Market research assistant skills for your resume and career

Regarding a gap year, I think if a graduate needs to, take a gap year. It would be beneficial to join professional organizations (many provide student discounts) and to participate in online trainings and webinars of interest to enhance skills.

Students will need to have some exposure to more technical skills. I say "exposure" for the fact that not everyone needs to know how to code, but understanding what coders do goes a long way in empowering young professionals to work in roles adjacent to those with technical skills that they might not have. However, the core skill that will not be outmoded anytime soon is to have robust critical thinking skills and a motivation to keep learning. While firms may seek to fill an immediate need position, it's always better to hire individuals who can learn for the fact that you can almost always teach specific skills.

Employers value our graduates for their ability to independently solve complex problems, whether in or out of the lab. This skill has not and will not change regardless of instructional mode.

In terms of soft skills, those probably won't change much, they will simply be practiced differently. Being flexible is important since jobs may switch between home and office and since one may be dealing with someone else working from home and the challenges that can present-what cat owner hasn't had their cat walk in front of the camera or step on the wrong computer key? The ability to work in groups will continue to have importance as well as the ability to manage your own time and meet deadlines. At the same time, the nature of computer camera interaction means that people will have to learn to "read" others differently than they would in an in-person environment. Many recent articles have talked about how it is harder to read facial cues or detect emotional responses on the computer. Again, those presently taking synchronous classes have the opportunity to practice these skills--providing students turn on their cameras rather than relying only on audio. If the past year has demonstrated anything, it is that people need to be more culturally aware and sensitive and also be able to work with people of diverse backgrounds. History classes are a great way for students to better understand what others have gone through and how that might impact interaction today. Additionally, history classes-as well as college in general-should provide students with the skills to help create the kind of changes in institutions and companies that need to be made to make them more inclusive. Perhaps the greatest skill college students have is the ability to learn. I never intended to teach online, yet here I am doing just that. It required learning new ways to approach teaching, reconsideration of the ways students learned in the new environment, and figuring out new online programs to make all this happen. I was forced to do this as a result of the pandemic but most students will find that this sort of adjustment-whether foreseen or not-will be a regular part of their career path. The ability to learn these new skills, to apply new methods and to approach issues in new and innovative ways will help them stand out when it comes to looking for a job.

Empirical data collection: Research skills for collecting original data, analyzing the data, writing up the information collected, and presenting it in a professional manner.