Life and times of a new researcher

2006-04-12T13:45:00.000Z

Sit up and take notice of research - making the late hours worthwhile!

Market researchers aren’t traditionally renowned for being ones to burn the candle at both ends: we’re not working for McKinsey after all (and our salaries reflect this, ha ha!). Occasionally however, there are times when more hours in the day are definitely welcomed to meet those pressing deadlines.

Most of my work relates to continuous tracking projects in key sectors, and therefore one can know to a good degree what work is required when, regarding data checking, queries, and dispatch to clients. These have got to be done on a monthly and quarterly basis, so a bit of forward planning in Outlook will keep you right in terms of how to schedule work and minimising any likely workload clashes.

Occasionally however, things do get tight. Especially when client presentations are scheduled. In one recent week, I had a client presentation, report checking duties (nothing’s ever simple!), a visit from my main client (who’s responsible for about 65% of my work) for a whole afternoon, and an article to write for the trade press.

Although the reports have their deadlines, the presentation takes slightly more priority, for me at least. So, two and a half days to generate the data needed, then make it look nice and pretty in PowerPoint, with accompanying summaries, commentary, animation (but remember children: less is more. Don’t go overboard on animation, use it wisely), then the simple matter of LEARNING what I’m going to be discussing. Two and a half days to do what normally should be given a week’s allocation. The “Mission Impossible” and “A-Team” theme tunes start stirring up in my head…

Needless to say, a fair bit of Lucozade, Pepsi Max (and for good measure, chocolate Hob Nobs), sees you through into the small hours. Three or so hours’ sleep later, and it ‘s time to get up at some ungodly hour to get to the client’s offices on the south coast for 9am. Let’s hope my old friend Mr Adrenaline helps me through the morning presentation. Rock n’ roll…

Thankfully it does – and the presentation goes down a treat with the client, much better than I’d even expected (I really should stop being so cynical). There’s a nice discussion and interaction with the guys and girls from the client, and whilst there’s always the risk of someone asking you a killer question (to which the standard operating procedure of “That’s a good question, let me go back and check, and I’ll get back to you on it”, normally suffices), there’s nothing worse than NO response. I’d rather dodge rotten tomatoes and be subjected to mild heckling than being subjected to silence.

Sometimes I also present in conjunction with other departments. Clients like this as they enjoy an all-round appreciation of “who’s, how’s, and why’s” as well as simply the “what’s and how many’s”. It’s also good for myself and my counterpart in the other department, as we can help each other out and add our opinions to the discussion. Oh, and also offer some additional firepower if we get into a tight spot ! We’re looking to increase the number of ‘joint manoeuvres’ undertaken for client presentations, as it’s more fun, and more engaging and informative for the client.

The presentations are one of the most enjoyable parts to my research work: few things are quite as nice as seeing clients really sit up and take notice of some of the findings and react, “Wow, that’s REALLY interesting, I never knew that at all”. It’s even better when the presentation has officially finished and some nice informal words of praise come your way as laptops and projectors are being packed away.

An unexpected surprise reaches my inbox the following day: one of the chief analysts in yesterday’s presentation has kindly taken the trouble to write to us, thanking us for our time, and praising our presenting and the slides themselves. Needless to say those kinds of emails really give you a lift.
And almost make the pressure and effort beforehand seem worthwhile…

2006-04-05T18:41:00.000Z

Research to shape our world

Shaping up

The day dawns with an opportunity. As a Senior Research Exec, I have more chance to respond to briefs and represent my company to the wider world. It’s a part of the job that would have been stressful a couple of years ago, but now one that I relish. The brief is not unusual – what do customers think of a service, how do competitors compare, etc. The challenge is how my proposed research project will be better than those of my competitors. The many players in the research industry keep us on our toes and drive us to better, more valuable answers for more and more clients.

Learning from the best

Luckily, I have the support of a great team. Research attracts a huge variety of original thinkers and driven people. I love the fact that I’m always learning from these great people – and more and more, passing on knowledge to others.

Expanding the knowledge horizon

Three years ago, when I joined the industry, I was excited by the idea that a business could gain so much – succeed or fail in fact – purely through information. Working in research for professional services firms now, I still enjoy solving the problems and helping businesses work better. As researchers, we’re shaping the path our country takes by giving it good information to make good decisions. As individuals, we’re investigators. We can be thought leaders, we can expand the world’s knowledge. As an academic, I enjoyed research, but it became vital to me that the research I did was applied, useful, making a difference NOW! Research has been the perfect job for me.

A world of work ahead of us

And it’s a growing field – now only in scale, but more excitingly, in diversity! My ambition is to help roll out research to small businesses. In future, there will be a research solution for all shapes and sizes of organisation. Technology will help to being prices down, and the more we learn, the more efficiently we can provide a service for every need. Information will become central to more and more industries.

Value our talent – or lose it

My day in research often finishes late – like many I find in this industry, I care about giving a good service to my clients, and we’re often stretched. I am disappointed that we lose good people because we undervalue them. We need to focus on getting the best people and giving them attractive, exciting roles, into which they can grow.

2006-04-04T13:55:00.000Z

Opportunities are open to junior researchers

Monday - an opportunity
My week begins sleepily on Monday morning, making a To-Do List for my week. Coffee helps prepare me for a meeting with my CEO at 11am. He has asked me if I'd like to do a piece at the MRS conference with him — an exciting, if slightly intimidating opportunity!

The rest of the day is busily occupied getting reports ready for clients of our Survey of MPs. Around 20 clients from both public and private sector buy some questions on this study, and we put them together into an hour long interview. Clients judge us on how fast we can get results to them — and with 20 or so reports to write, meeting deadlines can be quite a challenge! Several REs and Trainees work to get them all done on time, while my job, as the study manager, is to make sure they are done correctly, thoroughly checked (everything sent out by us is checked at least twice!) and that none of the team is having difficulties.

Tuesday - broadening horizons
On Tuesday I get a couple of breaks from working at my computer. First of all I get training in Qualitative Projects. To use market research slang, I'm not a "quallie", and haven't done much qualitative research. At my level, it's good to get as broad a range of experience as possible — you never know when a client is going to ask!

Following that, a lunchtime talk about research that we've done into trends in society, such as our increased fearfulness, and increased cynicism is fascinating — not only do we hear what projects our colleagues have been working on, but on an individual level, the findings are intriguing. Who would've thought that half the general public think going to strip clubs is acceptable? Must be the male half!

My evening is spent at an R-Net meeting. In my spare time I help run R-Net, an MRS network for young researchers from all companies. A senior director here is doing a talk for R-Net in September, so I'm busy preparing for that.

Wednesday - look back and learn
My work on Wednesday is a perfect example of how my company is so keen on learning from the past and planning for the future. A senior interviewer comes into the office to talk through how the MPs Survey fieldwork went. The survey was challenging — MPs are very difficult people to get hold of! However, the review was mostly positive; good communication helped us overcome most challenges.

Later I have a "catch-up" with my line manager. We don't always work together, so she finds out what my workload is like and checks if I'm having any problems. I ask her advice with writing a tactful email — something I often find difficult! As the MPs Survey finishes, we're on the lookout for new jobs in which I could get involved. I'm interested in jobs that I can manage myself — this is where I want to develop my skills — and I'd like to do a multi-country project. Luckily, we've done proposals that fit the bill — we just need to wait and see if we win the job!

Thursday - team solidarity
The seven people in my team get together for a team meeting on Thursday. This not only gives us a change to eat cakes, but to celebrate our recent successes — we held a seminar last week which was well received by guests. We follow it up with a team dinner in the evening at the friendly Bankside Restaurant.

Friday - frantic finish!
Friday at last! The one day I never work late, so it's a manic rush to read and categorise MPs' verbatim responses, ask data-processing for extra analysis on a financial sector client's data, arrange a presentation date with a government agency, complete timesheets and a team schedule for the coming week, archive a bunch of transcripts that are cluttering up my desk and book a report-writers briefing for Monday morning — all in time to catch up with my friends at the local pub when 5.30 comes!

2006-04-03T10:55:00.000Z

Who said market researchers don't have a sense of humour?

31.10.2005 – Power Failure on the M25
Focus Group Conducted with local Residents in a South London Borough.

Its 08:45 and I’m travelling anti-clockwise around the M25. Its Monday, it raining and the roads are congested. My radio stops, then my indicators stop and finally my windscreen whippers stop. I have not alternative but to coast onto the hard shoulder. The good news is my focus group doesn’t start until 18:30 in the evening, the bad news is my car has suffered a total power failure and I’m about to be taken to Basildon – an hours drive from where I need to be.

