Recently BuzzBack hosted 16 students from my alma mater to learn about our company and hear about careers in Market Research. It was a rewarding experience all around as students and our team members participated in lively discussions about the industry and predictions about where it’s headed. The visit also provided the students a chance to experience “A Day in the Life of a MR Agency”. I highly recommend that my MR colleagues consider sponsoring such an event at their organizations – both on the client and the agency side. It’s a terrific opportunity to “give back” to the industry, but also a fantastic way to tap into the next generation of research professionals.
By the end of 2014, Millennials are slated to become 36% of the workforce, and almost half by 2020. As older MR professionals retire, their exit potentially creates a skills gap, so it’s critical for us as an industry to proactively reach out to young people to fill the talent funnel. For a company like BuzzBack, we’re particularly keen to attract these digital natives because their technological and new media savvy is in complete alignment with our core essence as a company. From our start, BuzzBack has always been about advancing market insights by harnessing the power of available, emerging and blue sky technology. We have found that making direct contact with Gen Y is much more effective in sparking interest in a Market Research career than waiting for them to discover it on their own.
