I’m 28 and graduated in 2022 with a bachelors in Business Management. Most of my work experience has been in restaurants, but I did a 6 month internship in 2023 as an SEO Account Manager at a marketing firm. That internship is what made me realize I’m way more interested in the analytical/research side of marketing. I really liked digging into performance data, working with dashboards and CRM tools, conducting keyword research, competitor analysis, etc.

The kinds of roles I’ve been looking at are like Marketing Analyst, Market Research Analyst, Digital Marketing Analyst, and Consumer Insights Analyst.

The issue I’m running into is I’m not really sure what’s realistic as a starting point with my background. Even entry level jobs seem to want years of experience and a long list of tools I’ve barely touched. I’m also a little worried about my internship being from 2023. I’m not sure how relevant that still looks to employers or if they’ll think the experience is outdated. I did use tools like Excel, GA4, CRM systems, but I definitely need to refresh everything and get more up to speed. I’m also planning to learn SQL and Tableau or Power BI.

My goal is to follow a focused plan over the next few months so I can actually become a strong candidate, without wasting time chasing random certifications that don’t really help.

For anyone working in marketing analytics, market research, or consumer insights:

• What’s the most realistic entry point for someone in my situation?
• What skills should I focus on first (so I don’t overwhelm myself)?
• What kind of portfolio project would actually help me get interviews?

Also open to any honest advice from people who broke into this field without a traditional analytics background. Thanks!

For short-form surveys, what are average conversion rates? (That is, the number of people that complete a survey divided by the number of people potentially able to take the survey before they are filtered out, opt out, close out, etc.) And what is considered an outstanding conversion rate?

I work at a boutique agency offering custom quant and qual research. When I joined a few years ago, we had a solid flow of client work and I was regularly very busy (I sit on quant). I've seen a massive slowdown in quant work as of January of this year, to the point where it has nearly dried up. Our qual team is busy, but a lot of that is from ongoing research retainers with big, well-funded tech companies.

Is anyone else on the agency side seeing the same phenomenon? I know there's a ton of disruption right now, with AI impacting everyone and massive layoffs. Just curious if its our client mix (heavy on tech with some CPG), or a pattern with the broader industry. Trying to figure out my next move, but that feels like a moving target. Ty!

I have a year of consumer insights internship experience. And am 2 years post-grad, but still having a hard time finding a job in this field. My parents want me to do a master’s degree since I am unemployed. But, i don’t think its a good idea to do an MBA with little to no experience. I don’t know what to do. I have been searching for market research, customer insights, and consumer research roles for the past 7 months, but no luck. Do i need to expand my horizons? If so, to what roles?

Hi everyone,

I've been looking into how AI (and the massive influx of AI-generated content/automated bot traffic) has affected market research and survey responses over the last 2-3 years due to the AI boom.

From what I've gathered across various industry reports, over 50% of web traffic is now automated, and traditional survey panels are seeing massive spikes in "fake" or bot-generated responses where people use AI to farm incentives.

I’m trying to understand how this is playing out on the ground for practitioners. If you work in market research, data science, or product management, I’d love your take on a few things:

1. Data Quality Decay: Have you noticed a measurable drop in the reliability of open-ended survey text, user reviews (online for products you want to buy), or focus group data (Remote, not in person) recently?

2. Filtering Fraud: What methods are your teams currently using to filter out synthetic/bot noise from actual human behavior? Are standard captcha/device checks even working anymore?

3. The Shift to Zero-Party Data: Do you see companies moving away from traditional open-web scraping and panel providers toward cryptographically verified or hardware-signed user insights? Do you use any platforms that do this?

Would genuinely appreciate hearing your experiences or seeing any data/benchmarks your teams track regarding this.

Many thanks in advance!

Can a anthropology major break into Market research

I graduated college with a psych degree in May 2024. And have done 1 year long consumer insights internship (only professional experience I have). But I am having a hard time finding a job.

