Systems Analyst Job Description

With a tremendous rise of operations in the IT sector, the relevance of a systems analyst (SA) has risen immensely. According to 2006 figures, there were more than 500,000 systems analysts in the US. Most of them worked for IT and consulting companies. As many as 30,000 of them were self-employed. System analysts are frequent job changers, moving from place to place and working on different assignments. They have also worked in federal departments, financial institutions, universities, and even hospitals. Systems analysts hold a very important position in the hierarchy of a company. They are a vital link between the firm and its clients. If we discuss their nature of work in detail, only then can we get a much clearer picture. So, here we go.

Job Profile

A systems analyst in the IT field, designs solutions for the betterment of productivity and efficiency of the business. The designing work may be either for some external client or for an internal client, which may be some other department in the firm.

A systems analyst does research on any reported problem, plans and proposes a solutions, advocates software and systems (for an IT firm) and coordinates the problem solving process and ensures that the business standards and requirements are met. An analyst is familiar with multiple approaches to solve a problem and will choose the most appropriate one out of them. They are also quite familiar with a host of computer programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms as they often translate client's requests into technical specifications. In this way, systems analysts are a kind of link between IT professionals and vendors.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Interacting extensively with external or internal clients.
• Critically understanding clients' operations and systems.
• Translating requirements of the client into highly technical specifications in brief.
• Determining the potential solutions and testing them for both technical and business compatibility.
• Developing project feasibility reports.
• Convincing and presenting proposals to the client.
• In IT jobs, the analyst works with the software developers and other end users to ensure technical compatibility and user satisfaction.
• Planning a testing schedule for completing the system operations.
• Supervising proper implementation of a new system. This is a vital part of the responsibilities of a senior SA.
• Keeping his knowledge up-to-date with technical sector developments in the industry.

Future Prospects

Many expect the number of systems analysts to grow much faster than average in the next ten years. In these years we may see a change in the system analyst job description but those with proper training and experience have good future prospects. Relevant university degrees in business as well as computer courses should be a plus while trying to find jobs as analysts. New jobs will keep on cropping as more ventures make efficient use of computers and want to ensure their security. Latest Internet and wireless technologies are expected to create jobs.

Pay Scale

For a trainee graduate the average salary in IT and telecommunication industry will be around $25,000 annually. In 2006, the more experienced of these earned between $55,000 and $90,000, with the least paid ones earned less than $45,000. On the other hand some of the best paid earned more than $100,000 annually.

The IT industry is booming once again and there are ample number of career opportunities, especially in the operational as well as management level and data analyst tops the list. In such a scenario, an overview of a systems analyst's job must be clear in your mind.