I'm amazed at the high salaries these two earn - particularly Lucinda. The mind boggles.

I know WTF!!!!!

I've heard about Claire, but where did you read/hear Lucinda's salary? I heard she was one of the highest but 100k is a helluva lot for someone who has demonstrated a very narrow skill set.

She probably has good connections. Worth a lot.

Ah, but she's a contract business analyst, like me. And if she charges 400 to 500 a day (which is market rate), she could reach that sort of money if she took more contracts than I do.

It was mentioned by one of the interviewers. My jaw clanged open.

What qualifications do you need to be an business analyst?

Nice hats?

I was shocked by those salaries too.

What do business analysts actually do? I have no idea what that job involves - I'm genuinely interested.

I don't see why it's surprising. Those who work in the corporate / private / banking sector can earn s**tloads compared to us mere paupers. A nurse earns around 20k p.a, some footballers earn 80k a week - that's capitalism for you. Just apply that particular model to other sectors.

i'm not surprised that there are a lot of overpaid inept people running this countries organisations.
I experience incompetance in everyday life and it usually comes from the top down

It was mentioned on the show tonight

I'm only reading DS on the phone, so it takes me ages to type out something even as short as this! I'd be happy to reply properly tomorrow, if you can wait that long.

Claire may be on a high salary but one of the interviewers wasn't impressed with her last year's bonus of 27K - apparently she should have negotiated for her a more substantial one .

Blimey her bonus is more than a lot of people's annual salary!

why are you amazed?

out of thousands of candidates these are the chosen ones and i am no where near surprised out of thousands of people who wanted to be in the apprentice the ones chosen are 'conincidently' the ones who are earning the most

Maybe they are supplementing their "business woman" salaries with "working girl" salaries in the niche area of servicing rich men with beret/fatty fetishes? xx

Business Analyst like project Management is a function that can vary according to the industry, however their main function is to identify ways a business can improve the way it works. i.e. A BA may work on identifying new processes to improve profitability or may be more IT centric in identifying IT requirements for a business and capturing users requirements.

A very short summary of tasks includes

Analysis of the business model
Data flow analysis
Capture and review of users requirements via running and facilitation of workshops
Political skills in managing and identifying solutions to conflicting requirements.
Production of Business requirements documentation and selling solutions to company directors
Work with the rest of the team to ensure the project is being implemented correctly and are delivering the improvements they were intended to fulfill.

In some companies BA's can work in a junior Project
management role with a programme manager .

Normal contract rates for BA's are in the region of £400 - £500 per day. So £100K is actually an average salary.

Couple of examples of the type of work are:
1) Identifying the requirements for a new credit card product
2) Identifying the requirements for a new ERP solution for a business.

Its bigger than the national average wage.........

Money Money MONEY!! hahaha!! Crazy world...

Claire's doesn't make any sense while Lucinda contractually does if you're bringing in people to shake things up.

I think Claire was being completely, well she was making it up.

I was stunned.

I think I shall become a risk analyst once I've completed my Psychology degree.

I got the impression she had exaggerated how much she had increased the business by, rather than her bonus.

Lucinda works in the London banking sector. Her quoted earnings are quite typical of a freelancer in her field.

what does Alex earn then?

£24,000