[maxawaytoolong]

What is a systems analyst? I've never known what that title meant. What do you do all day? This is an honest question. Sometimes I wish I could move back to the Midwest, but there are few (no) job listings for "hackers" in my home city. There are many for "systems analyst."

[confusalyst]

From my experience in the field, an analyst's responsibilities range considerably between companies (as does the title: information/business/systems analyst).

My work is an almost perfect mix between what a business analyst and a systems analyst does, as defined in Wikipedia [1,2].

I spend 50% of my time speaking to people, 50% documenting and modelling requirements and systems. The people I speak to are either internal business strategists or external clients (large corporations). In my discussions with them I need to figure out their needs for new or existing systems and how this will be implemented.

To some this may sound boring, but I find it fascinating: the difficulty and enjoyment of the job increases exponentially with the complexity of the systems involved (perfect when you're in finance).

Anything else, just ask.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analyst [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_analyst

[2mur]

I'm curious also.