Why Did You Choose to Go into STEM?
The volatile nature of today’s global economy is that professions in fields of engineering, science, technology, mathematics, and business management are very important to our current societies’ ways of life. STEM acts as pillars of society that help to develop solutions to complex problems occurring in the fields of medical science, communications, transport industry, constructions, microfabrication, and artificial intelligence, among others.
My name is Ruchi Acharya, and I am a Business Analyst by profession. There are a plethora of reasons why I chose to pursue my career as a Business Analyst, and I would like to share it in this article. Before I can share my viewpoints, let me cover how Business Analysis is related to STEM-based on my research and knowledge.
Demystifying Business Analysis as a STEM career
To begin with, we must address how a business analyst plays an important contribution (directly or indirectly) within the STEM industry. This can be further explained in the following figure:
To Make an Impact in Society
One of the main reasons that I chose to be a Business Analyst is because I wanted to contribute towards the greater good. I want to bring positive change to peoples’ lives. Every day as a community, we face many problems, whether it is waiting in a long queue at the Out-Patients-Department (OPD) in a hospital, difficulty in selling your products or services to customers against big multinational corporations (MNCs), introducing new policies or employment schemes in a Council, or prioritizing global funding to reduce the burden of disease in countries. All of these jobs can be performed by a professional analyst who can develop better business models, better decision-making processes, enforce product improvement techniques, perform risk assessments, ameliorate business management operations, or analyze big data, etc. Impact, impact, and impact. That’s what I want to bring to society, and I am proud to take my first steps to make this world a better place.
Power of Huddle
My profession as a Business Analyst captures the true essence of teamwork as I work with people who come from a multitude of different professions and backgrounds. It is an amazing experience to collaborate with people from different areas of expertise. For example, in one of my projects, I was continuously working with testers, software developers, policy strategists, economic analysts, and a marketing manager. The thing I find most rewarding in my role as a business analyst is that every business is diverse in nature and has its own unique challenges and risks associated with it. As a group of technical people, we inspire each other to resolve business problems efficiently and to have courage to challenge business issues on all levels. The process of learning is never-ending. By sitting around a table, sharing our perspectives and approaches respectively, business analysts build key strategies and implement effective planning for our clients.
So far, I have worked in India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Believe me; it was a wonderful experience to meet new people, study the datasets together, and work towards the continuous improvement and evaluation of products and services. The profession of a business analyst not only advances my technical skillset but also helps me grow as a person. Over the past few years, this profession has developed both my interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to a great extent.Â
Client’s Happiness
Nothing is more rewarding than a happy and satisfied client. At the end of the day, it feels great to earn the respect of your clients. In general, STEM helps us propel forward and find answers to societies’ problems. With the help of technology, life is much easier than it was in the past. The application of STEM has resulted in innovations and discoveries that have vastly improved and advanced our way of life.
This interview was first published in Overacheiver Magazine. You can read it here.