I’m told my car will probably be ready tommorrow, I reply that I need it fixed by 16:00. I’m told my car will be looked at 12:00, by 14:00 I’m informed my car will be looked at in 20 minutes.

For anyone out there who doubts the existence of God, he made an appearance at 15:30 in Basildon. Car started, wiring fixed, battery charged. Arrived at venue with an hour and a half to spare. Easy!

19.01.2006 – What Happens When it all Kicks-off!
‘Mini’ Focus Groups Conducted with Young People in a deprived area of Central London.

A community based training provider is supporting our research into the experiences of young people who are about to embark upon an apprenticeship. To-date the team have proved invaluable, full of helpful enthusiasm.

Arrive on site in goodtime to begin first scheduled group. Research subjects, recruited by the training provider, are ushered into the room where the group is to take place.

“If you need me I’ll be in the front office. And, oh yes, if it all kicks off you may have to turn your recorder of until I’ve calmed everything down. Is that ok?”

We were definitely in the right place!

10.2.06 - Three Day Ache
Pupil Project on a new housing Development in Hampshire

It is now a full three days after I completed a random walk around the 1554 homes on the housing development we visited for our latest Pupil project. New housing development must look very pretty from a helicopter, but for those of us who are forced to count every single house on the ground, the ridiculous number of cul-de-sacs makes them totally impractical. If random walks were an Olympic sport then I must be in with a chance of getting a medal. 1554 houses, every one counted and every 31st visited, all in 8 hours. My legs ached at the time, but three days later the pain has now spread to my back. I’m be fit again for 2012.

15.2.06 – MRS Tower in field of Professional Development
Intensive Professional Development Scheme Workshop at MRS HQ in London

Although a few minutes late, I still managed to arrive in time for the introductory session of the MRS IPD Scheme workshop. The MRS are excellent at research, not so good at maps, particularly scaling. After introducing myself I was required to take part in a team building exercise, involving the construction of a tower from a box of K’Nex. The road to full membership has begun!

2006-03-29T13:21:00.000Z

Piecing together the jigsaw - the answer is research

Starting out in journalism

I graduated in 2003 with a degree in English Literature from York University and I wanted to be a journalist. I wrote some freelance articles for newspapers and sent features into magazines but it was always researching the articles and finding the stats to create the headlines that I really enjoyed. I managed the Student Times Annual Survey in 2004 and created a panel of students who answered my survey. As the Annual Survey reports were published I started working in the evenings at a social research company in their in-house call centre and I realised that this was a great opportunity to work with people who design surveys, consult and write reports. I started working as a Research Executive in community involvement in May 2005. Many of my team's clients are local authorities. We also conduct evaluations of New Deal for Communities projects, customer satisfaction work and budget consultation.

Daily goals
I get to work for 9.00am. I used to turn up at 8.30 but I decided to start later so I could go to the gym before hand, although I think I've only managed to do that once. The first thing I do is check my emails and make a cup of tea for myself and our administrator. I love the mornings because everyone is really buzzing and at least one person will have a good story about the previous evening; most of us have running sagas. Then it's down to work - I try to divide my day so that I've got some goals to achieve before 12.

At the moment I am assisting our Senior Research Executive in a panel survey for a local council. This is taking quite a lot of work because the survey 'theme' is really challenging; we are trying to ask respondents to think about choices they might make in the future and it is important that we get the wording just right. I really like panels. There is something very therapeutic about them, they all have a very similar structure in terms of designing the survey, a big mail out, inputting etc. but each one has its own challenges and subject area. Also, because panels are generally managed over a long period, a year or more, you can really build rapport with the client.

An unpredictable job satisfaction
The things I most enjoy about my job are the people I work with (really, they are lovely) and the way every day is totally unpredictable. As an executive I work on several different projects at once. My diary usually has the amendments for one report, writing conclusions for another, liaising with a client over survey questions and analysing the data for something else. It's not so great when clients don't come back to you when they say they will - being one day behind schedule can upset the whole process which takes time to put straight as there are so many elements involved in the research process. I don't like having to chase people because I know we are all busy. I am lucky, my team are very supportive. We all help each other out in stressful times. Our Head of Team holds a meeting every Friday and we discuss our workload for the following week which is a great way to make sure we have the right amount of work and makes for a relaxing weekend!

Loads to learn

My team don't tend to socialise much outside of work. I think this is because many of us live outside of York. I have been trying to organise a bingo night for ages but there is never a time when anyone can make it (I think it might more to do with the fact that it is bingo!). Even though we only really see each other in work, I think of them as some of my best friends. They know more about my life than lots of people outside of work. We are all very different I think. They have taught me not to be so anxious about my work, that it's ok be assertive, that sometimes other people know better than I do. The things I learn in work in the day definitely impact on my life outside of work. I am much more organised that I ever been in my life - the manifestation of trying to organise my work into 40 hours a week and some vigorous time management training. The training here is both formal and on the job. The formal training tackles wider issues like stress and you can request further training in almost anything.

Whenever I tell people about my job I always say that I love it:

"So, what do you do?"

"I work for a social research company. You know when the newspaper says something like '35% of women in York do so and so' well, that statistic will have come from a company like mine. It's basically a great way to be really nosey and find out what people think about different issues and then write about it in a report. I really love it."

And they usually say, "You are lucky, I wish I loved my job".

At the end of a working day I always feel like I have achieved something. I think that is because my knowledge of social policy is my weakest point in this role and every day we receive a publication or some information from a client about something they are trying to implement or a policy that is changing.

Skills to carry you forward
I really want to gain enough experience to apply for a Senior Exec position. I think in 5 years I would still like to be doing social research in some capacity but my life has taken so many turns that I really don't know. My advice to anyone who wants to work for a company like mine would be send in a CV that details all their relevant experience, regardless of whether there is a position going or not. I used to interview students on topical issues and make half hour radio shows for my University, my weekend job was demonstrating new products in shops to consumers, freelance articles involved analysing what the public told me; I never pieced the jigsaw together but my employers did. They told me how I could use my strengths; the main thing they were looking for was a willingness to learn and the capacity to be taught. Researchers are accomplished at finding the 'story' amongst their research results - if you can demonstrate this skill I think that will carry you a long way.

2006-03-28T12:09:00.000Z

Life as an interviewer - expectations and rewards

I have been working as an interviewer for the past five months now and the job has fulfilled all my expectations.

As a postgraduate university student the job has been ideal, it has allowed me flexibility, it has increased my understanding of research processes and it has given me the opportunity to work for a very prestigious organization that is directly related to my particular areas of study.

One of the most interesting and indeed rewarding aspects of the job is going out and meeting such a diverse range of people and providing them with the opportunity to express their views. Whilst one is initially a little apprehensive about approaching people and asking if they would like to participate in the research, this apprehension immediately evaporates when you receive such a warm response from members of the public who really cannot wait to get their opinions aired.

Overall the one aspect of the job that excites me the most and really inspires me is knowing that the work I am doing is purposeful and that it serves a very important function in helping ordinary members of the public to get their voices heard.

2006-03-27T07:19:00.000Z

Retail research reaches the front line

A bit about me: I'm a research manager for a large high street retailer. I
joined just a few months ago and am part of quite a big insight and
planning team, alongside other teams looking at market & competitor
intelligence, sales data and all that sort of insight stuff.

I'm new to my company, and yesterday had an induction workshop. But first
I had to get into the office early to check on my emails as I'd been off
sick the day before and needed to pass on a few messages to agencies about
dates for debriefs and approval for questionnaires, and check there'd been
no urgent queries from my internal customers. I'm juggling quite a few
projects on my own as we all look after our own set of internal customers,
so I need to keep on top of things and no one is looking after my projects
if I'm not there.

The induction workshop then lasted all day, and while it could have been a
bit cheesy it was actually really good fun. There were three store
managers on the course as well as three of us from head office, and it's
really interesting hearing how things really are in the stores. Lots of
the messages in the induction were about putting customers at the heart of
what we do, and quoted research findings, which as a researcher is of
course really encouraging to hear. I'm pleased that in this company,
research is not just something used by small teams in head office to make
tactical decisions, but is told to people all across the business to help
guide what they are doing.

I swapped contact details with the store managers at the end of the day.
Each member of the research team "adopts" a store, visiting it three or
four times a year to understand what's really happening at the front line,
so I might follow up with one of those store managers. I also hope they'll
feed back to us on what their colleagues and customers think of some of the
new products or processes being introduced.

