Hi ALL,
I am planning to look for a new job. I work on BOXIR2 reporting and Universe design. Currently what are the skillset companies are looking for? apart from BO XIR2 reporting and universe design what are the other technical skills I should have.
If I need to study anything else other than technical skills, please let me know.
Please do the needful.
Karthik LY (BOB member since 2009-02-25)
My five cents on this:
Andreas 
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
Thank you very much Andreas.
You have mentioned about "Integration with SAP BW including troubleshooting & performance tuning against SAP BW data sources ".
Would you like to suggest some book/white papers/links for this.
And how about BO scope in future. I mean how is the demand for BO developers in the market. Will my career be safe.
Karthik LY (BOB member since 2009-02-25)
Depends on where you are.
No. Never.
Damocles 
(BOB member since 2006-10-05)
In addition to Andreas Comments:-
This is bigger than ever, however, in the UK they will not look at you without prior experience, this may be different working in the offshore world, where 5 minutes is, sometimes, all the experience deemed necessary ;).
Basing your career around a tool is not enitirely sensible, although it is what I, personally, specialise in.
However, I have used other tools in the past and it is easier to pick these up, if you have used others…
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
Mak,
Currently I am working in US for one of the Bank. Frankly speaking I have worked on Bo6.5 and XIR2 from past 1.5year. I work on report design, universe design and scheduler part. Apart from this I know oracle and Netezza.
Do I need to specialise in any other technology. Or whatever I know(BO, Oracle,Netezza) is it sufficient?
Do you any good website where I can find interview questions?
Karthik LY (BOB member since 2009-02-25)
Good skills to have, can you develop ETL in Oracle and Netezza as well?
It depends which of these you wish to take further, you could add BOXI server admin, architecture, support, DW analysis and design as well as the above development skills.
To be honest, interview questions on the web will not always help you.
The best interviewers will draw on your past experience and ask your advice on scenarios, rather than “how do you do…”
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
To elucidate, if the current crisis has taught us anything, no one’s job is safe not even in the public sector. There are just degrees of safety. If you want maximum safety learn everything, do everything, specialise but don’t over specialise.
Damocles 
(BOB member since 2006-10-05)
Trying to actually do anything, while you are there, has always been my problem :).
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
There are many new tools came into market and among the one SSRS, the market for this looks green…
looksmee (BOB member since 2006-02-08)
Meh … I’ve done SSRS, it’s alright. It’s more towards the side where developers write reports rather than users, which isn’t always a good thing. It’s okay if your reports aren’t going to change much ongoing, or you have an in house resource who you can train up but they don’t have the impetus to leave.
Damocles (BOB member since 2006-10-05)
SSRS is not new, it’s been there for a while now…
zack 
(BOB member since 2007-08-02)
Don’t forget, Report Builder is used to create adhoc reports though it’s not as robust/popular.
zack (BOB member since 2007-08-02)
My $0.02 worth …
Study is almost a complete waste of time in this arena. There is nearly always someone with the relevant “real world experience”.
I did some online study some years back and got a Post Graduate Diploma in IT & Computing, but do you know how many interviewers in my 4-year contracting career have asked about it? NONE.
Product-specific study is almost the same too … it very rarely contains “real world” examples as every job is different, and hence why so many places are so keen on relevant industry knowledge/experience.
There really is no substitute for experience 
Tips:
Keep a close eye on the “job boards” and get a feel for what skills are being asked for. Only thing is … these are TODAY’S skills … they aren’t necessarily the skills that will be in use in 6 or 12 months time … for that you need to dig out your crystal ball (or BO ball 
)
If you have the luxury of choice of work then choose a position/contract that will give you a chance to pick up some new skills rather than one that will solely rely on your existing knowledge.
If you simply must study then study something generic … read Kimball’s book, or “Data Warehousing for Dummies” … get a good/wide set of background knowledge about as many BI areas as you can.
Andreas’ tip on Project Management is good too.
Failing that, become an undertaker … there will ALWAYS be work for you then 
Regards,
Pete
Peter Hughes (BOB member since 2005-11-21)
From the hiring manager’s point of view, having 1.5 year of experience put you in the entry-level category. You simply have not been on the job long enough.
To add on to what the other posters have already said, in addition to technical skill and tool knowledge, you MUST have business knowledge. For example, you work for a bank, so you must understand what are the KPIs for the banking industry. How do they calculate their financial data? etc etc. Such business knowledge takes years to learn, and YOU CANNOT LEARN THEM BY READING A BOOK. You can only learn them by actually doing it on the job. Nobody can develop a meaningful and useful report without understanding the business first.
So my advice to you is that, while you are enhancing your BI tool skill, you need to acquire the business knowledge as well. The technical skill and the business knowledge go hand-in-hand together and one cannot do without the other.
Hope this helps.
substring 
(BOB member since 2004-01-16)
Another little tip … don’t go advertising the fact that you are “planning” on looking for a new job on a public forum, when you are already “in work” AND your current employer is unaware of your “plans” … otherwise if they become aware then your “planning” becomes more like “rapid development”
Peter Hughes (BOB member since 2005-11-21)
Agreed, there is always so much more to learn :).
Very true… .
The ability to be able to breach the business and technical gap is so important and, to me, what tools like Business Objects are all about.
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
Of course too much business knowledge can be a bad thing if you start to make assumptions on the basis of your own knowledge and then start to go native.
Tread a fine line.
Damocles (BOB member since 2006-10-05)
I agree with this to a point, however, for a corporate warehouse project to be successful you have to make certain assumptions, in the first instance, and may have to be dictorial with regards to the physical design.
The important thing is to get these assumptions validated by the business.
i.e. can the model answer the key business questions, can it be easily extended to answer future needs e.t.c. ?
In the answer to this, a good dimensional model should tick both these boxes.
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
Hence the use of the phrase “Tread a fine line.”
Damocles (BOB member since 2006-10-05)