Market Research Resume: Tips, Examples and Guide

Market researchers (or market research analysts) collect, analyze, and interpret voluminous data to help their companies understand and predict customer behaviors, sales and market conditions, inventory situations, or related business performance. 

Generally, market researchers can be separated into quantitative researches and qualitative researchers.

Quantitative researchers estimate opinions and behaviors of the population by analyzing data from large pools of respondents, while qualitative researchers collect data and deliver insights by conducting focus groups or interviewing small groups of respondents.

To apply for a market researcher job, you need not only solid math and analytical skills, but an eye-catching market research resume and cover letter to stand out from countless competitors.

Read the thorough market research resume and cover letter guidelines below to craft an appealing job application!

Read the 5 detailed writing tips for a market research analyst resume to catch your recruiters’ hearts!

ATS, the abbreviation of Applicant Tracking System, is a recruiting system used by most Fortune 500 companies to filter out unqualified resumes for the opening jobs.

It’s significant to make your market research resume ATS-friendly to beat the system.

Note that ATS can’t parse images and charts, so don’t insert them in the resume to confuse the system.

Also, remember to keep your market research resume neat and clean. List down your skills and accomplishments in a bullet list to make them readable to the system.

Preparation is the key to success. You could refer to online market research resume examples and templates to get the knack of resume writing.

You could incorporate important keywords like job title, hard and soft skills, and personality traits written in the job description of the market researcher opening throughout your resume.

It makes your market research resume relevant to the job and increases its visibility.

Note that a market research resume is different from a CV. A market research CV is often longer than 2 pages. It lists your comprehensive background like work history, skills, educational experience, and publications to apply for positions in the academic field.

In comparison, a market research resume is a 1 or 2-page long document showing only your experience and achievements that match the opening job.

Numbers always speak louder than words. When showing your past achievements in your market research analyst resume, try using numbers like percentages and rankings to quantify your achievements.

For instance, if you have helped improve the marketing department’s performance, you could measure and quantify your results by the following factors:

• Client/Customer retention
• Client/Customer ratings
• Client/Customer satisfaction
• Sales revenue
• Cost reduction
• Cost Savings
• Increase in website page views
• Increase in quarterly/annual earnings
• Increase in user engagement
• Complaints resolved

Market researchers work with numbers. It’s significant to show your math and analytical skills in the market research resume.

You could list down technical skills like quantitative analysis, data mining, or data analysis. It would be a plus to list down the analytics tools like Excel, Tableau, SQL, and R Programming.

A good market research resume objective demonstrates your ambitions and career plans to invoke recruiters’ interest.

It’s generally placed on the top of the market research analyst resume, right after the contect information, to maximize visibility.

The resume objective is typically 2 to 3 sentences long. It’s recommended to include 2 to 3 words to describe your personality traits. Don’t forget to mention your years of employment if your experience is related to market research. You could also insert the company name and the position you’re applying for in the resume objective to catch the recruiters’ eyes.

Don’t write irrelevant experience to fill up the space. Make your career goal align with the opening job.

Also, remember to keep the market research resume objective clear and concise. You should proofread it to avoid unwanted typos or wording errors.

A resume summary for market research outlines your most competitive and alluring experience and skills to amaze your recruiters.

1. Where to place the resume summary?
   You could place the resume summary on the top of your market research, right under the resume title and personal information (name and contact information) to make sure it’s visible to recruiters.
   
2. Things to include in the resume summary:
   A resume summary is typically 2 to 4 sentences long. You could write down your most competitive skills, awards, or work experience to help you stay ahead of the competition.
   
   💡Tips: Don’t forget to study the job description in the first place. It helps you write a market research resume summary that is relevant to the opening position.
   
3. Things to avoid in the resume summary:
   Don’t make your resume summary too long to read. Avoid trivial things like the number of your family members or hobbies that have nothing to do with your competitiveness.
   
   Keep your market research resume concise and proofread to check for errors and typos.

The skills section in your market research resume demonstrates your hard and soft skills to boost the chances of landing the dream job.

It’s highly recommended to integrate the skills sections with work experience. You can also show your skills in a simple or extended bullet list.

A simple bullet list helps recruiters understand your competitive skills in a short time, yet it lacks explanation on your implementation of hard and soft skills.

Hence, you should elaborate on your skills in the work experience section.

In comparison, a list with expanded bullets gives elaboration on how you master and implement the skills in different projects, yet it might be too long to read if you list down more than 5 skills.

1. Where to place the skills section on a resume?
   For recent graduates or job-changers who are applying for entry-level market research jobs, you could place the skills section on the top of your work experience section.
   
   In comparison, if you are an experienced worker with solid work experience, you could put the skills section right under the work experience section to emphasize your work history in the market research analyst resume.
   
2. Things to include in the resume skills section:
   You should read the job description carefully to make sure all the skills you list on the market research resume are relevant to the opening job.
   
   Also, if you master some analytics tools like Excel, SPSS, or R Programming, don’t forget to write them down in the hard skills part.
   
3. Things to avoid in the resume skills section:
   Please avoid buzzwords and generic skills that can’t directly show your competitiveness. For instance, “hardworking” and “kind-hearted” are not perfect choices to show your skills.
   
    Please also avoid progress bars or percent bars that can’t really calculate and demonstrate your proficiency of skills.
   

If you are a recent graduate or applicant with no work experience, read the 5 pieces of advice below to craft a winning market research resume!

Advice 1: Choose the right resume format.

It’s recommended to choose the functional resume format or targeted resume format because they don’t require an extensive job history. 

1. Functional resume format This format puts the skills section at the top of the market research resume to highlight your competitive skills and achievements. It maximizes the visibility of the skills section to impress the recruiters even if you don’t have work experience.
2. Targeted resume format A targeted resume is a resume designed for a specific job opening. Even though this format requires extra time and effort to complete, it undoubtedly increases your chances of landing the job. Don’t forget to research and analyze the industry, company, department, and job requirements of the job you’re applying for.

Advice 2: Adopt a career objective.

A career objective, or a resume objective, shows your career plans and goals to the potential recruiters. You could insert the company name and the job title of the opening job in the market research resume to amaze the recruiters. On the other hand, drop the resume summary since it relies heavily on your past experience.

Advice 3: Highlight your education.

Remember to introduce your educational background in the market research resume. You should write down your school name, degree, your majors, the year of graduation, GPA (optional), and minors (optional) in the market research resume. If you’ve taken courses related to market research, you can also list them in the education section.

👍 If you don’t have a degree, you could write down online courses, seminars, or training camps you’ve taken in your market research analyst resume.

Advice 4: Include your portfolio/side project/personal website.

If you have other documents such as a portfolio, website, social media account page, or side project that can showcase your competitiveness, remember to include them in your market research resume and cover letter. Don’t miss out on every opportunity to showcase your strengths!

Advice 5: Write a sincere cover letter.

A well-designed market research analyst cover letter shows your sincerity to recruiters, especially when you don’t have much experience to bring to the table. 

In addition, remember to tell recruiters if you have attached documents like a market research resume and portfolio. Finally, send your resume and related documents in pdf version to preserve the formatting.