With the wheels of data spinning at an incredible pace, organizations are constantly looking for “data wizards” who can transform the raw data tidbits into powerful insights that bring real results.
This is where the role of business analytics comes to light.
Business analytics (BA) combines practices, skills, and technologies to analyze a company’s data, draw valuable insights, and fuel growth-oriented decisions through statistical analysis. It is carried out to boost revenue, efficiency, and productivity.
Bootcamps are one of the several roads leading to a career in business analytics. But what is a business analytics bootcamp, exactly? What skills does it supply the learners with? What are the costs involved? And most importantly, what does the career path look like for emerging business analytics? Dive into the article to understand.
What Is A Business Analytics Bootcamp?
Organizations today don’t believe in hiring talents based on a university degree alone. Instead, they focus more on the skills a potential hire would bring to the table. This is where educational streams like bootcamps equip learners to kickstart a career in emerging tech fields.
Business Analytics Bootcamps are intensive training programs designed to teach practical skills in business analytics. These bootcamps combine technical competencies and soft skills, focusing on practices and technologies used to analyze a company’s data, draw insights, and make informed decisions.
They often include a project-based learning approach, enabling learners to solve real-world problems and build their portfolios. Bootcamps are typically less expensive and shorter in length than a college degree. They are suitable for:
- Aspiring business analysts (such as those looking for a career shift or college graduates)
- IT professionals
- New business analysts looking to further their knowledge
- Manager, administrator, and project leads who perform business analytics duties
- Project managers
- Marketing managers and sales professionals
- Finance and banking professionals
- People new to the data analytics world
Technology today is seeing lightning-fast growth, exhausting the supply of qualified professionals working in the field. According to a recent study, 59 percent of companies deploy big data analytics. This makes a massive space for those wanting to establish a career in business analytics.
From a global perspective, the number of data scientist roles will explode by 26 percent before 2026. The role of a data scientist is number three in Glassdoor’s Best Jobs in America.
These staggering numbers suggest an excellent career outlook for business analysts. Global sectors, including finance, healthcare, technology, government agencies, business consulting, and more, open their doors for business analysts. Bootcamps supply learners with the most relevant, in-demand, and in-depth training to blast into these industries without spending years and dollars to acquire a degree.
How Do Online Business Analytics Bootcamps Work?
Bootcamps make learning accessible to just about any learner. Aside from teaching essential skills, they also open networking opportunities for students. The four types of bootcamps include:
- Full-time remote
- Full-time in person
- Part-time intensive
- Self-paced online
Learners can opt for a bootcamp based on their specific needs and situations. Some may not prefer classroom learning, while some may want more flexible training. Those working full-time might oscillate more toward part-time or online bootcamps.
When selecting a bootcamp, carefully factor in the pros and cons of online and offline bootcamps. Online bootcamps offer the freedom of location and pace. But they demand excellent self-motivation and discipline. Online bootcamps typically come with lower costs and higher learning flexibility.
On-site bootcamps, on the other hand, are more interactive and offer better opportunities for teamwork. However, they may cost higher than online bootcamps and practically remove the possibility of remote learning.
What Does the Bootcamp Curriculum Look Like?
At the core of a business analyst’s role lies a bundle of technical competencies. The courses vary depending on the learner’s goals and the hosting institute’s primary focus.
Bootcamps equip learners with tools that help accomplish the following tasks:
- Project management
- Requirements management
- Modeling/diagraming
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- Collaboration
- Wire-framing
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Inbound marketing
- Extract, load, transform (ELT) or extract, transform, load (ETL)
- Data visualization
Bootcamps also cover business analytics software skills, including:
- Microsoft Office
- Rational Requisite Pro, Orcanos, Jama for larger businesses
- Oracle NetSuite
- Wrike
- Trello
- Pencil
- Xplenty
- HubSpot
- Zoho
- Salesforce
- Tableau
- Bokeh
- Infogram
- PowerBI
- SQL
- Python
- VBScript
- Visio
- Perl
Some bootcamps also focus on business analytics soft skills, including:
- Communication
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Time management and organization
- Negotiations
The management skills covered include:
- Budgeting
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Variance analysis
- Org charts
- Customer relations
Since bootcamps lean more on a practical learning approach, they incorporate several programs in their curriculum. Working on programs and other deliverables help aspiring business analyst focus on creating real solutions based on raw organizational data.
Here are some common projects students are typically expected to deliver in business analytics bootcamps:
- Customer analysis: This involves drawing and presenting stats about customers, ranking them by sales and profit ratio alongside profit performance by region.
- Sales performance analysis: This involves analyzing and pointing out areas where the sales have either met the target or exceeded expectations
- Product analysis: This is related to understanding whether the products are being priced correctly by checking current sales in accordance with the product category.
- Creating a sales dashboard: This involves determining the metrics related to products — like profit ratio and sales — and filtering the sales to one or more geographic locations.
Business Analytics bootcamps typically take 10 to 24 weeks to complete. However, the duration mainly depends on whether your course is part-time or full-time. For instance, if you’ve taken a long break from work or are up for a career switch, full-time bootcamps, which typically take less than 12 weeks to complete, can be an excellent option.
