Research roles
Academic and research librarian
They work in universities and further education colleges and provide staff, researchers and students with access to information they need to and teach them skills necessary for conducting research. They do this by training staff and students in information literacy, referencing, literature searching and copyright laws. Skills required: collection management, cataloguing and classification (typical librarian skills).
Formal qualifications aren’t usually needed with many academic libraries advertising graduate trainee roles. For senior positions, a postgraduate qualification in library and information science is typically required. Many employers also look for CILIP chartership (professional registration) or a willingness to work towards it.
Market research data analyst
They study statistics and information collected through surveys.
A degree or postgraduate qualification involving data analysis is usually needed, such as maths and statistics, marketing and analytics, business and marketing or data science. Alternately, you could start with a higher apprenticeship as a data analyst or start work as a research assistant and move onto analysis after gaining more experience and qualifications.
Skills required: analytical thinking skills, can pay attention to detail, excellent verbal communication, customer service skills, maths knowledge, business management skills and the ability to use a computer and main software packages.
Day-to-day tasks: speaking with clients, writing proposals that detail how research will be carried out, managing relationships with clients, advising researchers about survey methods and design, checking the quality of the data collected, analysing the data using statistical software programmes and computer models, presenting results (talks, written reports, graphs, tables) and explaining findings to market research executives.
Market research executive
They help clients to find out people’s views on certain products or political/social issues.
To enter the quantitative sector of market research work, you may want a degree in subjects such as maths, statistics, business, management or economics.
To enter the qualitative sector of market research work, you may want a degree in subjects such as psychology, sociology, geography, social sciences or anthropology.
You could also take a Level 3 course in marketing or Level 4 course in professional marketing at college to gain some of the necessary skills needed for this job.
These skills include: analytical thinking skills, paying attention to detail, customer service skills, knowledge of the English language, persistence and determination, excellent verbal communication skills and the ability to confidently use computers and main software packages.
Day-to-day tasks: meeting clients to discuss research projects, creating proposals to present to clients, managing budgets, designing questionnaires, organising surveys, analysing data to present to clients and advising clients on how to best use the research and results.
Market researcher
They interview people to find out their opinions on products, services or issues.
These following college courses could be useful when applying for this job: Level 1 Certificate in Customer Service, Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Working in Customer Service and a Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Marketing.
You can apply directly for this job, however, as employers are more interested in your personality, enthusiasm and communication skills than qualifications and experience.
Skills required: maths knowledge, analytical thinking skills, teamwork skills, to be flexible and adaptable to changes, excellent verbal communication skills and the ability to use computers and various software programmes.
Day-to-day tasks: talking to people in the street or over the phone or by visiting their homes, persuading people to partake in surveys, asking people questions and possibly videoing them, recording answers and organising results to pass to superiors.
Research officer
They are accountable for extensive research to enable matching, updating or the creation of works, cues and productions for music systems. They also oversee the making of decisions about research into products and ensure that everybody is accurately paid. They have to meet distribution deadlines as well as analyse and interpret data to report inconsistencies and take responsibility for acting on findings.
Skills required: can critically evaluate information to identify potential errors, takes responsibility for achieving objectives, uses own initiative without a need for direction and can identify the most efficient ways of working.
A background in research and data analysis is needed, and an interest in music is preferred. It is also required that you have experience using computers and Microsoft Office software, especially Word, Excel and Outlook.
Research scientist
The details of the job depend on the area of research you work on. This could include working with hardware, improving hand and body tracking or decreasing the cost of hardware. You could also work in the healthcare industry to help improve practices by running experiments with participants.
Skills required: working with a team, understanding other’s strengths and weaknesses, being forward-thinking, handling data (e.g. experiment/survey results) and pulling conclusions from results.
Higher education qualifications are needed for this job as you’ll learn how to conduct research and gain experience managing research projects.
Researcher
They support producers by finding information, people and places for TV or radio programmes.
Researchers often have a degree, with the most useful being: broadcasting and media, English, history, journalism and politics. However, you could also do an apprenticeship as a broadcast production assistant as a way of working towards this job.
College courses that are relevant to this career are a Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media, Level 3 Diploma in Creative Media Production or a Level 3 Diploma in Creative Media Production & Technology.
It is possible to pursue this career path without gaining qualifications, though they are usually looking for people with experience. This can be gained by working on radio programmes, student films, TV programmes, local newspapers or student publications.
Skills required: analytical thinking skills, ability to use your initiative, customer service skills, persistence and determination, verbal communication skills and the ability to use a computer and various software programmes.
Day-to-day tasks: discussing programme ideas and researching needs with producers, finding and checking information, searching media libraries and archives, writing briefs for presenters, checking copyright, finding studio audiences/programme contributors looking for locations and researching and writing content for websites/social media.
Weave researcher
Weave researchers’ schedules often vary from week to week. They could be planning new designs, creating yarn wraps, weaving samples or experimenting with colours and textures. They also work on orders/comissions for clients or on projects with other people. Doing research is a key aspect within all of this, researching ideas and learning about new ways to create.
It is probably useful to have experience or qualifications within a creative subject, especially within Art and Design.
There are many related careers that can be pursued relating to textiles such as a printed textile designer, weaver, visual merchandiser, self-employed tailor, retailer or new technologies researcher.
Skills required: patience, creativity, the ability to work well independently and with others and adaptability to the everchanging schedule.
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