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Budget Analysis as a Career: Information and Opinion from the
Budget Analyst
"Budgeting is a team
sport." Laszlo Bockh.
Introduction
Budget analysis is fulfilling and interesting.
It can also be the basis for a successful and rewarding
career. I must warn you that I am biased on this
matter. After all, I have spent over 30 years doing
this. (See my bio.)
I enjoyed myself, and I was rewarded.
I would like to help you to have a rewarding and
successful career, and to assist in deciding if budget
analysis has a role in your career. (And I make no
distinctions between budget and program analysis.
To do budget you must know the program, and to do program
you must understand the budget.) There is much help
available on the Internet and other places for making
career decisions and finding work. I have collected
some of the ones I have found to be the best for
me. I hope that these sources will also help you.
The sources of information are useful if you are a
budget analyst and want to further develop in your
career. They are also helpful if you are
investigating budget analysis as a career for your
future. The links are organized by my areas of
inquiry:
I add
materials as time permits and I become aware of relevant
materials. Suggestions for adding materials are
welcome - go to ASK. I also
provide my own opinions to assist you.
First Steps: Find out what is right
for you.
 | Before you go
looking for a job, a career, or make a career
change, make sure that you have fully researched
what you are about to engage in. Many
people waste time looking for the right job or
the right career. But there are efficient
ways to do this. These ways are not easy,
and they involve work, but doing the work is much
better than wasting your time or life on the
wrong thing. I have enjoyed, by and large,
the work that I have done as a budget analyst and
related activities, but this does not mean that
you will get the same enjoyment out of it, or
succeed at it. It may not be for you at
all. You have to assess your own interests
and desires and capabilities, reach your own
conclusions, and make your own decisions:
 | If you are a
college student, go to your career
counseling center. These centers
usually have many sources of help and can
assist you in figuring out what is right
for you. |
| If you have
graduated, check with your college,
especially if you are in the same
geographic area. Many of them
provide assistance to alumni. |
| If you want to
use the Internet, there are also many
sources for assistance in
self-assessment:
 | I would start
with the JobHuntersBible
Web site. This site is
replete with advice and links to
many sources of advice,
self-assessment, and other
help. (It is "designed
as a supplement to ...What
Color Is Your Parachute? A
Practical Manual for Job-Hunters
and Career-Changers," by
Dick Bolles.) |
| Another source,
for more intensive directed work
for a fee, is the Rockport
Institute, which provides
"career counseling,
coaching, life planning and
leading edge career testing
services for people seeking a
career change leading to
increased career satisfaction and
success, as well as for younger
people making an original career
choice." (Nick Lore,
the founder of Rockport, also
authored The Pathfinder.) |
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By using these sources and doing your homework, you should be ready
to make some career decisions.
|
First Steps: Finding a first or new
job.
| I assume that
you are organized and know how to set priorities
for yourself. If you are not, you will have
a problem in doing budget work. Things do
get hectic, and you cannot do it all - you can do
anything, but not everything. You have to
set priorities. Doing so applies very much
to career choices and job choices. If you
need to figure out how to set priorities (yes, it
is essential for everything you do), I recommend
you visit David
Allen. Even if you are the best at
setting priorities and know where you are going a
visit is well worth it. Read David's
thoughts. |
| After you have decided what
career to pursue, or before you change jobs, or
start out on the search for that first one, and
after you are sure of your priorities (or at
least that you need to set them), make sure that
you visit and take a careful look at http://www.asktheheadhunter.com.
The Headhunter tells you many things
directly relevant to today's workplace and
today's careers, as well as what to put on your
resume and how to go about getting the job you
want. The point of view and the information
are invaluable. If you want a new job, or
if you want to reinvigorate your existing job,
visit and study this site. |
| What do budget
analysts do? They establish the
relationships between resources and the
organization's mission and functions. They
do many things in their day to day work (such as
analyze accounting reports, write budget
justifications, research program activities,
attend briefings on programs, and examine budgets
and financial plans), but ultimately the work is
related to the need for and use of resources to
accomplish organizational objectives. |
| The Occupational
Outlook Handbook (currently in the 2004-05
edition)
has a description of
budget
analysis that is a good starting point to
find out what budget analysis involves in a day
to day basis. I recently helped in writing
the description for the next edition. I
made some points that you should keep in mind in
considering budget analysis as a career:
| It is very
important that budget analysts understand
the operations or programs they are
working for or reviewing. There is
nothing worse than a budget or program
analyst who only cares about the
numbers. The financial facts and
figures and the descriptions associated
with them are essential elements of
budget analysis, and are essential for
the proper management of any enterprise,
small or large, public or private.
