Top 12 Junior Business Analyst Skills to Put on Your Resume

Hiring managers skim. They hunt for proof. As a junior business analyst, your resume should whisper clarity and shout capability. The skills below signal that you can wrangle data, map processes, and move work forward without getting lost in the weeds.

Junior Business Analyst Skills

1. SQL
2. Excel
3. Tableau
4. Power BI
5. Python
6. Jira
7. Salesforce
8. SAP
9. Visio
10. Scrum
11. Agile
12. SharePoint

1. SQL

SQL (Structured Query Language) is how you ask relational databases real questions. Pull data, shape it, stitch tables together, and surface the truth faster than guesswork ever could.

Why It's Important

Analysts live on data. SQL lets you retrieve, clean, and combine it reliably, so your insights aren’t hunches—they’re backed by rows, joins, and results you can explain.

How to Improve SQL Skills

1. Lock down the essentials: SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY, INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, and the spectrum of JOINs.
2. Practice daily on realistic problems. Recreate common business questions—cohort retention, funnel drop-off, monthly revenue—using queries only.
3. Think in sets. Replace loops with set-based logic. Window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, SUM OVER) are your friend.
4. Model relationships on paper first. Understand keys, normalization, and when denormalization helps reporting.
5. Tune queries: read execution plans, index wisely, avoid SELECT *, filter early, and trim subqueries where CTEs or joins are clearer.
6. Branch out across engines. Try PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server nuances so surprises don’t rattle you.
7. Build small portfolio snippets—parameterized queries, views, reusable CTE patterns—to reuse under pressure.

Write. Test. Rethink. You’ll get faster and sharper, one query at a time.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

2. Excel

Excel is the Swiss Army spreadsheet. Quick exploration, tidy reporting, nimble modeling—done right there, in cells you can audit.

Why It's Important

It’s on nearly every desk. When data lands in your lap, Excel gets you from raw to readable before anyone schedules a meeting.

How to Improve Excel Skills

1. Master formulas that do heavy lifting: INDEX/XMATCH, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, FILTER, LET, LAMBDA, and dynamic arrays.
2. Use PivotTables and PivotCharts to summarize at speed. Slice, dice, and drill without breaking a sweat.
3. Build clean visuals. Pick the right chart, reduce noise, and standardize themes so reports feel consistent.
4. Automate. Record macros, learn basic VBA, or use Office Scripts if available. Kill repetitive tasks.
5. Power Query for shaping data. Power Pivot for robust models and DAX measures. Treat workbooks like compact BI.
6. Validate inputs, protect sheets, and document assumptions. Future-you will thank past-you.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

3. Tableau

Tableau turns data into conversation. Fast visuals, interactive dashboards, and storytelling that travels well from analyst to executive.

Why It's Important

Patterns pop. Outliers wave. Decision-makers get clarity in a glance, and you can iterate without rebuilding from scratch.

How to Improve Tableau Skills

1. Get fluent in the basics: dimensions vs. measures, discrete vs. continuous, marks and shelves.
2. Level up calculations: table calcs, level of detail (LOD) expressions, parameters, and actions for interactivity.
3. Design like a pro: minimal ink, clear hierarchy, consistent color, well-labeled filters. Accessibility matters.
4. Model the data right. Star schemas and tidy extracts beat tangled blends. Use relationships wisely.
5. Prototype quickly. Build multiple views, test with users, and trim anything that doesn’t earn its keep.
6. Assemble a portfolio of dashboards: KPI summary, funnel analysis, cohort retention, geographic heatmaps.

How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume

4. Power BI

Power BI stitches sources together and delivers live dashboards. Strong governance, flexible modeling, and deep Microsoft 365 fit. Increasingly part of Microsoft Fabric.

Why It's Important

From Excel to enterprise scale, it carries the analysis forward—clean models, DAX-driven metrics, and shareable reports your stakeholders actually open.

