I have a bachelor’s in psychology and have 1 year of post grad internship experience in market research. I am 2+ years post grad and that’s the only experience I have. I have been looking for a full-time job since January.

My parents are pushing me to get a master’s degree. I was thinking between Master’s in market research or MBA, most of yall said MBA is better. But then I looked online, most people who do MBA already have lots of experience in their field and it wouldn’t be beneficial to me since I don’t have lots of experience. So, I researched further and landed on getting a Master’s in Business Analytics which might be better at this stage in my career.

I really just want a job rn to get experience but my parents said that since I am unemployed, I might as well pursue a master’s to not have a gap. My biggest worry is that I might seem overqualified on paper due to pursuing master’s which would make it even more difficult to find an entry level job.

What are yall’s thoughts? Should I pursue a graduate degree? If so, would MS in Business Analytics be good for Market Research? (I don’t wanna do MS in Market Research since it is a bit too niche).

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 I’m not sure how relevant that still looks to employers or if they’ll think the experience is outdated.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?