Struggling to Re-enter the BI Industry: Seeking Advice on Next Steps and Certifications

Introduction
Hello Seniors, hope you're all doing great! I am Mohan BN, a graduate of RVCE, Bangalore. I was an academic topper with a CET rank of 29 for Karnataka state. I was also a topper in my college in the ECE branch and secured a dream job offer from Oracle in 2009 during campus placements for 6.3 LPA. I worked at Oracle for 3 years and 1 month before leaving to pursue my dream of entrepreneurship with a few friends. After spending 3 years in the field of entrepreneurship, where I took on various responsibilities and leadership roles in sales, marketing, training, mentoring, event management, and editing, I encountered differences with team members that led to my departure. Consequently, with 3 years of technical industry experience and 3 years of non-technical entrepreneurial experience, I currently find myself without a job.

Current Situation
I have been actively applying for positions by preparing and uploading my resume to various job portals. While I have received calls from some consultants, I have not been able to attend a single interview in the past month. I have sought feedback from my Oracle colleagues, updated my resume to align with the language of the BI industry, and even asked them to recommend me for relevant job opportunities, but I am yet to secure an interview. In the meantime, I have been refreshing my BI and Data Warehousing knowledge and working on a small BI project using open-source tools like Pentaho for a school ecosystem. This project aims to allow the school principal to analyze student performance and teacher evaluations based on a BI model I have developed, showcasing my analytical skills and functional knowledge.

Challenges and Goals
Despite facing challenges, including skepticism from family members about my job prospects, I remain focused on pursuing a career in the BI domain. While I have considered opportunities in call centers for immediate financial stability, my long-term goal is to secure a role in a BI company. I am eager to receive guidance from experienced professionals in this group to navigate this situation.

Questions for Guidance
Q1. What additional steps should I take to re-enter the BI industry promptly?
Q2. Would pursuing certifications such as OBIEE 11g or Big Data benefit my job search?
Q3. What salary expectations should I have for potential employers?

I would greatly appreciate it if senior professionals could share their insights and advice on this matter. I eagerly await your responses.

Thanks in advance,

Mohan BN

Understanding Career Choices and Planning

Don't get upset with the things happening around you. Remember, believing in yourself is the first step to success.

Sometimes we choose the wrong career in life because of pressure from parents, peers, or relatives, or maybe because of more money or other reasons that we don't understand even after working for a decade or more. Hence, one should start career planning from school days. It is often seen that parents make students bound to opt for subjects or specializations as per their (parents') choice, which is not at all appreciable in connection with career growth. Through career or education counseling, the areas of interest and strengths of the student should be identified first. Based on the same, plans for future courses should be made. In this way, not only will the student enjoy pursuing the course, but will also score high, which in turn will reflect in the job or business if he or she joins a job or starts a business related to his or her education. So, you will never get bored if you opt for a job or business related to your areas of interest and strengths; otherwise, after a few years, you may start looking to do something else.

Analyzing Your Career Path

Why am I explaining all this? Because I feel you didn't do any career planning and hence after working with some company, you started a business and are now again looking for a job. As I said above, you need to understand your areas of interest and strengths first.

From your explanation, it is understood that after working with Oracle in the EC domain, you started an event management business, if I am not wrong. Here, these are two different choices. If you think you enjoyed more while doing that business and that business had products and services not related to your academic qualification and last work experience with Oracle, then pursuing ECE and doing a job in Oracle was a wrong choice.

Deciding Your Next Steps

So, if you really like business, then go with it. Take your parents into confidence and take some financial help from them. It is always good to start a business of products and services that you know well or have enough knowledge.

And if you want to go for a job because of current family conditions, then you may opt for a job in the field that interests you more. If technical, then you may face a problem because of a gap of 3 years after Oracle, but if you go with non-technical, something related to your recent role, you may get a call for an interview and may eventually get selected. So, you decide.

For any further clarification, you may write to me on my mail ID. Regards