If you had asked me when I graduated from college 14 or so years ago, I definitely would not have said ‘Oh, I’ll be a Systems Analyst when I grow up. In fact, I didn’t really have a firm sense of what one was until the new CIO suggested that I become one. So. Here I am. I’ve grabbed a handy definition of what a systems analyst actually is, or at least one interpretation that seems to fit, off of monster.com:

“Defines Clients’ problems and translates then into program specifications (problem and objectives) and design solutions. These specifications and solutions are then usually passed to the Computer Programmer. Alternative titles: Business Analyst, Application Analyst, Project Leader, Project Manager, Senior Analyst and Systems Designer.”

The truth is, the shoe sort of fits, I mean, a large part of what I do is meeting with faculty and staff at Bowdoin and try to imagine how to engineer software solutions to solve their issues. Still, it all feels rather strange.