Thalasar Ventures

You have worked really hard to achieve the “degree of your dreams”. With a solid CFA degree in your possession you begin searching for your dream role. It is a competitive world (different from your college days) out there. And you have a few choices like (Financial Advisor, Investment Banker, Portfolio Manager, Research Analyst, Risk Manager, Corporate Financial Analyst, Forex Business Analyst etc.) however so do the employers. In a global economy, your competition extends beyond your geographical region and the question becomes one of differentiation. Next time you look at your peers, ask yourself – how am I different? This goes beyond your grades, your experience, your confidence or your personality. The question goes to the heart of what gives you an edge in an increasingly shrinking and competitive world. Anymore, Continuous Improvement is just not related to processes, it has a direct impact on one’s career.

The questions are, how do you drive that differentiation and how do you strive for continuous improvement? Occasionally, a shifting business landscape will provide windows of opportunities. How quickly you recognize it and what you do about it will make a world of difference in where and how you end your career.

As a CFA do you feel you are not utilizing all concepts that you were taught? Do you feel a non CFA can also do your kind of job with short training? Do you think you deserve better salary and more professional profile? Do you think you can get better opportunity where application is broader?

If answer to any of these above mentioned questions is yes then a huge opportunity in form of Data Analytics Industry is waiting for you. It is a domain that promises huge growth, rapid rises and, best of all, currently has a shortage of demand for experienced resources in the US and India Analytics is one of the sunrise careers in India with high demand and very low supply and very little direct degrees available as a professional.

What is Analytics?

In simple terms, Analytics is the “the science of analysis”. A practical definition would be – how an entity (i.e., business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data. Business managers may be able to take decisions based upon the past experiences or there might be other qualitative aspects to decision making. Without sufficient data, such a process would not be considered “analytical”.

The Future in Analytics

Today, two distinct trends have increased the scope and future of Analytics in India.

1. The changing technology and ability of business and companies to capture and store large amounts of data in a cost efficient fashion. Size of data warehouses has grown exponentially in the last 3-5 yrs.

2. Global recession and increasing competitive pressure to grow a business has drawn more and more corporations towards the use of a more scientific approach to decision making versus using intuition-based approach.

Data Analytics is used widely in the all industries like Banking & Financial Services, FMCGs, the Pharmaceutical Industry, Manufacturing sector and across all areas like market analytics, price analytics, human resource analytics, customer analytics, forecasting, supply chain analytics, competitors’ analytics, etc. With an increasing number of Fortune 500 and FTSE companies off shoring Analytics work to India and Indian businesses gaining global prominence, Analytics is proving to be a crucial part of the outsourcing success story in India.

Careers in Analytics

With increasing opportunities to offshore Analytics to India and to Ahmedabad`, the demand for an Data Analytics talent pool is going to rise steeply in the next couple of years.

As India is positioning itself as a favorite off shoring destination in the world, rising salaries may call for fresh CFA \MBAs \ Engineers from premium institutes to take up a career in Analytics.

You begin your career as a Junior Analyst role right out of undergrad or graduate college and move up the corporate ladder to be a analyst, sr. analyst and head analytics. To be a successful analyst and have a great career you need the following three key attributes:

1. Solid technical ability: Ability to deal with sea (large amount) of data (numeric and non numeric) efficiently so that you are not just writing complex SQL or SAS code but crafting your queries for the most benefit.

2. Analytical mindset: You have always found yourself solving problems logically. Given a business problem you are able to create a set of hypothesis, which you can test out and ensure they work.

3. Communication skills: Once you solve the business problem, you are able to remove the technical jargon and focus on the business problem at hand. Create a business strategy communication with which you can influence a variety of audience and stakeholder group.

Simple? The most fundamental challenge here is that there is no accredited degree program that readies you for all 3 skills. You are usually good at 2 out of the 3 key competencies. Average salaries for Analytics position range from INR 10 lpa – 12 lpa, while experienced business analytics people get a salary of 20 lpa – 40 lpa with growth prospects, rapid rises and opportunity to travel the world.

ADSA (Academy for Decision Sciences Ahmedabad) and Analytics

The Academy for Decision Science Ahmedabad (ADSA) offers a certification course on Data Analytics for three months including:

One month of hands-on work on a real world project
Application oriented training using case studies
Project management skills
Communication skills and basic consulting skills
Core data analytics applications

Top graduates from our program are given close scrutiny by the North Carolina State University’s Institute for Advanced Analyticsfor possible admission to its prestigious and highly competitive Master of Science in Analytics degree.

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