Stephanie V.
About me
| Stephanie V. | |
| Language and Linguistic Science | |
| French and Linguistics | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Alcuin | |
| 2014 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Market Research Executive | |
| The Knowledge Partnership | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Advertising, marketing and PR | |
| 2014 |
More about Stephanie
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A day in the life of a Market Research Executive in the United Kingdom
Where I hope to be in 5 years
In the short-term, I hope to progress from working on projects to eventually leading them. I currently do a small amount of product development work, ensuring our services meet client needs, and I would like to build on this to eventually be able to develop new ideas for what we offer. In the long-term, I recognise that aside from opportunities for development at my current company, my job could lead to a market research role in a specific university, or another industry altogether. Ideally, I would love to be able to apply my languages to my work more than I currently do.
My advice to students considering work
Do not feel unduly pressured to work for a large company if you are the sort of person who is likely to excel in a smaller team. There are plenty of smaller businesses looking for graduates and the advantage of these is that you are likely to have much more "hands-on" training, which means you will progress fast. It can also mean you are given quite a lot of responsibility early on - an opportunity to excel.
Work experience is absolutely key. Your time at York will have prepared you in a range of skills that you can readily apply in your graduate job, but that cannot replace the experience of working with others, taking on unfamiliar challenges and developing knowledge of how the "real world" works - and a reference from a previous job or internship can make all the difference when it comes to applying for a graduate job.
About this sector: Market research and data analysis skills are widely sought after in many industries and sectors. Higher Education is an interesting sector to be in, particularly as a new graduate. It is like being on the other side of the fence! It helps to be aware of the surrounding government policy (visas/immigration, funding etc.) overseas and in the UK.
My advice about working in my industry
Market research and data analysis skills are widely sought after in many industries and sectors. Higher Education is an interesting sector to be in, particularly as a new graduate. It is like being on the other side of the fence! It helps to be aware of the surrounding government policy (visas/immigration, funding etc.) overseas and in the UK.
What I do
I work for a consultancy that specialises in Higher Education. We provide universities and HE providers with research and advice in strategy, marketing and internationalisation. I work on a range of projects which can include market research into a new course concept, portfolio review (where we provide in-depth analysis of how courses within a whole university faculty are performing, for example) and most recently, research into how UK universities were involved in the 2012 Olympics.
My day-to-day tasks include a lot of data analysis, creating and analysing online surveys and putting together reports, which I might later present to university staff.
My job involves a certain amount of travelling, to conduct interviews with academic staff and students, for example. Earlier this year, I spent several days in the Netherlands to develop my knowledge of their Higher Education system.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Extracurricular skills:
I am now able to make sense of very large datasets and effectively present data, both visually and in the form of a report or presentation. This is helped by having had to quickly develop a lot of Excel expertise!
There is a certain problem solving element to receiving a client query and developing a plan of action, from what sort of analysis is required, to how it will be presented and how long it will take. We are all encouraged as a team to demonstrate initiative and share ideas for product development, or changes in the way we tackle tasks.
What I like most
Working for a small company which in turn works with a large number of organisations and universities, my daily activities are varied. I enjoy working on larger projects, which can take several months to complete, but by the end our data analysis and research comes together to provide clear recommendations. I enjoy being part of something which could potentially inform the decisions made by a university.
What I like least
Truthfully, I am not a gifted public speaker and I still dread having to give presentations. Although I strongly dislike speaking in front of a large group of people, I have got better at pretending I don't.
Next steps...
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