What makes a good Market Research Project Manager
I was amazed to hear from one of our clients last week, that despite 28 first interviews held in their last recruitment process, they only managed to secure one hire in the whole process. I was chuffed to bits that after sending only 2 people, the chosen shortlisted candidate was mine.
This didn’t really help the client much as they are still left with a number of roles to fill.
Sometimes it is difficult to spot a good candidate until you meet them but here are my top 5 pointers that make the difference between an average candidate and a good market research project manager candidate:
- time management (this is critical as all projects have a time scale and deadline, sometimes it is about understanding what the real deadline is, and whether this can be achieved without sacrificing the integrity of the project and the end result)#
- ability to juggle priorities (frequently project managers work on more than one assignment and they need to be able to juggle what is urgent and what is important
- an understanding of the demands of a market research project (knowing what the chain of events is and how this affects different parts of the business is critical in understanding how to be successful)
- managing relationships (internal and external) this is critical, being able to deal with difficult people; being able to extract the exact information you want from a client who isn’t very willing to give it; being able to manage their expectation and achieve a win/win situation
- knowledge of the market research agency process. The industry is extremely competitive and being able to sound like an expert, or certainly someone who knows how to run the whole process is critical to success.
In many ways these elements are typical to the success of many roles and jobs in London but they are definitely good pointers when applying for a new role . How does your application fit in with the above?