Becoming a market researcher can bring tons of fun benefits and interesting roles from collecting and analysing data or information to identifying market trends and customer opinions. The role of a market researcher can help predict and make informed political, social and economic decisions.
You'll specialise in either quantitative or qualitative research. Quantitative research involves working with statistics and percentages and can deliver quick results. Qualitative research involves analysing opinions and can provide the reasons behind certain percentages.
This role often requires someone with a lively, outgoing personality who is keen to get stuck in and be hands-on with projects and campaigns.
The exact type of work you'll carry out varies depending on your employer, in general though, your tasks will include:
Employers often expect candidates to have either a degree or skills in communication and analysis. If you want to get into quantitative research, studying business management, economics or mathematics could help you bag your first market researching job role.
Qualitative research on the other hand can vary slightly, employers may prefer degrees in anthropology, psychology or the social sciences.
For specialist industrial market research posts, a degree in a specific subject linked to the industry, such as engineering or science, may be useful. Specialist knowledge about your chosen industry and how the sector has changed along with up-coming advancements will also help you stand out when applying for research vacancies.
Once you’ve found your perfect market research job role, there’s plenty of professional career development opportunities. Often large organisations will provide internal training days or weeks, giving employees the chance to learn new skills and improve their knowledge in accordance with technology advancements and upgrades.
For more experienced market researchers who are progressing to senior roles, there is the MRS Diploma in Market and Social Research Practice. To take this you need to have between one to three years' experience in a relevant role depending on whether you already hold the MRS Advanced Certificate or another professional qualification or degree. The MRS also offers accredited Masters degrees at Cranfield School of Management and Newcastle University Business School.
However, if you’re looking for career prospects, you can often progress to research executive and onto senior researcher finally advancing to the role of account director. These are often responsible for contacting clients, presentations and project/team management.
It's recommended that you gain a range of experience before specialising in order to enhance your career development and/or job mobility later in your career.
If you’d like to change career paths or you’re looking for a new job take a look at our market research job vacancies today!
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