IT Careers: 3 Reasons Why Business Intelligence is the Only Option

Getting that first, all important, foot-hold in the IT industry is the most important thing in the world for a new graduate. And if some time has passed since graduation, despair and disenchantment can easily set in. But there is an option which many do not even think to explore: Business Intelligence. A sub-sector of the IT industry, Business Intelligence is the extraction, summarising and formatting of data for informed business decisions and monitoring. As the title of this article implies, there are three very good reasons why Business Intelligence may be your only route into an IT career. 1. Business Intelligence Is The Only Growing Area In IT I personally started in the BI industry when it was just called "report writing", since then it has boomed. Employment agencies who didn't know what BI was (and some still don't!) now have dedicated departments just to deal with supplying BI consultants. Even during times of hardship, like a recession, all the big companies and corporations turn to BI to aid their survival. And during times of plenty, BI is used to expand and grow. Whatever the economic climate, Business Intelligence is needed. 2. Business Intelligence Needs Less Experience This is not to diminish to the value of Business Intelligence, far from it. Because it is so powerful and can have such a huge impact even a minimum of knowledge goes a long way. The big paying jobs will always go to the best and most experienced specialists, but there is a realistic starting point where minimal experience is not a deal breaker as long as the basic knowledge is there. The more experience the better, as is always the case, but there is a starting point for the beginner in Business Intelligence which is missing from mainstream IT. 3. Business Intelligence Is a New Sector Business Intelligence, in one form or another, has been around ever since computers were first used in business. But somewhere along the way it was forgotten that a computerised system is only as good as the information it can provide. Then, about ten years ago, a very quiet revolution started and companies started to get interested in all the data they had collected since the first IT revolution. This sector has been steadily expanding ever since. At the moment it is just the biggest companies and corporations which use BI, but as you are reading this Business Intelligence is spreading to companies of all sizes as the benefits become clear. As this new sector grows, IT savvy people are needed to fill the void. And because of this rapid growth all the existing Business Intelligence experts are already taken. Summary Business Intelligence is not only the easiest route into the IT industry, it can be the only way in for those with little or no experience.