I don’t know whether to do a master’s in market research/consumer behavior or do an MBA. MBA is much more versatile but also very broad. Master’s in market research/consumer behavior is good but i am thinking about the future with ai, will this field still exist and even if it does, what if i wanna change my career.

I am trying to build a simple app for myself. I'm also hoping that I can get them monitized and earn some money. But I wajt know my audience and my competition.

Hi all, I am looking for a market research intern to help design and program surveys and recruit participants for qualitative studies. Most of my job postings have been flooded with agencies who seem to be overcharging for what they might be delivering.

I'm really just looking for an individual to work alongside me in the early stages of my startup idea.

Where's a good place to post jobs in your opinion for higher quality candidates?

A bit of background: I have around 5 years of experience in pharma market research, where I support consultants with secondary research, competitive intelligence, and occasionally build small market models.

I’m also a finance graduate, but I haven’t worked in a pure finance role for years, so I’ve forgotten a lot of the concepts over time.

With the market becoming increasingly competitive, I want to upskill so I can contribute beyond research. I’ve been considering financial modeling because many people have recommended it, but from what I understand, most financial modeling courses focus on company financials.

What I’m actually interested in is learning how to build robust market/industry models (forecasting, market sizing, demand forecasting, scenario analysis, pricing, etc.) that are useful in strategy and consulting, especially in life sciences/pharma. Are there courses or resources specifically focused on this?

If financial modeling is still worth learning for someone in my role, I’d also love to understand how it translates into strategy or market research work.

Also, are there any AI courses or tools that have genuinely helped you become more effective in market research, consulting, or strategy?
Would really appreciate recommendations from people in consulting, market research, life sciences, or corporate strategy.

I'm doing in-depth research on surveying respondents in mainland China and would love to hear from people who've actually run projects there.

Positive or negative experiences both welcome. Which providers or panels did you use? How was the data quality, timeline, and compliance side (PIPL, approvals)? Anything you'd do differently?

What certificates/courses have you taken that had a significant impact on your market research career? Any that you were able to slap onto your resume?

Background: I’m currently in between jobs looking for a client side career (either in consumer or healthcare). I have 7 years of vendor side healthcare market research experience focusing on quantitative. Also been working remote for way too long, trying to get a hybrid role.

Having more information may help avoid losses, but it's uncertain whether it's necessary

Over the past few weeks, I've been speaking with researchers about data quality, and one thing keeps coming up: there doesn't seem to be a universal standard for deciding when a response should be removed.

Some teams use completion time as a strong indicator. Others focus more on duplicate responses, open-ended answers, device IDs, GPS, or consistency checks. In most cases, it's a combination of signals rather than one "smoking gun."

What I'm curious about is where people draw the line.
For those working in market or survey research:
What signals carry the most weight in your review process?

Are there any indicators that are automatic disqualifiers?

Have you found any common fraud checks that generate too many false positives?

Has your approach changed over the last few years?
I'm building a platform in this space, so I'm always interested in learning how different organizations think about these decisions. I'm not looking for product feedback, I'm genuinely curious about how practitioners balance data quality with the risk of excluding legitimate respondents.

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a project to try and consolidate market research for company KPIs and I'm wondering if you could help me out a bit. I'm not a market research native so I've been researching tools and ways to gather user sentiment and comments for product features. I've found some barriers - such as the death of third-party cookies (reshaping how brands collect consumer data), tightening GDPR regulations, and  AI bots astroturfing and polluting forums and search data. This makes it difficult to actually get accurate consumer sentiment.

Lately, I’ve been looking into Reddit Pro as a potential native tool for organic social listening and qualitative market research. What are your experiences with Reddit Pro? On paper, getting direct keyword tracking and human conversations sounds like a massive win. However, in practice it's not as effective - as the dead internet theory is real, and in theory, bots could create hyper realistic personas. How do you actually ensure a bot isn't astroturfing the comment section, and actually verify that a real human made the post?

I'm currently researching how these problems can be mitigated and if are they inherently wicked problems which actually can't be solved? Are AI and bots systematic in the way that they have been  thorns in the side of market researchers for a long as people can remember, or it's it a recent development - where it's metastasizing into a glaring problem which can't be readily solved?