And though I thought the induction would be cheesy, I actually came away
from the session quite motivated and excited about the attitude of this
place. But their PowerPoint slides were a bit rubbish.

2006-03-24T10:25:00.000Z

MR not reaching radar of talented grads

Growing into research
I joined the market research industry by a fairly indirect route – after graduating with a business degree specialising in marketing, I worked for a small management consultancy company for 2.5 years. A large part of my job was customer research and I eventually decided that I wanted to further my career my moving into the broader area or market research. I joined a small full service agency as a Research Executive about a year ago.

The day starts at 9am and the first thing I do is make a cup of tea then check my e-mail and plan the day ahead. On Monday mornings, we have a meeting with our team to discuss workloads for the coming week.

Being close to the end of the financial year, the office is really busy just now as many of our key clients are rushing to use up this year’s research budget! For me, this means lots of variety – I’m working on about ten projects at the moment. They’re a variety of quant and qual and take in a whole array of different subjects from financial services to branding to social research, so it’s really interesting and I’m learning a lot in a short space of time. I’m also managing one of the projects with minimal support from my line manager. I enjoy having a bit of extra responsibility; it lets me see how much I’ve progressed since this time last year when I first joined the agency.

Developing qual and other skills
One of the big qual projects I’m involved in is testing the profiles of target market segments for one of our public sector clients. It’s fascinating work and a great opportunity for me to practise my moderating skills too – I recently attended the MRS course (which is really worthwhile, if anyone’s thinking about it) and have now been sent out to go and moderate a couple of groups on my own!

A major part of my job is project and client management – coming from a consultancy background this is an area where my skills were already quite well developed. Working for a small agency means that I get to meet all of the clients I work for and I also get involved in making presentations at the end of projects. For example, I recently presented to a major newspaper group on the success of one of their supplements. The research findings were of major strategic importance so the presentation was attended by lots of senior people – it’s very satisfying to see the impact of the work that we do on our clients’ businesses.

Small agencies best
I really enjoy working in a small agency environment. In general the company is really open and, because it is fairly small, everyone gets involved in any initiatives going on. For example, I recently took on the task of investigating new ways for the company to market itself to potential clients. Another thing I really like about the company is that it has a culture that’s very open and it’s really positive to see a management team take a genuine interest in the wellbeing of their staff.

Nothing is done to attract quality graduates
The one thing I would change about the MR industry is the fact that nothing is really done to attract quality graduates in straight from university. I graduated with a marketing degree from a major Scottish university (OK, I’ll blow my own trumpet a bit and confess it’s one of the biggest marketing schools in Europe), but the whole time I was there I didn’t hear of a single presentation to graduates encouraging them into MR. That’s a great shame because the industry can be very rewarding in terms of offering a varied and interesting job. I can think of dozens of talented graduates in my year who are desperate to stay in Scotland, but just can’t find the opportunities. Yet my Managing Director is constantly seeking quality research people in Scotland because they’re so thin on the ground – surely there must be a way of redressing the balance for years to come? Clearly, the future of the industry relies on its ability to attract new graduates and retain them as their skills and experience develop.

2006-03-23T10:04:00.000Z

Clients expect the impossible, but I enjoy it anyway!

I really enjoy working in an agency, we have a mix of public and private sector clients and both ongoing and adhoc projects. It makes every day different, which I think is the best thing about market research.

A normal day starts at 9.30, a very civilised time, which also lets me avoid the traffic. I generally get away before 6, but there have of course been some very late nights when deadlines have been tight or projects have run late.

No chance for boredom

There’s always something to do, and even if at the beginning of the week you think it might be a quiet one, something will come up. There’s definitely never a chance for boredom.

The range of work also helps, juggling 6 or 8 projects at once keeps you on your toes and very quickly makes you develop your project and time management skills. Today for example, I had a questionnaire that needed to go out to interviewers by lunchtime, some changes to tables that I had run, and a request for extra analysis – and all before 11am!

My afternoon will hopefully be spent writing a report about some mystery shopping that has been conducted. I enjoy the analysis stage of projects, except when it needs to be rushed because a client wants it yesterday.

Clients tend to cause most of the problems with my job: being slow at sending feedback, pushing deadlines and expecting more than is humanly possible, but I suppose that’s what we’re here to do.

Decisions, decisions!

The constant mix of projects has made it easy to pick up a range of skills and understandings about most methodologies. It has also given me insights into a range of different topic areas, and very quickly, even during my first year in research, I have been able to decide what I think I like and what areas I really don’t want to work in.

2006-03-22T12:04:00.000Z

Research for developing skills between school and uni

I got into market research in my gap year between school and university. I was looking around for some form of work, and one of the members of a choir I sang in said that she was an interviewer, and that I should try her company for work. In this way, I began to work for the Field a department, which deals directly with the interviewers and their work.

High profile jobs
My day began officially at 0930, although I regularly started up to half an hour earlier. My duties within the day varied depending on which jobs were at different stages of the cycle. Sometimes I would work with the despatch department, sending out interviewer packs with the work and guidelines. Others I would be accepting in work that the interviewers had returned to the office. Later on in my time with the company, I even had the privilege to work on one of their higher profile jobs, where the company interviewed MPs. During this period, I even ventured out to the House of Commons on a couple of occasions with work and assistance for the interviewers.

Projects spanned different lengths of time, depending on the nature of the work. The MPs job would last a couple of months, whereas more long-term jobs lasted many years, and therefore my entire time with the company. All of these jobs held different kinds of interest. The MPs job was more personal, and I found myself getting much more involved in it than many others, as the number of interviewers was limited, and I spent quite a long time on the phone to them. Other jobs wouldn’t involve so much attention to the individual and more generalised concentration to work through the complicated array of details within the structure of the job. All types of job I found to be equally rewarding.

People power
I think that the most rewarding part of the job was working with the people. Over the time I was there, I worked with many interviewers, the Field department and several executives around the office, and I made many friends among those. It was the interaction and the camaraderie of the job that I found to be the most appealing area of the work. The Field team regularly went out for lunches or the odd drink after work, to celebrate birthdays and arrivals and departures of members. This further sealed the bond of friendship within the group.

A learning experience
As well as being good for morale and general good humour, this friendship was also a very effective learning or teaching tool. I learnt a lot by observing what others did, and asking a lot of questions. When I first started, I was taught a few of the key skills I would need throughout my time with the company, but much of what I learnt was taught quickly and efficiently when I needed to know it. This made the job easier, as I was not expected to learn everything in the matter of a couple of days or a week. Also, I was not only taught things that would help me solely within the company. I came out of that job a more rounded person, both in work-related skills and with a plethora of experience in a wide selection of personal fields.

Friendly and fascinating
Since that time, I have never spoken unfavourably to anyone of my time with that company. Everything about it was a positive experience. I learnt many invaluable lessons and had a great time. I would recommend to anyone with a desire to learn and further themselves that it is a good company to work for. My advice would be to come to the company with an open mind, ready to learn anything that is put before them, and they will definitely come out with knowledge and experience that they did not have before their time with the company. As it was my personal experience, I would recommend it also to those that are looking for a first job, especially in a gap year, as it is a friendly and fascinating way to enter the world of employment and opportunity, and it teaches much that is beneficial later on in life.

2006-03-20T10:52:00.000Z

Variety and challenges for a Senior Research Exec

I am currently working as a SRE for a global full service market research agency. I have been in market research for almost 4 years now, always working on continuous international customer satisfaction surveys within one industry.
I work in a team of 7 executives. Each one of us is responsible for various markets on our international project.

Starting the day
When I get into the office in the morning I first of all have a quick look at my emails – especially the ones from clients – to check if there is anything that needs my immediate attention. If so, I deal with it straight away. Otherwise I start doing the necessary daily quality checks on the project. Since the reporting of the project I work on is web-based, the site needs to be checked briefly first thing in the morning to make sure that our clients can access it and that the online reports are all showing the correct information. After that I go back to my emails and respond to clients, suppliers and colleagues. If they have any problems, I liaise with the relevant people within our company to find a solution. If the problem is of a technical nature and related to the reporting web site, I need to liaise with our IT team.

Apart from handling client requests and market responsibilities, there are usually smaller projects within the framework of the study that require my attention.
For example last year one of my clients wanted to change the wording on the scales of their questionnaires. I started off doing some desk research to see whether there was any literature available on this subject. I then liaised with the department responsible for printing and mailing questionnaires and the data processing department to get costs for carrying out a pilot with the new questionnaire. I wrote the proposal detailing the way we would administer the sampling and mailing for the pilot and sent this off to the client. After they had agreed to the proposal I briefed all internal departments involved in the project on what needed to be done. We then set up a test questionnaire with the new wordings, mailed this to a selected number of customers and after receiving back the amount of questionnaires required for the analysis, the data processing department produced the data tables. I used these as the basis for my report to the client which also included a recommendation on whether or not to change the scale.

