Where Have All the Interviewers Gone? Should We Care?
In the past few years, online research has exploded. In fact, last year online research revenue in the United States—according to Inside Research—was $1.184 billion vs. $1.227 for Qualitative research. Only $430,000 separated these two different methodologies, which is amazing since online research has only been around for a fraction of the time of qualitative. There is no question that Gordon Black was correct when he stated at a conference presentation that online research would change the market research industry forever. He was laughed at back then. However, I have a feeling all of those chuckles are long gone.
Ok, so we know online research is here to stay…but who cares! That’s old news! Well let me take a different approach today and start with a quick story.
In 1984 my mother came home from what she called the greatest experience of her life. People listened to her for two hours (clearly something that my two sisters and I didn’t do at an early age). Then they fed her and she got paid. She said, “I was part of a focus group and the facility was looking for interviewers.” Low and behold, I applied, got the job, and 22 years later the rest is history. During that time I was a phone interviewer, I interviewed in malls and truck stops, and even did door to door interviewing. In essence I got into this great industry by ACCIDENT! When I share my story with others in the industry they have similar stories.
Back to online research. Clearly what online research means is less interviewers, both on the phone and in malls. What it also means is less coders since most coding is now automated and takes a fraction of the time. After doing a quick count around M/A/R/C Research, I believe over 50% of the staff started their research career as an interviewer, coder or programmer. Clearly less of these jobs are now available. So……….
- How are people going to get into our industry?
- In 2006 and beyond what is the entry level job?
I have asked a number of people in the industry their thoughts on this subject and no one has any answers. So for an industry that has also seen a tremendous amount of reduction in staff on the end user front and is starving for new talent, I am very concerned.
Am I alone?
August 24th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
I too am one of the many who found this industry by accident. I heard about a great part-time job from a friend of mine which lead me to starting off my career in one of Gallup’s call centers in Lincoln, NE. That couple of years spent on the phones has turned into almost 17 years of a career for which I am very thankful. The base of knowledge (understanding response rates, incidence, survey design, etc…), that I first gained from my time “dialing for dollars” (as we used to like to refer to it) was invaluable. As you pointed out, fewer and fewer people are coming into this industry the way we did. I too have concerns, though I am not sure it is entirely a negative picture. Many colleges and universities are offering market research programs which were not available when I was in school. In addition, many of the people coming into MR are more technologically inclined than when I started (of course I also started when only about half of the projects I worked on were CATI studies – the rest were paper/pencil). Perhaps these people will be the innovators of new products and services which will only enhance what we’re doing. Perhaps the MR students are coming in with more knowledge and understanding and they will also help drive the industry in better directions.
My parents still do not understand what I do and I often hear from friends and family, “So are you still in marketing?” Perhaps it is just my circle, though I hear the same from other industry colleagues. I think the points I made above are drawing some new talent into our industry, but I really think that there needs to be more of an effort to educate the public and to help recruit. I’d like to see the industry organizations (i.e. MRA, CASRO, CMOR, etc…) get more involved in finding ways to attract new talent. There seems to be a lot of focus on the ‘next conference,’ but maybe recruitment could be another initiative that could make a bigger impact on the future of our industry.
August 25th, 2006 at 8:19 am
As usual, Merrill, you spark my interest. I, too, “officially” got my start in the industry many years ago as an interviewer and then a supervisor working part-time while I went to college.
From my dealings with various clients, both on the field and project side, I have noticed some very young entrants into the industry. Just attend a National conference, and this observation will be further substantiated. As I have built some rapport over time with these individuals, I usually ask how they got into the industry. The answer is typically “this is my first job out of college.” They typically enter as “field,” and then I have seen some of these people (usually the better ones) migrate internally over to project as some of my clients’ companies.
When I went to school, which wasn’t THAT long ago, I could only take one course in Marketing Research (believe it or not, I wanted to be a Focus Group Moderator - I swear). I attended Hofstra University, which had a ton of Marketing classes, but only one or two that focused on Marketing Research. I believe this has changed a great deal. Whether an extension of Marketing, Mathematics (statistics), or Social Science, many schools seem have far more options available for students to explore.
My father always told me “You go to College not to become what you want to be, but to learn what it is you might want to become.” I see more people these days entering the business because their interest was sparked in college, an option that wasn’t available to those of us that are 30+.
August 25th, 2006 at 9:03 am
I’m not worried about training future researchers because, in my opinion, they will come from two separate sources: technology and math/stats/finance. Research will morph into a knowledge business and the churning of data in, data manipulated, data spewed out will be handled by the techies. The rest of us will be analysts and knowledge consultants.
So college and graduate school will be increasingly important. There will be fewer total jobs, but they will be at professional pay levels.
Merrill, I know you write to spark debate, but you know that the organizational model of the future is not a replicate of today’s model.
August 25th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Good thoughts and questions. I am one of the 50% that didn’t start as an interviewer.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:48 am
Merrill, I share some of your concerns but for different reasons. I believe that everyone involved in writing questionnaires, analyzing data and making presentations should spend some time conducting telephone interviews. When I joined the market research industry( after a circuitous route that didnt involve being an interviewer) I was introduced to the concept of ‘respondent burden’. As a trained scientist I understood basic statistics and how to conduct experimental research in a laboratory however this was the first time someone had told me to think about the respondent. The interview is where the ‘rubber touches the road’ in research and if we rely on this data we all should have a solid. understanding of the environment in which it is captured. As a full service research company we continue to have a ‘phone room’ for quantitative interviewers- even with the associated management challenges and ‘feast or famine’ problems- to enable us to keep contact with the respondents.