For students or working professionals looking for more flexibility — part-time bootcamps work the best. These can take more than 24 weeks since the classes take place for a few hours and the students meet two to three times a week.
While bootcamps are conducted over shorter durations, it doesn’t make them any less efficient – especially as far as employment is concerned. For instance, the General Assembly’s Outcomes Report between 2018-2019 showed over 91.4 percent of bootcamp students accepted jobs in their field of study within just 180 days of graduating. Bootcamps have proven effective because they offer education around networking, improving the chances of getting hired, and portfolio-building.
How Much Do Business Analytics Bootcamps Cost?
When considering full-time, intensive business analytics bootcamps with a thorough curriculum, the tuition fee can range from $10,000 to $15,000. The least expensive bootcamps can cost just a few thousand, while the most expensive ones cost $20,000. Part-time bootcamps, on the other hand, can cost up to $12,000. However, not all part-time courses might be less expensive than full-time ones.
Usually, the lowest university tuition costs can be higher than the priciest bootcamps. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average undergraduate tuition cost can be $16,300. Multiply it by four years, and the costs would sum up to $65,000.
However, unlike universities, students taking bootcamps are not eligible for financial aid. However, there are several options students can use to manage their program costs. These include:
- Income share agreements: Through this approach, a student agrees to pay a portion of their salary to the bootcamp providers for a set timeline.
- Deferred tuition: Like income share agreements, this requires a student to make their tuition payment after they’re employed. The distinguishing factor between deferred tuition and income share agreements is that the former includes the payment of a “fixed” amount.
- Loans: Private lenders like Skills Fund and ClimbCredit partner directly with bootcamps to offer loans to students
What Is the Career Outlook?
Several job titles fall under the umbrella of business analytics. From data analysts to project managers — here’s the vast scope of careers you can explore if you have the appropriate skills. The career arenas surrounding business analytics include:
- Quantitative analysts
- Data analyst
- System analyst
- Functional analyst
- Enterprise architect
- Research analyst
- Business solution architect
- Process architect
- IT lead
- IT project coordinator
- Management consultant
- Product manager
- Compliance manager
- Research executive
- Chief information officer
- Project manager
Business analytics is the core of each one of these positions. However, before finalizing your employment decision, it’s critical to understand everything about a specific job and the company that offers it. What priorities does the company put on the top? Does the job align with your goals and strengths?
When looking for a suitable job, networking can be extremely valuable. Professional organizations like IIBA host digital and real-world networking events for like-minded professionals to get together and build meaningful connections. These events are created solely for building relationships. Make sure you build valuable connections that can have a real impact on your career.
The estimated total salary for a business analyst, according to Glassdoor, is $128,000 yearly in the United States. The average salary, on the other hand, is $107,000. Overall, salaries can range between $90,000 and $128,000. Salaries as per designations include:
- Entry-level Business Analyst makes just over $74,000
- Intermediate Business Analysts make about $87,000
- A senior business analyst makes about $96,000
In addition, the highest-paying business analyst jobs include:
- Business Systems Analyst with a salary of $93,000
- Business Intelligence Analyst with a salary of $102,000
- Business Process Consultant with a salary of $131,000
- Business Development Director with a salary of $211,000
There is no end to employment opportunities once your bootcamp training is complete. Business Analytics bootcamps also help learners explore other related jobs with similar responsibilities. Some of them include:
- Business intelligence analyst: This role includes using data visualization, data analytics, and data modeling technologies and techniques to help companies make better decisions.
- IT business analyst: This role is responsible for bridging the gap between business and information technology.
- Business systems analyst: This role is concerned with the technical design of a company’s software system. It may not be the same as actual coding.
- Management analyst: This role involves solving operations issues and improving the efficiency of an organization. Management analysts are self-employed or work for independent consulting firms.
- Operations research analyst: This involves deploying various complex methods to solve business problems that fuel a company’s growth.
- Project manager analyst: this role often aligns closely with business analytics. Project managers improve an organization’s requirements process, business needs, and product scope.
The Future Looks Great for Business Analysts
If you have a knack for solving puzzles, happen to be an analytical thinker, love technology, and know how to churn out the solutions for organizational problems, business analytics is a career road you might want to take.
Analysts are the most sought-after professionals in tech. LinkedIn has a whopping 6,000+ open positions for data analytics as we speak! Follow the guide above and do your research to discover what suits your talents the best.
Frequently Asked Questions
Business analytics bootcamps offer intensive training in technology, practices, and skills essential for a career in business analytics. They provide a blend of project-based learning and theoretical knowledge, covering an extensive curriculum in a relatively short period.
Business analytics bootcamps are suitable for aspiring business analysts, including career shifters and recent graduates, IT professionals, new business analysts seeking further knowledge, managers, administrators, and project leads involved in business analytics duties.
There are four main types of business analytics bootcamps: full-time remote, full-time in-person, part-time intensive, and self-paced online. Learners can choose based on their needs, preferences, and schedule.
The curriculum typically includes project management, requirements management, modeling/diagramming, ERP, CRM, inbound marketing, data visualization, and various business analytics software skills like SQL, Python, and Tableau.
Projects may include customer analysis, sales performance analysis, product analysis, and creating sales dashboards, allowing students to apply their learning to real-world business scenarios.