology to ending up as a senior lead in business analytics. When asked what’s the best advice to give to someone hoping to pursue business analyst, Sunku responded by stating that the first step is to decide if this role is right for anyone considering BA and to understand their capability. Sunku went on to further explain that for most of his life he thought he belonged in the science field doing research for microbiology. Once he became exposed to this different field, only then did he realize he had it all wrong. Second, Sunku stated that to really know if someone is pursuing the right career, internships are the besting testing solution.
As they were for him, it can really determine and guide someone contemplating their career choice and offer them real-world experience before committing. Third, another way that gave Sunku the ability to prosper in his career is networking. It allowed him to meet potential employers and develop long-lasting professional relationships. Finally, learn anything in the technical scope and never stop learning, which can be done through certification. Sunku explained that this field is continually evolving to keep in pace with the changing obstacles businesses face. Thus, it is beneficial to know the basics but to always be open to learning new methods.
Application
Sunku has had a lot of experiences in his career life and gave useful information on how I can improve as I make my way into the field. One of the ways I plan on landing an internship is by attending internship fairs at school. I will attend one event per month to get familiar on using proper etiquette, strengthening my soft skills, and to grow connections. I plan on doing research of the companies that will be at these events so I can find companies that are the right fit for me and are looking for my skills set, such as: analyzing, technical data modeling, and preparing technical reports.
Once I get an internship, it can help me decide whether this is where I am meant to be and if I am capable of it. I can grow my network through professors, internship fairs, and career fairs. I will reach out to professors in my major related classes during office hours with questions and any recommendations they have. At internship and career fairs I can expand my network by asking for business cards for 2-3 companies I am interested in and reaching out to them as a follow-up. I can email them with my name, positions I am interested in, and show my appreciation for having the chance to talk to them. During the interview, Sunku put great emphasis that this field will require me to learn and acquire new skills constantly.
Thus, I plan on acquiring basic certification on software programs needed for any BA position in addition to new skills to grow my technical scope. Sunku provided some great ways to do so such as an online source, IBBA, where I can get certified by meeting minimum internship hours and related course hours. I will do research and use my network to figure out what skills are helping others land jobs and find the best opportunities. A way I can conduct my research is through LinkedIn, which will show me what potential employers are looking for in their employees. In doing all these steps and learning from Sunku’s experience I have a better understanding of what I have to do to be successful.