How to Improve Power BI Skills

1. Know the stack: Desktop for development, Service for sharing, dataflows for reuse, gateways for refresh.
2. Own data modeling: star schemas, surrogate keys, proper relationships, calculation groups, and role-based security.
3. Get comfortable with DAX: row vs. filter context, CALCULATE, iterators, time intelligence, and variable-driven measures.
4. Shape data with Power Query (M): robust transformations, parameterized queries, and incremental refresh where needed.
5. Design with purpose: consistent themes, tooltips that teach, bookmarks for guided views, and performance analyzer for speed.
6. Learn the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300) objectives and build projects that map to them.
7. Keep an eye on Fabric features and adopt sensibly—don’t chase shiny; solve real reporting problems.

How to Display Power BI Skills on Your Resume

5. Python

Python is glue and gears. It automates drudgery, crunches data, and unlocks analyses that spreadsheets strain to hold.

Why It's Important

When “quick and dirty” becomes “repeatable and reliable,” you win time back. Python delivers that—clean data pipelines, crisp visuals, and models when needed.

How to Improve Python Skills

1. Nail fundamentals: data types, control flow, functions, packaging, virtual environments.
2. Work with pandas and NumPy until indexing and vectorization feel natural.
3. Visualize with Matplotlib and Seaborn. Clear axes, tight titles, readable color palettes.
4. Automate: file processing, API calls, scheduled jobs. Turn manual steps into scripts.
5. Explore scikit-learn for classic ML, statsmodels for regression and forecasting, and openpyxl for Excel integration.
6. Practice on real business cases: churn analysis, A/B test reads, pricing sensitivity, inventory alerts.
7. Version your work on a repository and write docstrings so collaborators aren’t guessing.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

6. Jira

Jira is where work gets tracked. Epics, stories, bugs, and backlogs—organized, searchable, and visible.

Why It's Important

You’ll bridge stakeholders and delivery. Jira helps you keep scope clean, status honest, and priorities aligned.

How to Improve Jira Skills

1. Tailor dashboards: surface sprint burndown, blocked issues, cycle time, and top priorities at a glance.
2. Learn JQL (Jira Query Language): build saved filters, alert on SLA breaches, slice work by team, label, component, or custom fields.
3. Automate the boring: trigger transitions, assign on intake, auto-comment with templates, and set reminders for stale items.
4. Use boards well: set swimlanes, WIP limits, and clear definitions of done; differentiate team-managed vs. company-managed projects.
5. Tighten workflows: statuses that reflect reality, validators that prevent junk data, and post-functions that keep things moving.
6. Integrate: connect Confluence for specs, Slack/Teams for notifications, and development tools for traceability.
7. Report like a pro: sprint reports, cumulative flow, velocity trends—tell the story behind the charts.

How to Display Jira Skills on Your Resume

7. Salesforce

Salesforce is the CRM nerve center—leads, opportunities, service cases, campaigns, and the automation that ties it all together.

Why It's Important

Sales, service, and marketing run on it. Your analysis can unblock revenue, sharpen forecasting, and clean up processes that leak time.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

1. Start with core administration: objects, fields, page layouts, record types, validation rules, profiles, and permission sets.
2. Prioritize Flow Builder for automation. Migrate or avoid legacy Process Builder and Workflow Rules where possible.
3. Understand sales and service lifecycles end-to-end. Map stages, SLAs, and handoffs before building anything.
4. Strengthen data quality: deduplication, required fields, picklist hygiene, and scheduled audits.
5. Use reports and dashboards that sales leaders will actually watch—trend lines, win rates, pipeline coverage, age buckets.
6. Explore AppExchange solutions thoughtfully—extend when it’s cheaper and cleaner than custom.
7. Consider the Salesforce Administrator certification to validate fundamentals.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

8. SAP

SAP is enterprise core plumbing—financials, procurement, supply chain, production, HR—connected and controlled.

Why It's Important

In large organizations, if you don’t understand how SAP structures data and processes, you’ll draft requirements that don’t land. Get the landscape, then shape the ask.

