Jaime Sainz ⋅ Roseville , CA Hewlett Packard ⋅ 22 years experience

Mr. Day,

I agree with Morgan's comments regarding the MBA. An MBA is great to have but right now you need to focus on getting into a position. I would suggest holding off on the MBA for now. You can always pursue the MBA as part of your professional development later. In fact, some companies will help fund your education.

I also agree with Morgan in that you must have a "tight" resume. Your military experience counts in a big way. Aligning that experience with your target position can be done with the cover letter or in the text of the resume. Getting professional advice on the resume will go a long way.

As far as technical certifications go, they do have value and open doors. Pursuing MS SQL or Oracle certification is a good first step. Here's the link for information on MS certifications. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/sql-certification.aspx.

MS Sharepoint can be used for Business Intelligence so it wouldn't hurt to get some experience with Sharepoint too. There are also several open source BI tools that you might evaluate to get a feel for a given tool set. A quick search on Google or Wikipedia will give you a good list of tools to play with. You might look at some other related certifications or training. Learning some scripting or basic programming will go well with your SQL and BI tool knowledge.

Morgan also has a good point in leveraging your network of professionals. Seek out a mentor in the field you're pursuing. Check out conferences or free training sessions offered by different vendors. They'll put you through a sales pitch but you'll gain some knowledge.

One way to get your foot in the door once you have some basic certifications is to pursue technical contracting agencies like Volt, Spherion, Manpower and the like. They are usually able to fit you into entry level positions that will get you some experience and sometimes lead to full time permanent positions.

Sorry for getting long-winded. I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me directly at jaime.sainz@hp.com if you'd like to chat some more. Thank you for your service.

Best regards,
Jaime

Christopher Ahlberg ⋅ Holtsville , NY Recorded Future, Inc. ⋅ 15 years experience

Matt - glad you asked about business intelligence. I've built multiple business intelligence companies. To me the only really key things is to be able to show demonstrable work of BI. That can be in pure financial analysis, in analyzing sales or CRM data, in analyzing marketing leads, in doing Google website analytics, etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about certificate X or Y - and focus more building a portfolio of analysis you've done. If you did this sort of work while being a Marine, try to describe it (obviously you can't bring along) - and if you've done other work - build out a portfolio of examples! Do this very compellingly and use that to convince employers-to-be.

Thanks for serving!

Morgan Lerette ⋅ Glendale , AZ AAA ⋅ 6 years experience

Matt,

Here is a recent article on getting an MBA. I don't agree with all the points but it definitely hold some merit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323884304578328243334068564.html?

To break into business is to get your resume tightened up. If you want to go into business analysis, you can show how you analytic skills college translated into quantifiable results in the Corps. Use your cover letter to show how your military experience can translate into business analysis.

If you have any friends in business, leverage them. Ask for help on your resume and cover letter and see if they have contacts at HR you can take out for coffee to better understand the hiring process.

Once you get into the correct position, the company may support you getting an MBA. This would allow you to mitigate obtaining additional student loans.

If you want to send me a cover letter and your resume to look over, hit me up: Morgan.Lerette@tufts.edu

Morgan