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A Typical Day in the Life of a Researcher
(Thanks to Ross Woledge from Ray & Berndtson Canada)
| 7:30am | On the train into work. Read the morning's business reports, particularly looking for anything related to any of the industries I'm working in. |
| 8:00am | Get to my desk, check my email, create a 'to do' list and plot how much time I can attribute to each search. My workload fluctuates, but usually I have anywhere between 4-6 searches on my plate. |
| 9:00am | Meeting with a partner. One of our searches is not going so well so we need to figure out an action plan. One of the great aspects about working at this firm is the culture of team cooperation and input from all angles. We all contribute ideas to how to solve the problem and research is often looked to actively drive the strategy. |
| 10:00am | It's time to hit the phones to come up with some good names for one of our searches with one of the big four consultancies. Name generating over the phone is either something you love or hate. Fortunately I am the former and find the battle with receptionists and other gatekeepers the most exciting part of the job. Not a bad session - 12 names in a couple of hours - which should hopefully produce the extra candidate we are looking for. |
| 2:00pm | Launch meeting. We have been retained by a timber company to find their new head of sales and marketing. Personally, my favorite searches are the industries of which I have no knowledge at all. The learning potential in a 3 month period can be incredible. This one looks fairly straight forward and once we have a solid strategy flushed out, we are ready to go. |
| 3:00pm | Run a few database searches before being interrupted with an urgent request. The managing partner, heading to a pitch tomorrow for a tire manufacturer, needs a report on the industry before 5pm. I am able to locate industry trends (looks like it's in trouble), key players, types of tires, main plant locations, predictions for the market (more imports/less export) and a list of all tire trade related associations (9 in Canada alone!). The report is bound and ready by 4.45. |
| 4:45pm | Quick request from a consultant to do a breakout in one of the advisory firms, which I'm able to get just before the switchboard shuts down at 5. |
| 6:00pm | Tidy up loose ends, add some notes to the database and start thinking about my 'to do' list for tomorrow. |