The last “Careers in…” panel discussion took place Wednesday in the Hughes-Trigg Atrium A and B. This particular panel, from 12 to 1 p.m., was geared toward people who are considering jobs in the fields of marketing or ethnographic research, studies performed in the fields of sociology or anthropology that receive information pertaining to a certain demographic.
The four panelists were the founder of Customer Focused Marketing, Alicia Harris, one of her employees, A.J. Schwartz, an employee at Decision Analyst, Inc., Bruce Crandall, and American Airlines passenger sales manager Dave Thomas.
During the introduction, panelists talked about their backgrounds in the marketing or ethnographic research industry.
Harris worked at GM Motors for 10 years prior to her decision to start her own marketing company, which now employs 60 people who create and promote campaigns for about 200 automobile dealers.
A year later Schwartz joined Harris in building her company. Thomas, the passenger sales manager at American Airlines, worked his way up and has been with the company for 17 years, while Crandall served as an example for those aspiring to work in the ethnographic research field since he “majored in social anthropology and German in college and also participated in ethnography field projects.”
Harris, Schwartz and Thomas, the three panelists who were involved in the marketing field, all agreed that to be successful in their industry you need unconventional, creative ideas and the ability to find out what the demographic being advertised to wants via surveys, questionnaires or focus groups. Schwartz commented on his profession.
“The most rewarding part of my job is probably seeing an idea to fruition and [eventually] becoming a sale,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz also suggested that students get their foot in the door and consider internships if they want to set themselves above the rest. Crandall told those interested in doing ethnographic research that it is a career needing high analytical skills.
“The vast majority of what I do now is qualitative work,” Crandall said.