Tough tasks
A much bigger task is the set up of a new market to the project. This not only involves liaising with a number of internal departments and regular update meetings over a period of several months, but also various client meetings and telephone conferences in which the necessary actions and timings are discussed. If the new market uses telephone methodology and a local agency in the market carries out the interviews, then this agency has to be briefed. It is also necessary to give a training on the reporting web site to the client and dealer representatives.

Dealing with my clients, talking to them on the phone and in person as well as solving their problems are some of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of my job. However, there is also a more tedious site to my role. The daily quality checks, the checking of the sample and testing of new developments to the reporting web site can take up quite a lot of time and these can be fairly boring tasks.

Team support is a key benefit
Apart from these I really enjoy my job. Especially since the people in my team are fun to work with. We have people from different countries and with different cultural backgrounds in the team. This often results in interesting discussions and also in a lot of jokes about each others little eccentricities. We also make time to go out for drinks or for team dinners after work. Since people in the team have different job related backgrounds and different areas of expertise, we learn a lot from each other. If you do not know the answer to a problem, you just need to ask around and someone else is bound to know it.

Apart from the usual training on the job, our company offers training courses which are organised by an internal training department. This means that I can book on a variety of courses that help me to get a better understanding of market research in general and to tackle specific problems I might come across when e.g. analysing data.

Research rewards
I think market research is a very versatile job and it is very well suited for people who are curious, who like to think outside the box and who like to communicate with others. It requires good analytical and problem solving skills and you should be confident in presenting findings to clients. To be a good market researcher you will also be required to understand how and for what purpose your clients use market research findings and you should be able to translate client requirements into suitable market research solutions.

2006-03-17T10:31:00.000Z

Research at the cutting edge of technology

I joined my company a year and a half ago, after graduating from university. I worked in the phone unit for just under a year when I was given the opportunity to do some depth interviewing and desk research. It was a new side to research which you don’t usually see when you are part of the interviewing team, and I noticed just how much you can learn in this job - I think the fact that the company I work for only deals with business to business research plays a big part, but every job I work on I learn about different economies in far-off countries, or lists of previously unpronounceable chemical names and how they react with each other, and everything in between.

After completing some depth interviews and desk research, I ended up helping put the final presentation together and then being asked to join the company full-time as a research executive. A few months later, after working on a few jobs in my new role, I was asked to help with the online side of the business, specifically with setting up and running online panels. Obviously, with online research becoming so widely used, it was something that I was more than happy to do.

I usually start my day by checking my emails and importing into our system all the new panellists that were recruited the previous day. As with most people, every day is different depending on what jobs are going on and at what stage they are at. Some days might be spent juggling between writing a proposal and putting the finishing touches to a final presentation (as it happens, I am doing just that today), whereas other might be spent moderating online focus groups (which basically entails posting questions to the groups, then moderating and responding to any other comments that are posted).

The company blog
At about 9:30 I start working on the day’s entry for the company blog. Every day I look through various sources to see if I can find any juicy news that is relevant to our industry. Once I have found something I write a short piece about it and post it on the blog. Some days there isn’t a great deal of interesting news to write about, in which case, I look for a white paper or video/sound clip to give the blog a bit of variety

Round about 10:30 I go over to our other offices and see how the interviewers are doing who are recruiting for our online panel. Whilst over there I speak to our operations manager and see if there is anyone who needs any help with one of the other jobs that I am working on.

One back at my desk, I usually do some more work on the online panels, whether it is exporting the data from a recently finished survey, or sending reminder emails for an esurvey. Once a week I do a check on the panel demographic (the panel is of SMEs in the UK) to see if it matches up with the national demographic (from the DTI); if there are any areas that are falling short or going over, we adjust the quotas on the CATI system.

The afternoon is usually more of the same, but with the occasional teleconference to clients in the US depending on what jobs are going on at the time. There is always a good variety of work to be getting on with, which tends to make the days enjoyable even if time is against you.

2006-03-16T10:51:00.000Z

Research buzz in Turkey

I studied Sociology at the University, dreaming of becoming an academic-writer. I was very enthusiastic about analyzing societies, brainstorming and diagnosing the problems within the societies. I wanted to undertake an internship during my first summer holiday at the university and I was advised that working in the Market research industry would be a good environment where I could put the theory that I had been learning into practice. Eventually I worked for one of the major global market research agencies and enjoyed it very much. This is when I became interested in market research.

Since then over the next five years, I got to gain experience as an intern in both Quantitative and Qualitative sides of market research. I experienced working in retail audit and ad-hoc as well as field-work doing CATI and mystery shopping. I also worked for a youth centre at the weekends in Istanbul, which involved establishing a Project Research Group. I thought it was a good opportunity for me to prove myself, my skills and how succesful I could be in this industry. I shared my knowledge with everyone in my group, then we conducted a research project concerning the centre itself for a year. Shortly, the more experience I gained in this sector the more enthusıastic I became.

Why research?
First of all I think working in the market research industry as continual education where there is no end to the learning process. Because your job is to assist the client companies in a wide range of sectors, providing business consultancy which requires and enables one to keep her/himself constantly up-to-date and knowledgeable. By doing that you also get to know a wide range of people from a wide range of areas. I think there is no need to mention about the importance of networking in today's business environment.

Secondly, the reason why market research particularly appeals to me is that the work you do is constantly changing with the environment. As far as I am concerned te work is never the same therefore it introduces new challenges to you.

Finally, I always believe that there is nothing that can not be achieved with team-working. Market research is one of the areas where team-working is mostly used and is very important. I like the way the work is done in some kind of harmony. It is amazing how easily things get done with co-operation.

I now see the benefits of having set my career plans fıve years in advance, which led me to do my master's degree in marketing and management as well as undertaking relevant internships. After completing my course in England I am back to my home country, Turkey, and having a lot of job offers where there is a very competitive environment due to the high unemployment rate.

One of the things I have observed about the industry in Turkey is that even though marketing research is new compared to its state in Europe, it is beig done very professionally and people are fascinated by it, including myself. In the next five years I see myself having a good position within a market research company and an active role within the Market Research Asociation in Turkey. I am planning to expand my knowledge and experience about marketing and marketing research in my first years as much as possible so that I could set up my marketing consultancy firm within the next 15 years. My drive has always been...

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination"

Tommy Lasorda

2006-03-15T09:47:00.000Z

In search of greener pastures – part 2

At the moment I am involved in setting up training modules internally. It is a bit of a struggle co-ordinating everyone’s diaries internally, but the rewards are immense. Simply listening to other peoples experience is training enough, as everyone has a different take on how to do things right. Often you will find people who believe their way is the only way, but the more open and receptive you are to feedback and critiques the better I say. It is how organisations (and people) improve, by learning off each other, off past mistakes and moving on. It sounds very clichéd but it is true.

There are various social committees, football tipping comps and the like set up in the office but I tend not to get involved in the running of those. Simply because I have other personal goals set and I don’t think I could give those roles enough time. I’d rather take part!! (This week we have a 90 minute session with a team member who is also a musician on learning to play the guitar!)

The stigma is fair
Outside of work, I tell people I work in a marketing consultancy. The stigma associated with Market Research is both fair and unfair. It is fair because it is an invasion of people’s personal time – however it is also unfair because of the immense benefits MR generates for society (both through private and public sector growth).

They are always interested when I explain the almost voyeuristic lifestyle we lead, exploring the subconscious and uncovering thoughts and emotions that research participants did not know existed! Some people go as far as living with their participant to get an understanding on how things work. While I haven’t gone that far, accompanying someone while shopping for their weekly groceries is far enough I think!

High ambitions
In 5 years time I would like to be at a senior AD level. That is simply because when someone, regardless of experience, says or does something that I can’t do I question myself why I didn’t think of that. I don’t know, maybe it’s the competitive streak in me.

