If you’re naturally inquisitive, you might enjoy a career as a researcher. Research is a tough job, a lot of people don’t make it, and there’s a lot of stress associated with the career even when you enjoy your work. Still, it’s a career that many people pursue and, if this is something you really want, you should know what the job market looks like.
Literature Reviewing
Companies, like Ivory Research, are knee-deep in literature reviewing. It’s a career that’s not well-known outside of academia. But, a career here in the private sector often involves the ability to digest complex documents and “read between the lines” to discern what is meant by what is actually written. The jobs you can take on are almost unlimited within government, healthcare, and housing.
Qualitative research
If you like “soft facts,” you’ll love qualitative research. It’s a job where you’ll likely be interviewing lots and lots of people. Fortunately, there’s a huge market for this sort of thing in product research and development. Many jobs in sales and customer service also deal intensively with qualitative research.
Even industries like computing and finance are finding value in this kind of research.
Quantitative research
Quantitative research is research that is intimately linked with data analysis. You have to be willing and able to think in terms of numbers and data. Particle physicists are a good example of quantitative analysts. But, you don’t need a degree in particle physics for a research job.
Economists, bankers and lenders, oil companies, finance, and accounting all rely on this type of analysis.
Technical Writing
A technical writer needs to have good research skills to compete and succeed as a writer. For starters, technical writers need to be subject-matter experts in the field they are writing about. They often acquire this expertise in school, but sometimes they learn what they need to know through an apprenticeship or just from working in the industry for a long period of time.
Technical writers may work with government, or private corporations, to write whitepapers, papers on policy, or advanced technical documentation for military or intergovernmental purposes.
Oral Communications
If you’re comfortable with public speaking, or if you always wanted to be good at it, consider a career in oral communications. It’s a research position that combines research, writing, and oral presentation. Jobs of this nature tend to be in T.V., music, and radio, but you can also score a position in a firm that gives regular research and analysis reports to employees and managerial staff.
Choose Carefully
While a research job in one field doesn’t necessarily preclude you from getting a job somewhere else if you decide later that you don’t like it, it does make it more challenging to switch professions. Research tends to be highly subject specific, so make sure you thoroughly research the job you’re applying for before you jump in head-first. In a sense, you’ll be using your skills to find the job of your dreams.
Jenny Wescott is studying to be an analytical research scientist. She enjoys sharing her ideas and insights on various education related blogs.
Note: Image credits go to picjumbo.com.
nice one