How to Improve SAP Skills

1. Pick relevant modules and go deep: FI/CO, MM, SD, HCM—learn objects, tables, and key transactions.
2. Follow the process thread: order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, record-to-report. Trace data from origin to analytics.
3. Learn basic ABAP/readability so you can interpret logic and talk to developers without hand-waving.
4. Practice with sandbox systems when possible; build scenarios and test edge cases.
5. Document integrations: IDocs, APIs, batch jobs—know where data moves and why it breaks.
6. Understand controls and security: roles, authorizations, and audit trails matter in regulated environments.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

9. Visio

Visio turns tangled processes into neat diagrams. Flowcharts, swimlanes, architecture maps—communication that sticks.

Why It's Important

A clean visual aligns teams faster than a wall of text. You reduce confusion, uncover gaps, and get sign-off sooner.

How to Improve Visio Skills

1. Use the right template: basic flowchart, cross-functional, BPMN, org charts, data visualizer—pick purposefully.
2. Snap to grid, use guides, and define styles. Consistent spacing and typography signal quality.
3. Build reusable stencils and shape data. Standardize icons for systems, roles, and decisions.
4. Link data from spreadsheets to keep diagrams live and updateable.
5. Annotate sparingly: callouts for rules, colors for status, legends for newcomers.
6. Export cleanly for slides and print—proper resolution, margins, and backgrounds.

How to Display Visio Skills on Your Resume

10. Scrum

Scrum is a lightweight framework for getting things done in increments. Roles clear, goals tight, feedback frequent.

Why It's Important

Requirements evolve. Scrum helps you embrace change without chaos, delivering value in small, inspectable slices.

How to Improve Scrum Skills

1. Know the essentials: roles, events, artifacts, and the purpose behind each. No ceremony for ceremony’s sake.
2. Write crisp user stories and acceptance criteria. Cut ambiguity, front-load edge cases.
3. Refine well: small, testable, estimable. Keep the backlog tidy and prioritized.
4. Facilitate conversations that matter: sprint planning trade-offs, daily focus, reviews with real feedback, retros that drive action.
5. Measure flow: cycle time, throughput, and predictability—use data to improve, not to punish.
6. Protect the team from thrash. Defend WIP limits and negotiate scope intelligently.

How to Display Scrum Skills on Your Resume

11. Agile

Agile is a mindset before it’s a method: collaborate closely, deliver often, listen hard, and adapt fast.

Why It's Important

You’ll balance user needs with delivery realities. Agile practices keep the conversation open and the product moving in the right direction.

How to Improve Agile Skills

1. Live the principles: customer focus, working increments, sustainable pace, and transparency.
2. Communicate relentlessly. Short updates, clear artifacts, fewer surprises.
3. Co-create with stakeholders: demos early, feedback loops tight, priorities revisited often.
4. Visualize work: boards, swimlanes, and explicit policies so status is never a mystery.
5. Retrospect with teeth: define experiments, assign owners, and revisit results.
6. Blend techniques as needed—Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban—based on context, not fashion.

How to Display Agile Skills on Your Resume

12. SharePoint

SharePoint is team knowledge, organized. Document libraries, lists, permissions, pages, and workflows—woven into Microsoft 365.

Why It's Important

Analysts traffic in context. SharePoint stores it, secures it, and makes it discoverable so work doesn’t vanish into inboxes.

How to Improve SharePoint Skills

1. Design for findability: information architecture, metadata, content types, and search tuning.
2. Govern with care: site provisioning, lifecycle policies, permissions hygiene, and content review cadence.
3. Simplify navigation and page layouts. Fewer clicks, clearer labels, faster answers.
4. Automate with Power Automate: approvals, notifications, and data syncs tied to lists and libraries.
5. Integrate: OneDrive for sync, Teams for collaboration, Power BI for embedded analytics.
6. Optimize for mobile and accessibility. Everyone, everywhere, no excuses.
7. Train users and gather feedback. Usage analytics plus interviews uncover friction you can fix.

How to Display SharePoint Skills on Your Resume