If anyone was to apply for a job here, I would warn them that it is a bumpy ride. I have worked in three agencies now and while I do like it here, it certainly wasn’t my favourite. I was lucky to work in a boutique agency where prices were fairly high but clients got what they paid for with analysis. Some agencies spend more time answering the questions, while others do the bare minimum before moving onto the next…

Huge responsibility
In the future, I think MR needs to seriously think about how to approach an over-researched society. We are seeing a lot of problems with focus groups now in particular where the same familiar faces are turning up, and that is not giving the client what they pay for. My biggest stress is that we will lead a client down the wrong path which could have major consequences on reputation in the future. Therefore, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to approach the research, implementing and analysing the results. It is tougher but the rewards are great. Watching an advertisement you evaluated get great results in industry magazines or products you helped launch grow successfully is an absolute treat. While your friends work for the same company day in, day out, you can confidently act as someone who knows almost EVERYTHING about hundreds of different companies/clients. It’s your job to, and it is very interesting.

At the end of most days I’m pretty tired, but usually satisfied. Some working days can be long but always put yourself first. If you have been working long hours then ask for some time off – if you don’t ask you will never get!

2006-03-15T09:46:00.000Z

In search of greener pastures - part 1

I left University in New Zealand and headed to greener pastures (Sydney, Australia) looking for marketing work, and only applied for a Market Research role on the off chance that I would get it. MR was never my strong point at University, whereas strategy was. However, the organisation liked something about me (!!) and hired me almost on the spot.

Now, 4 years later, I’m based in the UK working as an SRE for a mid-size MR Agency. My history was predominantly private sector research (which was fine by me), but now I find myself evaluating social trends, speaking to kids about museums, talking to travellers about tourism and delivering presentations to directors!

Managing complex workloads
Depending on the level of work I have going on, I usually arrive in the office around 8.45am. Clients do not usually start calling or emailing until around 9.30am so that gives plenty of time to settle in and take stock of what is required for the day. Emails are checked, and any unnecessary ones are cleared out of my inbox. Personally, I use my inbox as a “to do” list. Anything that is left in there means I either haven’t replied or need to do something with it. The start of the day gives a great opportunity to figure out what is coming up.

Currently I am working on a presentation for a major client, as well as setting up of two other very big projects. The presentation side of things is certainly enjoyable. Because I took part in the majority of the fieldwork (it was qualitative – lots of focus groups and depth interviews) it gives me the opportunity to gather everyone’s ideas and just write!

Dealing with tricky clients
The set-up of projects can be quite difficult at the best of times, however the clients I am working with at the moment are quite difficult to manage and are busy with other work. The trick is to remember they won’t live and breath this research project like you will. Therefore, the onus is on you to make their life a lot easier, by being proactive and prompting them when need be. The moment you start making their life easier then the better feedback you will get.

Most clients I have had the opportunity to work with are fantastic. These people range from experienced researchers that have moved to client side, to those who have absolutely no idea what research is, they just know they need some. It’s all about understanding who you are working with and how much this will impact your workloads. When do I have to contact them? What are their preferred methods (some clients love email, not phone, and vice versa)? How long will I need to spend explaining this? Will this be easy for them to access that information?

My pet hates are the nitty gritty admin type jobs. Photocopying, faxing, binding etc. If you work for a smaller agency like me that is unfortunately part of the job. The larger organisations have less focus on this but I guess it keeps you down to earth. The best parts (again with smaller organisations) are the variety of work. One minute, you’re talking about alcohol, then you are sending in a proposal for an airline, then you’re in front of major government staff members before presenting something on furniture in the afternoon!! It makes life a lot less dull in my opinion!

Workloads can vary though – sometimes I will have up to 7 or 8 projects running at once (my record is 10), and others days I will be frantically scrambling for something to do. However, there is always something to be done, someone to be helping or someone to be calling! And if you do have any down time, make sure you get up to date with admin things like filling etc as it certainly helps once you get busier…

A shared experience
Again, this may be only particular to smaller MR organisations but the teams are great. Everyone is in the same boat and you have to have a personality to work in this industry. How else are you going to face up to complete strangers and expect to run a 90 minute focus group with them!!

We often have a variety of post-work drinks on Fridays or other team “bonding” sessions. Some are instigated formally, others are more informal. One that sticks in my mind is riding four-wheel drive motorbikes through sand dunes in Australia, and beating my incredibly competitive Managing Director in a race. I don’t think I was first in line for any company bonuses after that!!

Everyone learns of everyone else as well. It’s the best part of having a variety of backgrounds as someone always has experience in a particular area. I have been fortunate to work with some great senior consultants (AD’s) and managing directors in the past, and have learnt a lot from them. It is a matter of doing as they do, and then adding your own flair in as you go along.

2006-03-14T09:44:00.000Z

Research on wheels – researching the automotive industry

‘Mystery shopping allocation co-ordinators: excellent career opportunities’ is what the advert said in the local press. With a degree in Social Anthropology and no clear idea of what I wanted to do for a living, this advert looked like it was for me. OK, it was paying £10,000 (rising to £10,500 after a few months) so I’d need to postpone the plans to buy a mansion and go on that luxury holiday but it sounded like a chance.

Just over seven years later and I’m still with the same company (a full service, global market research agency) though I’m now a Senior Research Executive specialising in global, customer satisfaction work in the automotive industry. With an effective 150% pay rise in that time, the house and the holidays have also appeared.

Being a researcher in London – ups and downs
My typical day starts with the alarm ringing at seven, out of the house and hour later and then the hour commute into London (if you want a house, stay out of London!). I’m at my desk by 09:30, working through any new e-mails and planning my priorities for the day. As one of those people who work best at the beginning of the day, I’ll be aiming to get as much done as possible before lunch. The end of the day is 17:30 though I’m paid to get the job done rather than work the hours. I’ve worked through to the early hours when releasing new developments before though I now have a lot more control over my work and can better manage my time to enable me to leave by 18:00 most days.

Dedicated to a single client
90% of my time will be taken-up by the continuous project I have been working on for the past two years. This involves liaising with the client, colleagues, internal and external agencies; specifying business and technical requirements; delegating sampling work and report checking to other members of staff; quality checks, logging and monitoring; data mining; cost control and budget monitoring – pretty-much everything involved on such a study. It can be busy and sometimes emotional though I love the responsibility and take great pleasure making sure that everything ticks along smoothly.

Continuous projects can become somewhat mundane, especially with customer satisfaction work where the study can last for many years. Other teams can be seen celebrating new or completed contracts and this is something I miss. On the other hand, I’ve been on my project since the beginning and there is a good level of satisfaction seeing it grow and evolve in line with my client’s business needs.

The best part of the job is finding solutions that work and make everyone’s life a lot easier. The hardest part is arguing your case to ensure internal agents prioritise your needs effectively.

The other 10% of the time will see me working on general tasks for my department. This may be a presentation for new graduates on what we do, assessing and implementing best practice around the department or helping other teams to work around issues or bring understanding to the data we report on. I’ve recently been over to our German office to help them set-up a new project – taking the knowledge accumulated from my experiences to provide direction and insight.

Growing up in research
When you first start-out in research, it can seem like everyone else knows the answers and you’re the one who is always asking the questions. With this study, it has been interesting to work with a client who is relatively new to research. They know they want research to be conducted but aren’t clear on what they want to do with the results or how it will fit-in with their business development plans. Finally, I’ve had the chance to really get to grips with a client’s needs and be the one providing the answers.

As far as personal development goes, the company I work for has probably the best internal training courses in the business. We’re all actively encouraged to attend the courses (run every quarter), which now include the MRS certificate and diploma. On top of this, the on-job training provided has given me great insight into technical issues such as servers, web site development, database design and query logic. From a more personal side, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a manager who leads by example when it comes to client management, quality and time management.

Job satisfaction
The social side here is good, too. Team lunches, dinners and drinks occur as often as everyone wants, there are departmental events and also company wide activities (sports day, bowling, quizes, etc.). Additionally, the company runs a scheme where you pay a quid a month and get large discounts on tickets for theatres, music gigs and the like.

For the future, I will be taking a break from private sector research to try-out the public sector jobs nearer to home. It’s one of those decisions where you realise that you still have another 40 years of working and, for me, the thought of spending those years commuting into and out of London to make money for other people just doesn’t sound too appealing. Therefore I’m off to try to make a more direct impact to the quality of life in the local or wider community. Market Research has been great to me, providing plenty of skills, experience and character growth that I will be taking with me for the rest of my life.

2006-03-13T11:48:00.000Z

Falling into and out of research
Like plenty of us I fell into MR having left university with very little idea of what I actually wanted to do. I started out as a budding Geneticist but soon worked out that I wasn’t destined for life in the lab. An MSc followed and market research seemed like an interesting way to combine my scientific experience and interest in business. My current position in healthcare research naturally caught my attention.

