Market and Survey Researchers?

[skylee]

Does anyone have any insight on this field or know experts in this area who could shed some light?

I'd like to know what a day on the job generally consists of, as well as the pros/cons, and what I should be looking into if I plan on heading in this direction.

The nature of work sounds appealing, since I'm looking into business and have a love for traveling, statistics, and the social sciences. Any insider's tips would be appreciated.

[pemberly]

what do you mean by "market and survey researcher"? the people who actually administer the surveys or the people who do the regression analysis and do forecasting and trending?

[skylee]

what do you mean by "market and survey researcher"? the people who actually administer the surveys or the people who do the regression analysis and do forecasting and trending?

Both, I suppose? But more on research analysts.

[pemberly]

when a company wants to do a marketing survey study, they usually outsource that kind of thing. the survey company will hire a bunch of temp workers and recruit ppl at malls and such and give them surveys. you've probably seen those ppl around. it's not really a long term job. the survey company might have one or two permanent analysts that will draw up reports for the company who ordered the surveys, or they might just give them the raw data.

most of the time nowadays, companies would rather do an online survey themselves because it's cheaper and you have better control of the data. large companies might have a data analyst to do reports, but for most companies, it's integrated with other marketing duties.

there's really no travel in this job besides walking from your computer to the bathroom. if you're in a large company, you might travel between your division to present your data, but in most cases, the analyst just hands the data to his/her boss to present or puts it into a powerpoint.

there's some statistics work involved, but mostly it's just trending. i don't know how social science skills will help you, since your best friend will be excel.