FEATURE11 January 2018

Making progress

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Sinead Hasson

Features Impact UK

While serendipity can have a role to play in anyone’s working life, well thought-out career management is crucial for it to be fulfilling. Sinead Hasson speaks to market researchers to see how they have gone about planning their employment.

Start planning forward_Crop

According to Wikipedia, career management is the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one’s own professional career. The outcome of successful career management should include personal fulfilment, work/life balance, goal achievement and financial security.

So, it would seem logical that something which would provide fulfilment, a sense of achievement and financial security would have priority in our lives. The reality is, it is rare – we are more likely to hire a financial advisor, a therapist or a personal trainer, than we are to create strong relationships with people who can guide our career.

When asked, many research and insight professionals say they fell into their career – often on the way to marketing or advertising – and it is most often a happy accident they go on to forge strong careers in research. This is less evident in people who are at the 10-year level in their career because during this time, research has gained ...