Todays entry level researchers are mostly college trained. That is a good thing as the market research industry becomes more professional and rigorous. I hope that we dont forget that the industry is built on individual interviews - lots of them.
August 28th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
This is a very interesting topic. I think a huge majority of people “fall” into their industry. . .no matter what it is. Not everyone grows up to be baseball players and ballerinas! Many people go to college not knowing what they want to be and many may even think they know, get a degree in that area, but end up doing something completely different. I definitely got into this industry by accident. Like Lance, I only took one MR class while getting my MBA in Marketing, however, I was enrolled in a school that offered a Master’s program in MR, so even my marketing classes were more MR focused than perhaps a school that did not offer such a program.
Most of my staff (project management staff) has Master’s degrees- MBA, MSMR, Sociology and staff in other depts- programming, panel management, quality control, has MSMR degrees. However, I see evidence everyday to support what we call know: classes / just getting the diploma, in general - no matter the industry- doesn’t really prepare you for your actual job. As always, there is a huge disconnect between academia and the “real world”. Nothing can compare to on-the-job training or experience. Our industry is no different.
There’s something to be said for those that start from the ground up. Some of our best employees began as interviewers and moved into such roles as application development, programming, quality control, and project management . . .they really understand research, not just how to write code or are good with customer service, etc. I wouldn’t say I’m worried about the future of the industry, but I think how people will enter it will change.
I think we will see less people who come into the biz as interviewers with so much off shoring of call centers and new technologies chipping away at the market share of more traditional research methods. We need to see adjustments in formal MR education. Those of us who are familiar with graduate MR programs know what they have to offer and where they are lacking. As long as industry leaders have input and the schools listen to them (big key, of course), we can help mold academia to produce graduates with the proper skills to make them successful in the industry and viable candidates for our companies. We will end up with, as Owen mentioned, more professional, more educated entry-level employees. They will start off having a good base of MR with what they learned in school, and, those who are successful, will grow into managerial or higher-level positions in time based on hands-on experience. The end result will be the same – a knowledgeable industry, but the way in which the future MR leaders will rise to such positions / enter the industry will most likely differ.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I think the increasing popularity of online research will result in the advent of the “new and improved” interviewer. In other words, more and better skilled, in-depth interviewers will be needed to illimuniate all the closed, ended and vauge open-ended responses provided by respondents participating in online surveys. The key will be good probing and insightful interpretation, which is really what we should be providing our clients with all the time. Research associates or research administrative assistants will be the new entry level positions in our industry and they will be asked to provide support to project directors throughout every step of the research process. There will be less single task oriented positions - like word processors, interviewers, coders, etc. and more positions that integrate a wide variety of research tasks.
September 6th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
We built our industry in the 70’s on the backs of very talented, very bright women who had been home with their children, may not have attended college, and had few if any job opportunities. Marketing Research was one of the first industries to open the door to these talented would be professionals.
Today, colleges are dominated by women as they not only are in the majority in many Colleges and Universities, but also are among the best and brightest students we have. In my day in the 60’s at Southern Illinois University, there was only one woman in the College of Business, and only one African American guy. I just spent two years as the inaugural chair of the Marketing External Advisory Board. It is somewhat disconcerting to me to see how easily the young ladies have pushed the guys aside as they have superior grades and are easily way ahead of the guys in understanding how important it is to be a joiner and develop outside of the classroom by joing AMA, and Pi Sigma Epsilon, the professional sales fraternity. The Presidents of these organizations are young ladies. They are smart, work hard, they are nice, most of them are really knockouts, and they really know all about computers as they just Power Point their way through every day tasks. I am pleased to say that SIU Marketing as well as the College of Business are over represented in both women and minorities, altho many African American students are opting for Accounting over Marketing. The reasoning is that since Accounting ends up in a CPA, no one can say you are not qualified, whereas Marketing is still seen as the “good old boy network.” So we are not getting as many talented young Blacks as we should.
What this means to interviewing is that the talent layer we enjoyed for so long, is no longer there as women are now going to college and having careers. Heakin Research produced just about every Field Director in Chicago. But I can tell you that the present group has little if any chance to become more than they are today. We are living on borrowed time as older field supervisors retire.
September 8th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
1) How are people going to get into our industry?
By accident, of course, just like me and most people I meet in our line of work. They will accidentally discover a great way to blend market research with another industry or technology. The kids are calling them “mash-ups” these days.
2) In 2006 and beyond, what is the entry level job?
- web developer
- hacker
- blogger
- video game designer
- ten other jobs that don’t even exist yet.
September 25th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
I too got into the industry by accident. I was managing a shoe store and cut through the mall to go get food, when a woman asked me to do a survey. I thought it was a scam as she told me that I would get paid 140.00 dollars to smell women’s perfume. I did it and low and behold, I quit my job and started working there as a recruiter. That was 20 years ago and now at age 40 I am a successful mall intercept manager. I took the long route. I went from recruiting for years to being an interviewer, then supervisor, assistant and finally manager. I love the industry and honestly couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. I have noticed in the past 5 years or so, a decrease in mall work as more and more companies are going to the internet. I have talked to many of my clients about this, and they all agree that nothing compares to good old fashioned footwork in the mall. Many people lie about their age or qualifications and such just to do an online survey so they can get the cash through paypal. Having a recruiter, then assistant or supervisor double check the qualifications on the spot in the mall office assures clients that they are getting top notched work. I have gone 3 weeks out of a month with no work at all in my office I ran in Seattle. Finally in July, the company closed it. I believe that interviewers, recruiters, and mall intercept might decrease, but it will always be around. I would miss people saying to me, ” Oh you are one of those people.” when I tell them what I do…Thanx Dean in Seattle