I found this thread interesting with lots of sharing and caring here with few exceptions of leg pulling. Sheetalb,I do not know much about SAP FICO but I will try to share something about Business Analyst.Please corect me if I am wrong. Business Analyst : If you have a good communication skill and love to inetract with people,go for it.As a BA, you are required to have domain knowledge,if you target Financial Institution,learn about Mortagage and other financial terms.If you want to join Health Sector,be prepared in HIPPA,HSA and others health services related terminology. Business System Analyst: You need to have domain knowledge plus Some System Analysis and Design Stuff e..g Writing effective Use Cases,knowledge of RUP aa knowledge of database,SDLC and about how system works. Programmar Analyst> Person who has progrmming concepts plus System analysis and design Stuff A few company also call System Analyst for Business and System Analyst.If you want to work as consultant,this job can be ideal one coz company needs BA throughout System development life cycle;that means you will have longer contract period.There are a lots of job,work hard,you will certainly gets one.