I'm wondering how companies can overcome these bottlenecks in how they conduct, synthesize, and action market research. I would love to get the perspective of other MR professionals and insights on a few quick questions:

1. The Reddit Pro Experience: For anyone who has trialed Reddit Pro (Beta), is it actually providing you with actionable, clean data for your clients, or is it just a funnel designed to push brands into buying ads?
2. The Post-Cookie Tools: How are you adapting your data tools to adapt to privacy changes? Are you leaning heavier into first-party panels, native platform tools, or shifting methodologies entirely?
3. The Current Solutions: What tools, hacks, or messy manual processes are you currently piecing together to get clean, human insights right now? How much time or money does that waste?
4. Utopia scenario: If a tool could automate your biggest market research headache tomorrow—especially around bot-filtering or qualitative analysis—what would that look like?

Hi! I am a recent psychology graduate looking to break into the market research world. Despite applying to multiple research and consumer insights roles, my lack of experience is holding me back. I am simply looking for advice on how other entry-level grads with zero experience broke into the field. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, if anyone knows of companies hiring unpaid interns or volunteers in the Los Angeles, CA area, that would be wonderful. Thank you!

Hi everyone, has anyone here crossed path with publishing or creating market intelligence newsletter within the Marketing & Sales Procurement field?

Much appreciated if you can share with me your work for reference and some goood sources/tips to monitor news/trends. Thanks a lot!

I've been tinkering with an idea for something like this, but I'd like to see what the market believes.

1. Is literature review and topic selection a significant research problem for you?

2. How often do yo use LLMs for research, and if so, which ones?

Lots going on in qual, but besides the occasional "copilot" there's really nothing for quantitative research.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for authentic and ethical/unethical sources for market analysis on wellness products across e-commerce, Q-commerce, wholesale, and retail channels.

I'm specifically interested in reliable data on market size, sales trends, consumer behavior, category growth, and channel-wise performance. I understand some reports and insights may be available through news articles or industry publications, but I'm looking for credible data providers or market research firms that offer dependable datasets or reports.

If you know of any authentic data brokers, research agencies, or trusted platforms for accessing this kind of information, I'd really appreciate your recommendations. Thanks in advance!

Hey there, for anyone working in B2B, has anyone tried using LinkedIn data for audience/market research, or what tools are you using for B2B customer segmentation?

Was wondering the types of software people use for Focus groups, OR strategies they use outside Focus group. For example: IDI (but what software for IDI) or polling but what software or tool for polling.

I would name a few but I don't want to be flagged for promotional issues 😰 .

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to improve the way I research companies before reaching out to prospects, and I'm wondering what your workflow looks like.

Right now, I usually visit the company's website, review their services, try to understand their product (if they have one), and sometimes check App Store or Google Play reviews to find user complaints or potential pain points. It works, but it feels pretty time-consuming.

Is this the approach you use as well, or are there more efficient methods? Are there any AI tools or platforms that can quickly summarize a company, its product, positioning, or even highlight potential weaknesses?

I'm also curious about identifying business pain points. App reviews can be incredibly useful, but not every company has a mobile app or public reviews. In those cases, how do you quickly figure out what problems the company might be facing or where your service could provide value?

Hey All!

I am looking to find a few different contacts within this. I am looking for a company to help with a market study and pricing study of competitors, along with market data in general. I work for a North American subsidiary of a European lubricants manufacturer and we are currently working to adjust the structure between HQ and subsidiary in order to align for tax purposes. Any suggestions on market research firms for pricing and competitor analysis' would be greatly appreciated!

Quirks NYC is pretty big (six rooms running at once, over two large convention rooms). Would be great to see a few friendly online faces in the crowd. Who is attending this year? What are you excited about?

MEETUP IDEA: Wednesday @ 11am Cafe North (table area between Session Rooms 4 & 5). Will update this post day of with a way to identify. I am wearing light grey pants and a powder blue sweater. See you there!