Re:Looking forward to career advice - Market Research Forum

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am in a very different kind of situation. I did my MBA in Marketing from India and then worked for 1.5 years in sales in India. I also have 2 years of experience as Assistant Brand Manager from India. In Fall of 2003 I started my second master's degree at Thunderbird- which is #1 school for intl. business in the US. I started MIM (Master in Intl. Bus). As a part of the course I studied in France at the school's European campus and did my internship in Luxembourg where I carried out an internal research of 220 employees' satisfaction. I am able to understand very basic of French and Spanish with fluency in English and other 2 Indian languages.

I have been working in a small MR company for 2 years that collects the data from off license shops in London. I also carried out a 2 week research on market potential of Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia including a visit of the countries as a part of coursework in MBA. I will be finishing my second masters degree in Dec 2007.

My question is:
? What should be ideal job level that I should target in the US in the MR once I finish my education next year?
? What should be my strategy to enter the MR industry in the US?
? I do not have any technical background; will this be a big obstacle to get the job?
? What is a typical career path for a person like me without any technical background?

Thanking you in advance,
Best Regards,
Vishal

Hi Vishal,

First of all, I should point out that I'm not a careers expert and to be honest I don't really know much about the US market- my experience is from the UK.

However, in my opinion do you have some MR experience and a sound education background. In the UK with two years experience and the fact that you have done an MBA and a MIM I would say that at the very least you should be looking for a Research Executive position but more likely a Senior Research Executive (Project Manager sort of level) - be careful with job titles though I think they are different in the US - A Senior Research Executive is someone much more senior.

In the past, I always found that a direct letter approach works - targeting the companies you are interested in - but beacuse you have some experience I would approach a couple of market research recruitment agencies - they should be able to help place you.

I'm not sure what you mean about not having technical background? - if you have 2 years experience working in a market research agency that's good experience.

Anyway, the very best of luck with it,

Danny