Workload of being a system analyst

I am from China, where I got my bachelor degree, which also has unit called "System analysis and design". According to the introductory lecture this week, this unit I am studying in now is very different from that, which only gave students an overview about system analysis and design, actually it's like software design unit, mainly teaching an general approach of software development. In this first week's lecture for system analysis and design, I have an overall understanding of that, system analysis and design is about developing a system which need to take consideration on almost everything in an corporation. Most of all, it's more about solving problems, developing core systems which should be able to support corporations and enhance effectiveness of their operation processes.

The most impressive thing is the various roles an system analyst plays in a corporation. It's not just simply about developing software for some specific persons or departments, but instead should make considerations on operations from low level to high level in a corporation. So, the system analysts who want to do a good job really need to have a good understanding on not only general technical skills but also some business skills, such as understanding how a whole company works, and communication skills as well. Also, system analysts are required to have strong solving problem skills, which allow them to discuss problems business people have and help find solutions in term of technology, at the same time, they also need to solve technical problems. Therefore, there is a very detailed problem solving approach for helping deal with problems, dividing the whole process into several steps, which are reasonable and increase effectiveness of solving problem.

From the tasks a system analyst need to handle, the workload of working in that area seems to be very demanding. As I am already 24 years old, a feeling of building a family becomes increasingly strong, I am still thinking about what kind of job I would take in the future, which allow me to have enough resource to main a lovely family. So, the question I am thinking about this week related to the job of system analyst is that, is it possible to have enough time to maintain a family for system analysts, while they need to deal with so many relationships in that kind of job, making lots of efforts on developing various skills, at the same time, they also have to keep on learning new technologies to keep their technical knowledge up to date? So even it's possible to do these two kinds of thing during an same period of time, it would be, I think, very difficult. Or may be not, while I am going through this unit and learn more about it.