Best of both worlds
I work for one of the larger, global research companies but the healthcare department pretty much comprises of a smaller company which was acquired a few years ago. Whilst I have access to all the training etc of a global company the small business atmosphere prevails giving me the best of both worlds. I’m in the Conference & Omnibus team where we do most of the faster turn-around projects, often using medical conferences around the world to access a vast number of our sample over just a few days.

Varying hours
The working day starts at 9.30 and officially finishes at 5.30 although obviously this can vary quite considerably. During conference season it’s quite common to be travelling around the world completing fieldwork for a week or so at a time and then frantically trying to process data on the odd days/ week when you’re actually in the office. Naturally late nights ensue but the travel definitely makes up for it and the major conferences are only held between April & October with August being avoided because of summer hols.

Seasonal change
Over the winter months there are far fewer conferences to attend so much of my workload is omnibus. This makes my hours much more regular. I’ve just completed a fairly sizable tracking study using our telephone omnibus panel which aimed to identify market size, attitudes to prescribing etc for a major neurological drug. I was also responsible for the last wave of the study so it’s been really interesting to see the changes in the market and watch our previous conclusions come to life (thankfully!). The only problem was the sheer volume of charts which had to be produced from a template – not the most riveting exercise.
I tend to work on two or three projects at a time, usually at different stages and there’s often additional organisation to be done for conferences later in the year. This includes booking exhibition stands from which to field the study at conference, organising flights, interviewers etc. Most of our projects last around 6 weeks or less so there’s always a new disease area to learn about.

Help from my friends
My department is split into several small teams of approx 6 – 8 people so each team tends to get on fairly well. Because of the amount of time my team spends out of the office we spend a lot of time helping on each other projects simply to get them turned around on time. We’re fairly friendly in terms of team lunches etc but friendship groups seem to form more from graduate scheme intakes. The healthcare department takes on 5 or more New Grads a year and they spend the first 6 weeks training closely together. After this training is more informal, gaining experience on projects as you go along.

Poor image of research
I have to admit some responsibility for propagating the idea that market research is dull. When anyone asks me what I do I tend to mention MR and then apologise as it’s a complete conversation killer. Best to focus on the travel – at least that sounds glam!

A future outside research
Long term I’m focussing more on acquiring skills to move out of market research and try something more challenging, perhaps more of a consultancy role. Although I enjoy market research the general attitude is not one of steep learning curves & rapid progression. There is obviously a lot to learn but much of this is experience based and that experience is not always forthcoming. I guess it’s just a very different pace from my experience at university, the upside being that it’s not overly competitive or cut-throat.

MR needs to add value in reality
My main bugbear with the market research industry is the tendency for companies to talk about ‘added value’ but do very little to actually achieve it. To add value surely market research should move a little closer to consultancy. Anyone can put a few graphs together, there’s no major value here, value comes from doing our homework (something that’s often forgotten in the rush to meet timelines), making solid recommendations which are built on an objective view and maybe even working with the client to action the outcomes of research. Without this added value becomes little more than a marketing phrase.

2006-03-10T10:50:00.000Z

From consultancy to research – it’s time charge what we’re worth!

My background is in Investment Banking and Research Consultancy. I used to use research as a means to an end, not necessarily conducting research – I used to commission research projects. I now work in a top tier research agency, mainly in the b2b sector specialising in capital markets and investment banking.

A different role in a research agency
Much of my time is at the front end of client management and projects either in speculating for business or writing proposals, working alongside a team of specialist researchers.

In a typical day I turn up at 9am, but am out the door immediately for a meeting with a hedge fund in Mayfair. The first thing I do is log into ft.com to get a snapshot of what’s happening then go to the UK section for equities. I feel quite perky starting the day, as the treacherous walk from the tube to the office is fraught with drunks, druggies and students!

Competing for resources
I’m currently working for a large Japanese fund manager who are developing their European market penetration strategy. Another thing that’s taking up a lot of my time is not so much a research project but a campaign for our City Study 2006, trying to convince IRO's to conduct a perception study of investors and analysts. We’re currently in the awareness stage so initial calls (many cold calls) to IRO's sending legacy data/credentials – I have spent about two hours per day over the last two weeks and for next month will be taken over by this. There’s much competition in the area as many use internal resources.

The best part of my job is challenging views of companies who think they understand their shareholders and other investors in their sector. On the other hand, the day drags on a little, especially on a Friday. Many of my clients are not research savvy as they use research ad hoc so talking to them about the right things and relating it back to research can be a long process but you do now and again get a client who understands the research process and you can get straight to the point.

The team
My team is a fairly senior bunch of individuals, with lots of experience across the b2b sector and a good mix of backgrounds. The day is generally quiet with interludes of "food breaks" usually afternoon tea and biscuits and gossip on last nights soaps!

I learn about the strengths of the company from them. I enjoy it because we have such a wide range of experiences and I can tap into different parts to gain knowledge and experiences.

Weaknesses and changes in the future
In my firm, we have a great brand and experience but it is just not sold well or marketed effectively. The formal training is great but I am an advocate of "on-the-job" training, coming from a non-research background I wanted to get up to speed as quickly as possible. This was possible through being involved in various aspects of project work early on.

My day finishes at 17:45 – I try to leave around this time, to get to university where I am studying for an MBA. The class finishes at 21:00 and I am home at 22:00. I am now close to the end of the course so no more late nights!

Thinking of the future of the industry, it is the old question about what you want the research firm to deliver. In the City, analysts research markets and sectors and then make “informed impartial judgements” about companies, that’s a load of c***! They are influenced by the company they are working for on the banking side and in many cases it seems like Chinese walls are only there in principle. There is a view that analysts should only do the research and allow investors to make decisions.

The same issue exists in the research industry - to what extent should we, as researchers, provide independent, impartial analysis (however controversial) and leave it at that. Or, since we researched the market, do we analyse the data and then interpret the findings and make recommendations ands suggestions? I am very much of the latter school of thought. The way we can deliver added value to clients is to give them another perspective.

Coming from the consultancy sector, much of the work they do is based on research/evidence and they are paid ten-fold more for their services than a researcher is. Entering the sector ten months ago I was shocked at how much the company does and how little we bill clients – that’s something which I intend to change.

2006-03-09T11:04:00.000Z

Opportunities and experiences for an agency-side trainee

I normally begin my day by writing a “To-do” list and checking my e-mails. If it’s a Monday, I’ll update my planner so that my line manager and I can see which projects I’ll be working on for the next few weeks and how much time I will roughly be spending on them.

My day might involve a lot of checking work for accuracy. I might be checking the content of a report, including the figures in it, checking the figures in results tables, or checking showcards. Other tasks which I have been involved in are entering data into reports in Power Point, arranging and carrying out telephone interviews, and finding and checking the details of people to be used in samples for a research projects.

Although, I have only been at my firm for just over 3 months, I have been able to carry out a variety of different tasks and have been to a number of training sessions. I have participated in both quantitative and qualitative research and have been able to take notes at focus group discussions. It’s interesting to see where the actual data comes from by going to a focus group or carrying out an interview, although if a project requires you to be involved in such tasks this may mean a busy evening working late or perhaps staying overnight somewhere.

Overall, I am enjoying my life as a researcher. There are always different projects to be involved in and a range of jobs to be done.

2006-03-07T12:51:00.000Z

Note from the organisers:

Hope you're enjoying the blogs so far! We're publishing one each weekday - except yesterday when technical problems afflicted the website. Apologies for this - in return - two new blogs today!

Please do add your comments on the blogs - we'd love to know what you think. We're still looking for contributors, so if you haven't sent us your day yet, get scribbling!

Regards,
The R-Net blogging team!

2006-03-02T14:23:00.000Z

Strategic research gives me the edge
In the competitive world of business graduates, teamwork is key

My situation within the agency I work for is unique, being one a few staff members still completing my University Degree as a placement student. I am in the middle of my third year of completing a BA(Hons) reading Business, undertaking a year's work experience agency-side. My background has been mainly in banking and various part time jobs over the summer so perhaps I never really expected to fall into the research industry. As part of my course it has become neccesary to gain an experience 'edge' over my student colleagues and an opportunity to work for one of the leading market research companies in the UK simply proved too good to turn down.

I work for a strategic research company which sits as an individual consultancy firm within a large agency. We specialise mainly in B2B research using a wide range of qualitative and quanititative research techniques, with an emphasis on desk research. Although a large part of our research will be derived from secondary sources, we also conduct primary research into various markets with clients often keen to gain a sense of value from the research we produce.

