After developing a career for the last 20 years in the Market Research sector, I have seen many different individuals succeed in this industry. Managers with a clear business orientation, some with passion for people and unveiling consumer insights, and some tech-experts who can cope with huge databases of information and detect the real driver of consumer behavior.
One of the things that captured my attention about the research and insights industry is how the learning process in large organizations is structured, both on a client and agency side. Junior people in Business Insights, Market research, Intelligence or similar roles typically start with great soft skills but lack a very specific background.
Junior managers show great analytic skills, collaboration, an ability to work several projects, and also demonstrate great communication skills. That’s their starting point, and they then develop the mastery of the research/insights arena after this.
In the last few years I have had the pleasure of teaching students at the Masters level in a specific program – focusing on market research tools and consumer behavior. After several editions, I see how their career is evolving within the industry. What I am seeing is that when a promising student adds this “mastery” to the soft skills previously mentioned, there is no obstacle to them being successful.
Imagine how you would run a survey for the first time. Think about how you would moderate a focus group, launch an observational study, or analyze the online data from a web environment. Those are market research tools that you will learn more deeply by doing, and from the experts in the company (client or agency). Imagine learning first-hand which the best approaches in the industry are, from experts who used that tool hundreds of time.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then the Masters in Market Research and Consumer Behavior program here at IE University Human Sciences and Technology school is for you, and you can find out more about the program here.
