Pollster

The nameless strangers who email us five-minute survey offers or stop us on the street for a few quick questions aren’t so nameless after all. These workers are known as Pollsters. And while Pollster may sound a bit like prankster, it’s a serious profession based on collecting and analyzing data on a specific topic.

As a Pollster, you distribute surveys in a number of ways. After planning out the survey questions, you often email or call up people and ask them to participate. Take TV surveys, for example. To find out what shows are popular, companies hire staff to mail out booklets and pay participants to write down what they watch during the week. To save time, you might train staff to conduct face-to-face surveys in places such as shopping malls, where they’ll get instant answers to their questions.

When the results come in, the real work starts. Now it’s time to analyze the results and look for trends and patterns. A survey on computers, for example, might find that college-age students prefer small laptops, while older adults prefer a sizeable desktop for working from home. Businesses then tailor their products to meet consumer demands.

The work focuses heavily on numbers and the power of deduction. You take all the data you collected, and turn them into a final report to show companies interested in your findings. You are the link between communities and corporations, providing the information that ensures only the best and most desired products make it to market.