A typical day for me will be turning up for work early on Monday morning to catch up on the latest news on the internet before starting my day at 9.30 with a hot cup of coffee. The first half hour of my day will be spent finishing off any loose ends from the weekend, quickly scribbling down a 'to do' list followed by a Monday Morning Meeting with the team to discuss what i have been working on and my diary for the week. Any free time for the next week will be divided between the team which currently involves several projects which are coming to a close over the next few days.

After the meeting is finished I now have a schedule, several deadlines, various training schemes and meetings to attend during the week which suits me as I like to keep active and have targets. After a quick review of my schedule I know what I have to do and the timescale I have to complete it in. I proceed to work on a database I am completing for a client interested in the Central Government IT market, and the amount of money spent on contracts by government departments. This involves using desk research to review various online sources to collate information based of government IT spending and which competitors are winning the contracts with each department.

Research is a team game
The work is keeping me busy, but is interesting and draws close parallels to previous University work, so contributes towards a valuable bit of work experience. The client seems pleased with the project so far, and it means future work for the company, which keeps all parties happy. This for me is of the key things because this is a team game. Once this is done I'll fit in an hour somewhere for lunch, which gives an opportunity to catch up with various friends across the company over a sandwich in the canteen!

Once I get back there is always something to do or somebody to help. I'll lend any spare time I have to the team, or vice versa depending on how busy I am. My company is currently re-marketing themselves so we have meetings every few days to discuss how the company should be marketed and the image we should put across. Its great to be a part of, and something to feel good about when you see the company do well. After work we may go for a few drinks depending on who's busy and who's buying, but theres always a friendly face!

Come 5.30 I should be going home but put in an extra hour depending on what needs doing. This week we're delivering a presentation tomorrow and there are a few odd jobs to help out with to make sure it's nice and easy for Tuesday morning. I go home exhausted but pleased with my contribution and looking forward to the new challenges I'll face for the rest of the week.

Proud of my position
When I get home I might call a few friends from University to see how they are getting on and their experiences of their placement so far, perhaps to brag a bit about how pleased I am with the company, and the clients I have been involved with. Having never considered research as a future career it is now a strong area of interest, and hopefully come the end of the year, an area of future expertise.

2006-03-02T14:15:00.000Z

Supported and challenged in research
Researching the arts scene in Edinburgh

I got into research because I enjoyed the practical side of doing my sociology dissertation at university, so I looked into Market Research as a career. First I completed the graduate scheme at MORI and worked in London at Test Research (part of the MORI group) for two years, focusing on brand and advertising research. Next I decided to move up to Scotland, and now I work at an audience development agency in Edinburgh – that means I do research for arts organisations and the festivals around the city. I’ve been here almost two years.

As the Research Manager of a small organisation I have responsibility for all aspects of the consultancy department. I have a junior member of staff part-time, plus temps and student interns to help me out when I need them. The other members of the organisation work on marketing campaigns, and its interesting to keep up to date with what they are doing and go along to their events. We often work together on the recommendations stage of my reports to give focused and actionable conclusions.

Its nice for me to be able to pass on my skills to others, but I do feel a bit isolated sometimes. My boss has arranged for me to have a research professional as a mentor, and I go to MRS or SRA Scotland meetings when I can and am doing the MRS Diploma course.

I love the arts focus of the job, and the projects tend to be ad hoc and varied (quant and qual) which I enjoy, but it can be very busy especially during Edinburgh’s summer festival period.

A varied working day: keep the challenges coming
We have flexible working hours which is good for me because I’m not a morning person. Today I got to the office about 9.30am and started the day by checking my emails and post. I have a web survey in field at the moment so I need to keep tabs on the response rate – it seems to be going fine and we have over 1,500 responses so I’m happy to close it at the end of the week.

Next I had a meeting with one of my colleagues about a conference we went to last week – we need to write up some notes on the sessions we attended to disseminate the info to our colleagues and board members.

My morning was spent working on a Powerpoint presentation which I will be giving to the marketing staff of a local gallery. It is an introduction to research session – we’ll be doing a whistlestop tour with a focus on questionnaire design followed by a practical session trying their questionnaires out on the unsuspecting public!

This afternoon I prepared two discussion guides for some focus groups I am doing for a participative arts organisation. I also tidied up all of the administrative details such as room bookings, incentives and refreshments and arranged for my assistant to send reminder emails to people who will be coming along to the groups at the end of the week.

Our jobs are misunderstood - even by friends!
At the end of the day I’m looking forward to meeting a friend for dinner at 6pm before we go to one of Edinburgh’s many bars. We probably won’t talk about my job because it seems to confuse people – I don’t know what they think I do but it seems to involve clipboards and selling stuff. Despite this, I genuinely believe in the value of research and am passionate about educating my clients to believe in it too. I would recommend research as a career to anyone who has a hint of nosiness in their personality, and I intend to stick with it for as long as it gives me new challenges.

2006-03-02T14:03:00.000Z

Driven by results: the rewards of working both sides of the fence

From the UN to a non-deparmental public body, via research
I studied International Politics for a total of four years, but after a stint at the UN in Geneva decided that a life in an NGO was not for me. So in search of a more results-based environment, I fell into a job at a research consultancy, drawn primarily by the ability to influence decision-making through bringing consumers and citizens' views to the fore.

I now work for an NDPB, or a non-departmental public body. Most people call them quangos! I manage the research needs of the organisations and its teams, which ultimately includes commissioning and mananging research agencies to provide quant and qual expertise. Meanwhile, if the project is too small to merit external commissioning, I do it myself, but this is mostly qual based work.

I turn up at quarter to nine, having walked to work. The first thing I do when I arrive is get a cup of tea or a bowl of cereal from the cafe. I feel pretty upbeat, ready to tackle the challenges of the day, and curious about what emails await me in my inbox.

Major projects - working with suppliers
I'm working on the launch of one of our main pieces of research that has been carried out for the organisation on the whole, rather than one individual team. It involves preparing the research content for an online information resource, and I'm working with a creative and digital agency for the first time.

Joy of seeing research used
What I mostly enjoy about my job is being on client side, and seeing how research is used in the organisation. I work as part of a pretty small team, but my manager is great. Because we work across the organisation our team gets more exposure to the entire organisation than others. This is a very rewarding aspect of my job.

When talking to people outside work about my job I describe it as market research within an organisation, and that the bulk of my work is about commissioning and managing research projects for other people.

Work on both sides of the agency-/client-side fence
I'd generally advise people who work in research to work for some time in both agency and client side. It's invaluable to understand what pressures the "other side" faces in their day to day job, and this definitely adds value to whatever end of the stick you ultimately choose to work at.

Looking to the future

In five years time I'll be managing a small team internally, but not necessarily in research, it may be more communications/marketing/PR related. I aim to gain experience and exposure to more of these areas in the meantime.

I wish I could get people to be more interested in networking, too many researchers are very complacent about what they do and don't seem particularly ambitious. Maybe it's because a lot of people "fall into" the sector.

I feel good at the end of the day, ready to go home but happy with what I've accomplished during the day. I'm not as stressed as I used to be agency side, and I feel happy to face another day at the office tomorrow.

2006-03-02T13:54:00.000Z

Power to the people: working in social research

I have a background in predominantly social research having attained an MA in Research & Consultancy. I currently work work agency-side in Community Involvement, dealing mainly with local authority clients and Regional Development Agencies.

A typical day involves arriving about 8am and checking my e-mails, chatting to staff about workloads and delegating work and prioritizing the days' activities. My current major project is refreshing the a city council Citizens Panel although I am also working on 8 other projects too!

I do enjoy my job as I meet a variety of people and get out of the office a lot. The worst part of the job is giving criticism and dealing with clients who have a tendency to change their mind at the eleventh hour! It does make an exciting environment though as you have to have initiative and think on your feet a lot.

