At last, here is a career that really uses your skills as a student, that is in demand, and where your work will make a difference to millions of lives.
This maybe sounds too good to be true, but yes, it does
exist. The UK has a shortage of
suitably qualified qualitative and quantitative researchers – and yet the work
of a Social Researcher offers exactly the kinds of features many students tell
us they want to find in their career:
using problem-solving skills to investigate real-life issues,
researching data and opinions, and presenting conclusions from your research. Exactly
what most uni students do every day!
Social research offers career opportunities for students of
any degree. Researchers work in all sectors, examining all aspects of society
and human behaviour, and their work influences all the products we buy, all the
services we use and all the communities where we live. (Okay, we overdid the word
‘all’ there, but this career really does tick all the boxes!)
At our recent ‘Careers in Social Research’ event students heard
more about some of the opportunities available, and the attractions of the
career. We heard from researchers working in the UK Civil Service and the University,
plus an insight into research agencies and analysis of customer behaviour, and opportunities
in opinion polling and parliament.
And what we learnt was that this thriving sector uses a wide
range of the skills developed by most students. Some researchers focus on quantitative
research (known as ‘Quant’). Quant researchers design surveys and experiments,
and use statistical data to analyse and present results - using ‘facts and figures
to tell a story’ according to the Association for Qualitative Research (AQR).
Not you? Well, Qualitative
researchers use their people skills to interact directly with others, conducting
their research by using conversation and observation, ‘analysing what was said,
written or recorded…to understand and explain human behaviour’ as the Market Research
Society describes it.
Other roles include Analysts, who as the job title implies, analyse
the data generated by quantitative research, and Operations staff who enable research
to actually take place, e.g. by managing researchers, training interviewers, or
organising venues and the teams involved.
What skills are required?
Our Panel of speakers highlighted the ‘soft’ skills of
communication, influencing and managing projects, as well as working to
competing deadlines. Quants in particular, require data handling and statistical
skills but some knowledge of stats concepts is useful even in a non-quant role.
Besides developing these abilities, one of the top tips for
getting in is to get experience of interviewing people, running surveys and analysing
the results.
So that’s it in a nutshell. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how interesting is a career in Social Research for you?
So that’s it in a nutshell. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how interesting is a career in Social Research for you?
To find out more about social and market research, see the
links from the Careers Service Information Resources www.careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/infotree/Languages.php#Social
and the websites of the AQA, Market Research Society and the Social Research Association.
Slides from some of the speakers’ presentations at our
careers event can be seen at:
Parliament: http://www.careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/powerpoint/socialresearch_Parliament.pdf
Marcus Zientek
Careers Adviser
Marcus Zientek
Careers Adviser
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