Market researcher

In your day-to-day tasks you may:

• explain the purpose of your survey and encourage people to take part
•  ask people questions about a product or service by telephone or online
•  interview people in person in the community, or by visiting them at home
•  ask questions from a scripted questionnaire or survey
•  record people's answers, sometimes videoing them during the interview
•  organise the results and pass them to your supervisor
•  write survey reports and store information securely

• customer service skills
• excellent verbal communication skills
• the ability to use your initiative
• to be flexible and open to change
• active listening skills
• excellent written communication skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• analytical thinking skills
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

You can get into this job through:

• a college course
• an apprenticeship
• applying directly
• specialist courses run by a professional body

With experience, you could become a supervisor or area fieldwork manager. You could also become a research assistant in a market research agency or social research organisation.

Some market research interviewers choose to specialise in areas such as medical research. There may also be demand for interviewers who are fluent in other languages.