What do recruiters look for in entry-level market research positions?

I am a senior psychology major at a liberal arts college, interested in pursuing a career in market research. I have experience with SPSS and have held several research positions while in school (psych, not business related). I am by no means a pro at statistics, and besides an intro course I haven't taken much economics.





Is there anything else I should do over the next year to boost my resume? To clarify, I am looking for an actual analyst (or assistant analyst) position- NOT a job where I just call people for focus groups.

What do recruiters look for in entry-level market research positions?
They hold a mirror under your nose. If it fogs up, you're hired.
Reply:You already have the qualifications for a marketing researcher, or a "data gatherer".


This support position compiles significant consumer information, demographic preferences, etc. It requires basic, working knowledge of statistics and economics.


A marketing analyst, or "data miner" usually requires a degree in Economics, or more analytical experiance.


If you really LOVE crunching numbers and have a knack for analyzing data, you could find a job in either field.
Reply:Take a basic marketing class and another stats course. Recruiters often look for diversity rather than all folk with the same education set. You will never compete with some people in the areas of stats or econometrics -- but companies may want you as part of a team that includes the stat-heads. You may end-up designing studies or perhaps moderating focus groups, or managing the questions that you wish the moderator to probe. Market research is getting more difficult because brand and media choices are becoming more segmented by personality profiles rather than age-sex-race. Stat guys can calculate whether a finding is statistically significant, but someone has to creatively determine what findings they are looking for. My suggestion to add marking and more stats is not to make you a professional in those areas, but to prepare you to speak intelligently with other people you will work with. In an interview you can tell recruiters how you built your education profile around what you love and what you are good at, then augmented it with a basic understanding of what you believe will be tangential functions.





It might be hard to find the right company and get the right interview, plan to do a good search and lots of interviews. I think you'll be very intriguing to some marketing companies.





Look at package goods marketers, research companies, research departments at ad agencies, maybe even magazines and other media.