subject: Tips To Get The Best Market Research Jobs In Uk [print this page] Love facts, figures, stats and analysis? Fascinated by what makes people tick? Then maybe market research is the field for you! Find out more about how you can break in and what you can expect, in our informative chat with Joel Naftal, head of recruitment for research, insight & analysis jobs at Major Players, the UKs leading creative industry recruiter.
Whats the pay like?
Salaries vary greatly - graduates generally start around 20k and as you work your way up through the industry, its possible to hit anything in the region of 150k - although theyre very rare, lucky people. I suppose the average salary you would be looking at is something around the 40k mark.
What are the agencies like?
Research organisations can be very low key places - people generally with their heads down focusing on the work theyve got on hand, trying to get projects done on time. A lot of them do like to have fun, dont get me wrong: whats really big nowadays with recruitment into this industry, is not so much the skill set - obviously thats huge - but also the cultural fit.
What are the hours like?
Now this is an interesting one. If youre a quantitative researcher, invariably youll work the standard hours of 9 to 6, depending on whats going on. But qualitative researchers have to invest a lot more hours because generally when theyre conducting focus groups or talking to people, they have to do it after work. So sometimes theyre working until 10 - 11 oclock at night. You get remunerated for it, so its not so bad, but unfortunately their role does involve a lot of extra hours.
What qualifications do I need?
Generally, people who go into market research are people whove done a psychology degree or people with marketing degrees whove done a module on market research and that gets them inspired. But in general, you just need to have a good degree at 2.1 or higher from a decent university in order to get on a grad scheme or entry level role.
What skills do I need?
It varies depending on which area you want to work in. If youre interested in qualitative research for instance, you need to have great listening skills. For quantitative researchers and analysts, its all about numbers and the ability to break it all down and show your clients what those figures mean for their business.
Whats career progression like?
It varies depending on the person, but to go from a research exec to the next level, whether thats a senior research exec or research manager, is probably something in the region of 2 3 years. The one role at the moment where people are tending to earn high salaries and get promoted quite quickly is web analytics.
Where can I learn more?
A good place to start is the Market Research Society - they have training courses and various other ways for people to find out whats going on. Also theres research magazine (and research live, their website) which is the main industry publication and MRWeb, which is a website that has daily news and jobs that are going on.
Im always here and always happy to have a chat and help out anyone whos interested in a career in market research, so by all means give me a call on 0207 845 7221. You can also find the latest research jobs on our website.
