System Analyst

• Consult with managers to determine the role of IT systems in an organization
• Research emerging technologies to decide if installing them can increase the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness
• Prepare an analysis of costs and benefits so that management can decide if IT systems and computing infrastructure upgrades are financially worthwhile
• Devise ways to add new functionality to existing computer systems
• Design and implement new systems by choosing and configuring hardware and software
• Oversee the installation and configuration of new systems to customize them for the organization
• Conduct testing to ensure that the systems work as expected
• Train the systems’ end users and write instruction manuals

Most computer systems analysts specialize in computer systems that are specific to the organization they work with. For example, an analyst might work predominantly with financial computer systems or with engineering computer systems. Computer systems analysts help other IT team members understand how computer systems can best serve an organization by working closely with the organization’s business leaders.

Computer systems analysts use a variety of techniques, such as data modeling, to design computer systems. Data modeling allows analysts to view processes and data flows. Analysts conduct indepth tests and analyze information and trends in the data to increase a system’s performance and efficiency.

Analysts calculate requirements for how much memory, storage, and computing power the computer system needs. They prepare flowcharts or other kinds of diagrams for programmers or engineers to use when building the system. Analysts also work with these people to solve problems that arise after the initial system is set up. Most analysts do some programming in the course of their work.

• Technical skills, pertaining to how a computer works physically and how it operates at a hardware and software level
• An understanding of computer systems architecture, operating systems and networking
• Communication skills to be able to explain technical issues to potentially non-technically oriented individuals
• Analytical skills for troubleshooting and improving pre-existing systems
• Creativity
• Ability to improvise
• Perseverance when dealing with problems
• Quick reaction times and availability

• Any company / organization that relies on computer systems (which is the large majority nowadays) will need a systems analyst
• Can work within a company or run your own company and have multiple businesses as clients    
• Freelance work is also an option

• Typically at the start of your career, you’ll have to be on-call at all hours, but eventually you’ll transition into a 9-5 schedule 
• This entails long hours and a lot of reactionary jobs - this is especially true at companies where monetary transactions are based in online stores, so the longer systems are down the more loss said company incurs.
• Apart from reactionary work, lot of time is spent on the backend to prevent failures going forward,which tends to include deep-diving into a given system to gain a more complete understanding of its inner workings

• Push for relocation to get more subsidies and reduce the cost of production
• Company relocation leads to less vibrant economies in some areas compared to others and makes it harder to attract new talent into an industry.
• Toward cloud-based storage, in which one company pays another to use their public storage system rather than investing in their own physical storage databases.

• Enjoyed  learning how a computer, software and the Internet as a whole works, instead of just playing computer games.
• Had a lot of time-consuming hobbies, which tends to mean that an individual has curious ambition and certain skill sets later required to be a system analyst.