2006-03-02T13:50:00.000Z

Moving from a small agency to a big one
Advice from a researcher who made the switch
Fancy working in a big fancy research agency, or a small ‘un ? Each has its own distinct pros and cons. Seasoned researchers among you can empathise with the many trials and tribulations associated with each (oh ok, and the good bits as well). As someone who has worked in both smaller and internationally-renowned research agencies, perhaps I can shed some light.
Whilst the larger (inter)national agencies may offer more structured introductions to the wonderful world of research, the smaller ones have their advantages.
Let’s start at the beginning – your new appointment. Chances are that if you’re applying to the big boys you’re going to have to go through an initial interview (either on the phone or face-to-face), followed by another one, in which you may have to present some information, or take part in a case study.
Oh, and let’s not forgot the immense joy of being told you’ve also got to complete some psychometric tests. The ‘Are you a ballet dancer or axe-murderer’ personality type tests are fine; a little tiresome perhaps, but nothing too strenuous – the maths stuff however, brings back horrific images of school exams. Yuck.
Smaller agencies, on the whole, are far more likely to place trust in how well you present yourself in front of them (often the Managing Director him/herself), as well as your academic qualifications. Whilst in larger agencies you can conceivably hide in a corner of a large open plan office, surviving for months without anyone really knowing what you’re up to, it’s not the same in a small agency. EVERYone knows what each other’s doing and therefore arguably greater importance is placed on how well a candidate will ‘fit’ with fellow employees.
Once in your new job however, you’ll soon find that the bigger companies have similarly big stationery cabinets. Diaries, biros, a plentiful supply of dayglo post-it-notes, you name it – everything (and more) you need to make your working life easier is taken care of by some other jobsworth. In smaller agencies, it’s often YOU making the call to Viking Direct when the printer toner runs out (normally just before a big report printing run, which the client expects on his desk the next morning), when you’ve got just twenty minutes left to complete that costing to be sent to a potential client.
So, leaving aside the fact that you’ll have more biros to chew on in a bigger company, what can be said of the work itself? Well, firstly, the scope of the work. If you’re in a small or mid-sized agency, you can potentially be exposed to the full gamut of qual and quant techniques. One day you can be designing depth interview discussion guides, the next you’re costing an international multi-language online survey. The following day, you might be writing a management commentary to accompany the results of a major telephone survey. If you’re really unlucky, you’ll be doing all these in the same day.
In big research agencies, chances are you’ll be put in your place the day you join. You’ll have already been earmarked as a potential coder, or data analyst, or account exec, and come hell or high water, that’s what you’re going to be. Forever. Or at least until you can’t face doing the same thing another day longer.
Induction can be hit and miss whatever the size of the company. Whilst smaller agencies may lack the regimented talks by the HR officer, and the walk-around the department, and the showing to the desk, you can normally get a good feel for the place and what’s required far quicker.
In marked contrast, I’ve worked in a major research company, where induction has been a haphazard affair at best. Whilst being immediately told to get stuck in and produce complete PowerPoint files, and then present them to major clients (one is a major consumer retailer, and the other is due next week to one of the UK’s biggest industrial powerhouses), I’ve yet to get an overall feel for the general processes and procedures for the place. Whilst I’d greatly benefit from spending half a day with each of the different departments to get the overall picture as to how we’re spending our clients’ money, this hasn’t been possible. But I’m working on it!
But still, bigger companies have their advantages: more opportunities to misbehave gloriously at the Christmas party for instance (but for heaven’s sake steer clear of anyone within your own department! And for that matter, the boss, and his/her partner!). Smaller agencies often allow partners to attend, which can be interesting. A Director in one of my last companies brought her elderly partner along – the Addams Family theme still stirs in my head whenever ‘reminiscing’. Why I deserved to be sat beside them for the full evening still escapes them.
Whilst this blog entry isn’t exhaustive of the perils and pitafalls facing any young fresh-faced researchers, I’ll leave you to consider the correlation between company size and structure, with common (and business) sense. As for my own opinion, why, one couldn’t possibly comment !
Enjoy the blog !!

2006-02-28T22:43:00.000Z

A day in the life of a Trainee Research Executive:
the change from client- to agency-side

Having worked in market research on the client side before joining Ipsos MORI, I was very pleased to hear that the working day officially starts at 9.30am (even if it’s somewhat sucked up by my hour and a quarter commute). Like many office workers a typical day starts with coffee, emails and to dos. The content of my day can vary immensely depending on what projects I’m working on, but I will tend to work on a number of different projects and different stages in the course of one day.

Using the breadth of earlier experience

I work primarily in business-to-business research, but given my previous experience at a beauty company I’ve also been roped into projects outside my business area, such as an international study of women and beauty and Ipsos MORI’s study among beauty journalists. Beauty journalists is just kicking off so I organise a meeting with the project director to discuss next steps in finalising the questionnaire for one of our clients.

The tasks for the day: creating presentations, finding quotes, project management
I’ve also been asked to get involved in the marketing of our Captains of Industry study for 2006. I have an email from a client who has decided to take part again this year, so I update my tracking sheet. I helped out with Captains reports last year and am glad to get exposure to a different part of the process. At Ipsos MORI working on big multi-client studies serves to gain experience in project management and report preparation.

Now for the meaty task for the day which is getting a presentation together for a client who put questions on our Omnibus study a few weeks ago. This corporate image study has been done every year for the last twenty years so the charts are already created: I insert the most recent data from the tables and then the project director will write the report findings at the end (saying that, on other projects I have had an opportunity to write the report myself). I also go through the verbatim responses to open-ended questions (why respondents are favourable or unfavourable to the client) looking for quotes to support the findings, as well as some quirky ones.

Training focus
Despite not being ready to present to clients myself yet, I attend a lunchtime seminar, “Ben Page’s Presentation Master Class”, where I furiously scribble notes to catch some pearls of wisdom from the presenting expert, vowing to jazz up my slides with photos and images and only telling clients what matters to them, not every detail. Ipsos MORI have a big emphasis on training and I tend to jump at any opportunity to expand my knowledge and experience.

After lunch a colleague asks me if I can step in to check the on-screen telephone (CATI) script which I’d agreed to do earlier in the week. At Ipsos MORI the resourcing is flexible, so I often help out with little bits and pieces on projects. I go through the questionnaire on-screen, pretending I belong to different groups in the sample to check I get routed to the correct parts of the questionnaire; for example, that I don’t get asked about inmates when I work in a hospital. It’s been checked numerous times before, and I’m able to tell my colleague it looks fine now.

I then finish off and check the presentation I was working on earlier and hand it to another team member to check the figures (Ipsos MORI is big on checking and quality).

I have a depth interview tomorrow, so I go over the topic guide to make sure I’m familiar with it, print up a map and organise a tape recorder before I leave at 5.45pm.

2006-02-28T22:00:00.000Z

Giving up the secrecy for Lent!

We're giving up the secrecy for the 40 days of Lent, and wiriting 40 days in the life of a researcher on the way up. The 40 days are actually by different people - we're keen to get lots of different viewpoints and show off what a great and varied industry we work in.

A career in market and social research?
This blog will reveal what different careers for people in early years in research involve.

Are you in your first 5 years in research?
We'd like to ask you to contribute a "day". All you have to do is write a short piece about a typical day in your job - include some background about how you got into MR and what sort of work you do.

Whilst you’re given free reign to wax lyrical, if you’re temporarily stuck for inspiration, the following areas may help get you started:

What do you do in a typical day?
What are your highs and lows?
What have you personally gained from your life as a researcher?
What do you wish you could change about the world of market and social research?

Your entries are anonymous (we vet them to make sure!). Just email rnet@mrs.org.uk, tell them you can do it, and then send them the entry when you're ready. We'd need a bit of time to proof the entries, so please send them in the next week or so!

Shout if you want to know anything else about it!

2006-01-19T14:26:00.000Z

R-Net ... for reseachers on the way up

R-Net is a networking group set up in 2003 by young and new researchers for young and new researchers across the whole market and social research industry in the UK.

Our activities are aimed primarily at younger members and those comparatively new to research – both client and agency side. R-Net also actively welcomes anyone interested in research or working in related areas such as DP, academia, advertising and marketing.

Bringing young researchers together

Young and new researchers rarely get to go to conferences or training workshops with people from other companies and it is all too easy to feel isolated. R-Net helps researchers on their way up with an accessible series of learning events and informal socials especially for us. Events take place mostly in the evenings and the majority are free of charge.

Benefits of R-Net

For you: find out about other areas you’re not currently working in; hear how to do things well; ask questions in a safe environment.
For your employer: a way to broaden their employees’ skills and knowledge; bring in ideas from outside the organisation.
For the industry: better connections between organisations through the younger researchers; get young people involved in shaping the future of the industry.

Our activities
Social events: informal gatherings in a pub to have a chat over a few drinks. Meet new people, find out how other companies approach things or simply discover other researchers share your experiences.
Talks by the experts: Specialists across the breadth of market research, both agency and client side present their experience of particular methodologies, skills or sectors. Our members tell us this is a really valuable and somewhat unique opportunity to quiz the experts. Read about our past events.

R-Net North
Most of R-Net’s activities take place in central London – but a second steering group of keen R-Netters also organises

events in the North of England.

Interested in joining?
Sign up to join the R-Net mailing list and we’ll keep you informed of our latest activities and events. Then come along to the next presentation or social.