Application Analyst
Career Area: Information Technology
Occupation Group: Software Development
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Application Analyst earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $83,377
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $81,248
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Analyzes and provides technical support to maintain and improve computer software applications. Analyzes management, customer or user needs, designs applications, writes code, tests design, and documents programs. May assist with upgrades or direct the work of a team of software developers to maintain applications. May provide on-call technical support to application users.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 353 | +29.1% |
| Nationwide | 7072 | +25.6% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Application Analyst is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
- SQL: SQL ( ESS-kew-EL or SEE-kwl, Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS).
- Business Process: A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers.
- Customer Service: Working experience with the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
- Information Systems: An information system (IS) is an organized system for the collection, organization, storage and communication of information.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Application Analyst that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC): The systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life-cycle, is a term used in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering to describe a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system.
- Relational Databases: A relational database is a digital database whose organization is based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970.
- Hardware and Software Configuration: Hardware configuration references the details and system resource settings allotted for a specific device, whereas software configuration management (SCM or S/W CM) is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software.
- Debugging: Debugging is the process of finding and resolving of defects that prevent correct operation of computer software or a system.
- Business Systems Analysis: Systems analysis – the interpretation of business rules and requirements for technical systems (generally within IT)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:
- Clinical Information Systems / Technology:
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 20% |
| 3 to 5 years | 59% |
| 6 to 8 years | 15% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Applications Analyst
- Cloud Application Consultant In
- Application Consultant
- Senior Application Analyst
- Radiology Application Analyst
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