About the Industry

Associate Director / Vice President

Researchers moving up from RM or Account Manager level often start to take a step back from projects, leaving the simpler ones to their juniors day-to-day (and sometimes almost from start to finish) and focusing more on new business, proposal writing and higher-level client management. Whereas SREs are occasionally involved in winning business and RMs often, it is very unusual for an AD or Vice President not to be, and this is reflected in a wider range of salaries, in the main significantly higher than those for RM level. Many ADs / VPs appear on conference platforms, helping to boost the image and awareness of their firm - this perhaps ties in with the increased commercial focus, but also with having mastered the basics of designing and running projects and established their areas of specific interest. They will therefore move on to developing their own theories and methodologies, innovating and forming more opinions about the direction of their particular corner of the industry.

Not that everyone from JRE upwards isn't entitled to do that of course! Suffice to say that very often more junior executives have better things to think about than work all the time – the great majority of readers of Daily Research News are at AD / VP level and above.

We tend to look for anything from 6 to 9 years of experience when coding this level, although in larger US companies VP roles can ask for considerably more.


Other levels:

JRE / Entry Level
Research Exec
SRE / Analyst
Research or Project Manager
Director / SVP and above

Or jump to

Career Paths
Salaries and salary trends
Skills in the Sector

Email this article to a friend

All articles in the 'About the Industry' section written by Nick Thomas of MrWeb during July - October 2017, and © MrWeb Ltd 2017. Thanks to GRIT, ESOMAR, the AMA and the MRS for stats and tables used.

About the industry - contents...

1. What is MR and how is it changing?

A comprehensive guide to what we do, how it's changing, and who else does similar stuff.

2. The global industry today

The supply side: revenues, rankings and company info, full listings.

3. Careers in MR

An introduction to the career ladder, activities, salaries and choices.