The Market for Market Researchers

If the paucity of responses to the job opening for my current position is anything to go by, the market for market researchers is really good right now. I don't have the same local market knowledge I had when I worked client-side, where you would always hear right away if a big employer (e.g. Dell) was laying people off and flooding the market with experienced people, so I don't know whether this is just a fluky, fortunate time where most of us already have jobs or whether it augurs well for the market in general. I was sort of surprised not to see applications from anybody that I ever worked with at my previous job in a research firm. Of course, it's always possible that my reputation has preceded me and no one wants to attempt to fill my shoes. But they're such... cute... shoes!

It's a very different time from 2001, when I got riffed and then hired by my current employer against stiff competition, including at least one other person from the same research firm who survived into the interview process. The job closed today and by 1:00, we had only received 15 applications, of which literally 1 person was met the minimum qualifications (5 years experience in market research) and another 2 could generously be considered in the general range of qualifications if you look at the resume sideways, squint, and fudge the math. By comparison, there were over 100 applications for the marketing manager position that is at the same level as mine and closed about a month ago.

One application motivated me to say, "Too bad this job isn't rocket science... because if it were rocket science, this guy would be great." Is the job market for people with physics PhDs and significant particle accelerator experience so dire that he would consider putting his quant skills to work analyzing park visitor datasets? That is sad. Perhaps not as sad as this, but sort of, kind of sad, in a way. The idea of my boss D having a male Russian particle physicist working for her was a pretty amusing concept, however, given that I do not know of a single man in our office that she gets along with very well at all.

The BLS has predicted that job growth for market researchers would be "faster than average" (i.e. increase 18 - 26 percent between 2004 and 2014). (By comparison, jobs for physicists are expected to grow more slowly than average, more's the pity.) In other heartening BLS news, they report the following about job outlook for college professors, which mirrors what I have been reading elsewhere about marketing professors as well as being a no-brainer application of supply and demand: "Prospects for teaching jobs will be better and earnings higher in academic fields in which many qualified teachers opt for nonacademic careers, such as health specialties, business, and computer science, for example."

Today, our brand new marketing manager G (who won out against the 99+ other applicants, many of whom were excellent, such that my boss D felt overwhelmed with great candidates) mentioned that she knows of a particular research firm that likes to hire anthropologists to work on research teams for developing new products. I said that I was glad any time an anthropologist can get a half-way decent paying job.

Heh, just now as I was closing the BLS web site, a survey popped up and, in keeping with my karma theory of survey research, I answered it. I enjoyed being able to decide when providing my ratings on the 10 point scale whether I wanted to place my score in the top-box or not (most commonly, a top-3 box including 8, 9, and 10); my insider knowledge helped me really distinguish between a 7 and 8 on several questions.