About me

Dear sir/madam,

I read English and American Literature at The University of Manchester, studied English Language and Literature at A-Level and also have a CELTA certificate qualifying me to teach English as a foreign language so I have an excellent balance of grammatical accuracy and writing flair. For this reason I acted as a proof reader for my previous Business Analysis team, checking and correcting all documents that were to be sent to executives for review and internal publishing. Since graduating I have worked mainly in administration so that I am proficient in all related skills including filing and archiving, data entry and cleansing, typing, organising meetings and diaries, fielding telephone calls, drafting correspondence, setting up basic IT systems, presentations, taking minutes and office management.

My current position as a Sales Operations Assistant requires meticulous database maintenance of one of the world's leading musical instrument manufacturers and distributors: working from the European head office, any updates, changes or amendments to pricing, products or current promotions that are to made visible in the UK and on the continent are administered by my small team of two. During regular busy periods, for example trade shows, prices list updates across all brands or the introduction of new territories and their relevant currencies, large amounts of data need to be produced, entered and checked with the utmost accuracy as they form the basis for any sales that are made throughout the company.

In the six months I have been employed I have gained all the necessary skills to perform my job quickly and efficiently, now with minimal help from my manager, and from the start I was creating my own work in the form of an entire office stock take which had never been done to the extent and level of detail I achieved. This has also lead to me being offered work from other departments such as Product Management, for which I undertook some detailed competitive analysis, and Marketing by whom I was asked to help with the assembly of two recent catalogues.

My move to the Business Analysis Team from within an organisation was due to another colleague not being able to commit to the role; I had no prior experience in the area but was quickly able to become an integral part of a new team that was essential to the growth of the department. Having previously worked in a fairly isolated section my new position required that I gain detailed knowledge of the entire business, in order that processes could be redesigned effectively and with authority, in a short amount of time. As external consultants were involved, tight project plans were agreed where possible in order to minimise cost, meaning I had to process large amounts of information and then use what I was learning to make improvements. There were several occasions in which I worked overtime and took work home in order to ensure a deadline was met, which added to the pressure of learning new technical skills on the job, but did not stop me achieving good results.

As the project was a complete revision of processes I was required to work on several aspects at any time due to the small size of the initial team. This involved remaining in contact with both internal and external colleagues and stakeholders via telephone, email and in meetings and being ready to engage in tasks at short notice, often with tight deadlines. With so much varied work it was essential that I was able to plan my time to ensure my parts of the project were prioritised correctly and delivered on time.

As the team was a new addition to the organisation I was required to source my own work simply because it had never been done before. There was some help in the form a consultant but the team had to identify ways to complete and present the project using only the resources available in-house. Due to the volumes of work undertaken all of the team members would be given tasks to lead on, giving me experience of taking a part of the project from inception to completion.

The central role of a Business Analyst is to solve any problems that are the product of poor procedure whether it be duplicating work, waste of materials, inefficient use of staff time or missing an opportunity to utilize IT. This is a process of collecting all the necessary information about the current methods being used, through research of case studies and interacting with colleagues, and analysing it so that positive suggestions can be made. While the majority of my work was adapting and streamlining existing processes it also was necessary to creatively redesign others from scratch where the originals were obsolete, giving me good experience in both development and formation of ideas.

To support any suggested improvements it was necessary to liaise with other teams to discuss the work they were currently doing. This required setting up meetings between various people at different levels of the organisation with very busy schedules, ensuring that any issues to be discussed were presented clearly and concisely and at the same time monitoring pertinent telephone and email correspondence. In addition I presented findings and work of my own in a professional context, with often sensitive content that had to be displayed in an appropriate manner, and minutes were taken at the end of each meeting to ensure that any points discussed were actioned.

Any findings had to be submitted as a formal analysis report that detailed any effects suggested changes may have had on the operational area using text, statistics, charts and diagrams. This included calculating expenditures, time and movement studies and any changes in staff allocation through the development and implementation of several formulae to achieve accurate and consistent results that would allow executives to make informed decisions. Several versions of each report were drafted as feedback was received from both executives and colleagues to ensure the final product was as complete possible and would provide the best and most concise information.

At the same organisation, and after recent changes in government legislation that would affect it, I was asked to assist the Legal Team with drafting and proofreading new and updating existing legal policy documents. This was an exciting and fresh challenge for me considering that these documents formed the basis of the organisation's work and were for the use of solicitors and laypeople with regards to the service as a whole. The first phase of this assignment was to gain an understanding of all the relevant background policy information through research into documents published previously and case studies and legislation from which challenges and potential updates arose. I compared the new laws to the existing documents held and integrated any material that was now required, liaising with the Legal Team during and at the end of the project to ensure all the directions were correct with regard to both national law and internal protocol. This has given me direct experience of using a set framework of guidelines to produce material that was in line with the body's ethos, something that is essential to maintaining the desired image of an institution.

The majority of my employment and education has involved the use of computers and so I am both very confident working with them and capable of learning new software and techniques quickly. I am proficient in all Microsoft Office applications including Word, Outlook, Visio, Excel and Powerpoint, have direct experience in the use of databases, data entry and data cleansing through previous work experience and type at an accurate 60wpm. I used the internet regularly in a professional context to research Business Analyst case studies and working practices and use it personally to update several web pages.

Thank you in advance for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Kieran A. C. Jones