Job Responsibilities
The major responsibilities for the job are to conduct unbiased
market ressearch (primary and secondary; quantitative and
qualitative) and publish written reports and presentations on
market, industry and general trends that result from not only
the research, but also from one's expertise in the "real world".
Additional, analysts speak with the press, and clients of the
firm on a regular basis via phone, in addition to presenting
findings at industry conferences.
A "typical" day is somewhat hard to describe as no two days are
exactaly the same. With that said, I'll give it a shot. When not
on the road traveling or being in face-to-face meetings with
clients, an analyst is on the phone with clients - either vendor
clients or end-user clients. (Examples of vendor clients include
software and hardware technology vendors such as Oracle, SAP,
Siebel, etc. Vendor clients also include consultants and systems
integrators such as Accenture, Unisys, Deloitte, and CSC. End
user clients are companies such as GE, United Airlines, Schwab
and many small to mid market companies too.)
Clients call analysts to ask questions about their research, the
market and pose questions such as "How do I staff my ERP project
so I can get the most from my systems integrator?" or "We're
thinking of implementing CRM, and we're looking at X, Y and Z
vendor. Which one is best for our company?". Generally analysts
take between 5-8 calls per day when they're in the "office".
Each call is approx. 30 minutes. Between calls, one does email
and types responses into the tracking systems used by the
research company.
The rest of the day is spent doing vendor briefings: these are
meetings where vendors present to the analyst about various
topics, trying to influence the analyst's viepoint about that
particular vendor. Analysts make outbound calls to check on the
many references supplied by vendors to support the vendors
various claims.
When not doing research, on calls or briefings, the analyst is
synthesizing all the information gleened from the interactions
mentioned above and conducts meetings with other analysts. This
is how research positions are formed. Once formed, the analyst
writes up the positions according to a research agenda that the
analyst puts together at the beginning of the year.
When "out" of the office, the analyst is working face to face
with clients in a private one day consulting session or is
traveling to/from clients or conferences. Presenting research at
conferences is a big part of the job, as is taking calls from
various Press and contributing thoughts and commentary for
articles being written or providing pithy comments about current
events that are "big".
While no boss stands over you, you are expected to work quickly,
dilligently, accurately and independently with little
supervision. You are expected to produce 12-24 research reports
yearly as well as answer 300-600 client inquiry questions over
the phone yearly. Most analysts present at least 2-4
presentations per year at various company-sponsored events. The
demands are quite high but the freedom of when you complete the
work is there....meaning its not just a 9-5 job. You can take
breaks during the day to run an errand, but you are held
accountable for delivering reports on time.
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Job Requirements
To get hired as an analyst, you generally need at least 5 years
of real world work experience and need to demonstrate expertise
in a particular area. You need to become the recognized though
leader for your area. General IT, marketing, writing and
presentation and economic courses are a must. You definitely
need a bachelors degree and a masters degree or MBA is highly
recommended. Working for a Fortune 500 company or one fo the
softwre/hardware IT vendors or systems integrators in a product
marketing or product management role will prepare you for this
job. Of course, if you aspire to be a Gartner analyst, you MUST
understand technology and be able to articulate the strengths
and challenges of various technologies, verbally and in writing
to a non-IT audience. Being an analyst is not for the faint of
heart. You should also have some great debate skills too. You'll
need these to support your positions on research to other
analysts who may not agree with your analysis and conclusions.
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Uppers
The freedom you enjoy just doing your job in an area that you love. Being able
to work remotely, in an office or traveling the world are definite plusses of
this job.
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Downers
The constant back stabbing and competition of other analysts.
And management who is so far removed from your day to day work.
Another "bad" part is having to listen to all these vendors BS
you about their capabilities and then you go out, do your
research, and prove they're not being straight with you. When
you have to write something that they consider not flattering,
the flack you get is sometimes pretty painful. Again, you need
tough skin for this job.
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Lifestyle
The lifestyle is great. Work at your leisure, except for the scheduled phone
calls (called inquiry) and internal research meetings. The hours are long. I
generally worked 7am to 8pm 5 days a week. I worked on weekends too - that's when
I did alot of my writing. Although long days, you do have some breaks and mental
rest time. But the pace is unrelenting. Just when you finish one thing, you've
got to begin another. Not much time to breath between big projects and there is
no predictable "slow" season.
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Compensation
Compensation varies from the low 80Ks up to over 225K. Of course
that's dependent on your experience, your ability to negotiate a
great starting base salary. The bonuses are "targets" and it is
rare you'll get the whole target that is set for you. Stock
options are not worth much in my opinion. The glory days of
making millions are over. I'd go for base salary with the idea
that "cash is king". Pay me now. Not later.
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Advice to Jobseekers
You've got to have tough skin and be able to take punches from
all angles. You've got to hold your ground and be able to back
up your conclusions with facts as well as antecdotal stories. I
think the outlook for the whole business is waning, as more info
is available over the internet and it's pretty easy to validate
stuff on your own. Few great analysts are really out there. Most
love to hear the sound of their own voices and really could care
less if their clients succeed or fail. And most will do anything
to pump themselves up at the expense of pushing you down. Its
definitely a dog-eat-dog environment. But if you can keep your
head about you and not allow it to get so big that you can't get
it through the door, the career is thoroughly enjoyable and
rewarding. If you develop great relationships with your clients,
you've provided realistic and valueable/timely advice, your
clients will be friends for life and won't forget you. Its a
great career if you leave all the political and
management "stuff" to others and focus on what you know and do
best.
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