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Posted by Michael Branham on October 25, 1997 at 19:45:58:
In Reply to: entry-level analyst careers? posted by Jaelae Smith on October 25, 1997 at 15:01:17:
Burnout. One of those things all market researchers experience at one time or another -- especially when doing phone interviews.
When I started doing market research as an intern in 1990, my first assignment was to interview about 700 paralegals about their usage of outside support services (document copying, records retrieval, court reporting, etc.). I was asking each paralegal approximately 15 questions about their opinions, preferences, habits, and usage rates of such services. The interviewing process took several months.
Talk about BURNOUT!!! After about two weeks of interviewing paralegals -- with my boss literally looking over my shoulder critiquing every phone call -- I thought I was going to FREAK! I was eager to move on to the *real* aspects of market research -- you know -- the number crunching, analyzing, drawing of conclusions, strategizing, and all the wonderful stuff that makes you feel like you're making a significant contribution. But all that came soon enough (several months later).
Then, guess what...? I actually *missed* doing the interviews and phone surveys. And I also realized that the time I spent doing interviews and surveys was an invaluable experience. The data collection process is the backbone of our profession. Without data collection (i.e. phone interviews, etc.), we would have nothing to analyze and report. Moreover, your interviewing job is teaching you (subliminally) the many intricate nuances of obtaining objective, valid, and reliable feedback through interpersonal communication. This is arguably the most important aspect of the *entire* research process.
Time goes by more quickly than you can ever imagine. Won't be long until *you* are the one doing the "higher level" work and realizing how very important *this* part (phone surveys) of your career is. At some point, you may even *miss* the good old days when you were interviewing people on the telephone.
I have my own market research business now and still do a good portion of the phone interviews myself for two reasons. First -- I get a good feel for each new project by doing interviews myself. Second -- I have learned to *enjoy* interviewing people.
Be patient. And have FUN with your telephone interviews. Mix it up a little. Have a sense of humor. Try to think about where your role fits into the overall process. And think about how fast time went by when you were burning out on regression analysis problems in that miserable statistics class you took in school (even though it seemed like it would never end at the time). Most importantly, put the issue of burnout out of your mind. The more you think about it, the worse you will experience it. Keep your mind on being the best phone interviewer you can be :-)