I am a mechanical engineer with an MBA degree in marketing. After completing my education I started working as a sales engineer with NBC bearings (which is one of the renowned company in its field, a part of CK birla group of companies). After this I worked for Bosch and then Tata Motors in sales. So in nut shell I have a very good experience of automotive product sales.I have gathered 7 years of rich experience in fields as sales & marketing, business development, dealer development, channel partner management,warehouse management, inventory management, & man power training.

The work profile was more or less the same in all the three companies I worked with. I am a type of guy who wants to learn newer things and to improve and upgrade himself constantly. No wonder, I started thinking that there was nothing new left for me for learning, improving my talent and further honing my skills in the same field and in the same industry.

For long I had nurtured a dream of working for a software company in such a profile where I can put all my present skills and the experience gained so far to the better use. In order to shape my dreams and to throw myself to a bigger challenge I recently joined one of the renowned IT MNC in India and presently working as a business analyst.

For starters, the responsibility of a business analyst include interacting with client, understanding & analyzing his requirements, provide him consultation for improvements in the business processes, document the requirements, communicate continous inputs to the technical team for the development of the desired solution, verify that the proposed software (solution) is meeting the requirements and to ensure that the final delivery is consistent with the requirements identified and agreed upon.

The basic difference between the two roles (previously sales and now as a BA) is that while the career path was clearly visible in the former, it is obscurred in the latter. I have not till now understand how should I proceed to shape my career in the new direction. While I could see myself as a regional manager in 2-3 years to national manager in another 5 years in automobile industry here (in software) the path seems to be hidden. May be being a new person (Just 3 months) to the software industry I am unable to look beyond and it could be really very early for me to become anxious about the same. May be I should relax and take every day as it unfolds and very soon I will be able to see the clear cut laid down path.

Comments & suggestions welcome