The job market – data is changing the day job

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Variety adds spice to a career in market research. Time and again I hear this from candidates. Mergers and acquisitions one day, maple syrup the next. Diversity in the work itself is also a big attraction. Qual gets you ‘into the field’ via focus groups, participant observation and one-to-one interviews; quant satisfies your curiosity for the big picture, through surveys, polls or web-profiling data. 

But as our industry continues to respond to the digital revolution, quant seems to be getting the upper hand. The more we share our thoughts via social media, engage in web communities, consume entertainment, shop, learn and work online, the more qualitative insights savvy researchers are able to generate using analytics tools and automation. There is data, data, everywhere – and market research is becoming a techier world as a result.  

This means researchers need to spend more time exploring these tools, particularly if they are pursuing a supply-side career in a ...