But the numbers mean nothing without the
context of the work that is carried out
and what is to be accomplished by doing
the work. |
| A good budget
analyst must have an interest in the
programs and operations involved, must
have detailed knowledge about them, and
must fully comprehend why operations are
carried out. (This knowledge is
used to define organizational objectives
and performance measures.) This is
what makes the work interesting and
fulfilling. |
| If all you are
interested in are numbers, budget
analysis is not a career that will make
you happy or one in which you will
succeed. |
| A corollary is
that you could have a career in budget
analysis doing work that is related to
things that you have an interest
in. For example, if you have an
interest in prairie conservation you may
work as a budget analyst for
organizations which deal with prairies,
such as the Nature Conservancy or the
Bureau of Land Management. |
|
| If after you
have reviewed the Occupational Outlook Handbook
description you would like more detailed
information, or different perspectives on the
work, the following may be helpful:
| The National
Association of State Budget Officers, http://www.nasbo.org has
a training
course on the Internet. Reviewing the contents of the
course
should give you a thorough idea of what
you may have to learn or what areas you
may want to specialize in. Look at
MODULE 6: Analytical Methods for Budget
Analysis. |
|
| For a current
view of what is involved in budget work at the
most senior level of the Federal government, read
Federal Agency Budget Officers: Who
Needs Them?, by Herbert G. Persil, in Public
Budgeting and Finance, Winter 1999, v. 18, No. 4,
pages 114-121. (Sorry, this article is not
available on the Internet. Click for the
reference.) For my views on workloads
associated with budget work, read my January 18, 2000
opinion. |
What You Need to
Know as a Budget Analyst
| For an
introduction to what is required to be a budget
analyst, go to:
| The
classification standards for this type of
work that the Federal Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) has published - look for
the GS-0560, Budget Analysis Series
at http://www.opm.gov/fedclass/html/gsseries.htm,
available in various file formats.
You may also want to look at a few other
documents at OPM's site that are related
to budgeting and financial management. |
|
| The sites
listed in the preceding section, on budget
analysis as a career, are also useful in
targeting knowledges and skills needed to be a
budget analyst. |
Leads to Budget
Analysis Jobs
| Go to the References page for links
to organizations that list available jobs or that
list other organizations that may list
jobs. A wide network of budget and budget
analysis sites can be accessed from this
page. I am not aware of any single site that consolidates
all these jobs. You have to visit each site. |
| There is an
opportunity for people with senior experience in
budgeting for overseas assignments. I have
not seen references to these jobs at the other
sites, so I list them here. The U.S.
Department of the Treasury's Office of Technical
Assistance has a program to assist other
countries to develop capabilities in budgeting
and financial management. Treasury
hires people for assignments in these
countries.
Click
to visit the site. People with
extensive budgeting experience may be interested
in the positions for
Budget
Policy and Management Advisors. |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
projects year 2008 employment for budget analysts in all
industries to be 67,300, or an increase of 13.7% over the
59,200 employed in 1998.
Career reading materials - Links to amazon.com for what others say
about these books and purchasing
 |
What Color Is Your Parachute?
2004 A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and
Career-Changers, by Dick Bolles |
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| "Updated and revised annually, 'Parachute'
is essentially two books in one: a practical
manual for job-hunters and a guide for career
changers." |
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The
Pathfinder, how to choose or change
your career for a lifetime of satisfaction and
success, by Nicholas Lore |
| "Through goal
setting, list making, and other techniques, the
book leads readers though the process of deciding
exactly what they want to do for a living and
finding a way to make it happen." |
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Zen
and the Art of Making a Living, a
practical guide to creative career design, by
Laurence G. Boldt |
| "... one of the most innovative,
unconventional, and profoundly practical career
guides since "What Color Is Your
Parachute?" |
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Do
What You Are, discover the perfect
career for you through the secrets of personality
type, by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger |
| Representative comment from readers:
"It helped me to have the courage to get out
of my field and jump into one more suited to my
strengths." |
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