Profile

A Market Analyst’s job involves aggregating and analyzing data of many different types in order to help a business know how they are doing, set goals, and monitor their efforts. As a Market Analyst, I spend time working with marketing and field intelligence data to help our clients understand how these statistics and numbers relate to their business. This can include sales data, advertising or promotions results, specific product or program performance results, feedback from sales reps, financial cost data, organizational data, etc.

I make a story out of the data that makes sense and is actionable, whether it is spotting new trends in the marketplace or finding a gap that can be filled with an actionable solution. In doing so, you can help your company or clients know whether they are moving in the right or wrong direction.

Finally, my job involves communicating these findings to any level of audience. This involves translating numbers and statistics into everyday “English”.

Simply put, you take the data, analyze it and then synthesize it into something that everyone can understand with recommendations on where improvements can be made.

A typical day involves three things primarily:

• Meetings and working with sales and field teams, other analysts, clients, and colleagues.
• Pulling and compiling data from various computer systems and performing analysis using Excel and other computer programs.
• Finessing the data, arranging the way you’re going to report the data, developing charts, graphs, etc., and finally, presenting the data either in a report format or in a presentation.

Approximately 35% of my time is spent in meetings, 65% of my time is spent on the computer working with various software applications to analyze and present data.

• Analytical skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Listening skills
• Communication and writing skills
• Organization skills
• Critical Thinking skills
• Computer skills
• Statistical skills
• General business knowledge

My schedule is cyclical. Companies often like to see data at set intervals: weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Therefore, my schedule is very busy at the beginning of the week, month, and a new quarter. I usually work around 40-50 hours each week. I am very lucky, however, because when I do not have an in-person meeting or something that requires me to be in the office, I can work remotely from my home using a laptop. I usually do this at least once a week.

Not very much in current position unless a client presentation is required.

I get to see the “birds eye” view. I love being able to find interesting insight in data or important trends and deliver it in a way to help others understand that insight and meaning. People depend on me to be knowledgeable and its rewarding for me when people seek out my opinion and I’m able to help them with various business issues.

Sometimes you deliver something and people don’t understand it or they don’t view it as helpful as you had hoped. It’s also frustrating sometimes when you work very hard on a project and the information is not utilized.

The world and people around me inspire me. I have had the privilege of living in a variety of different places and the unique beauty and amazing variety of people with all types of backgrounds and personalities inspire me greatly each day.

My mom was my biggest influence. She is a very smart lady, but she didn’t get the chance to finish her college education because she was busy raising six daughters. Her main priority for us was to get an education.

Consequently, every single one of us has gone to college and two of us have master’s degrees. She is a very special lady who always told us that we could be anything we wanted to be as long as we wanted it and worked hard for it.

The best advice I ever received was to grab hold of opportunities and jump in with both feet. My capstone college professor at BYU was a down to earth, no-nonsense, self-made millionaire. He was the kind of person who pulled himself up by the bootstraps. He always said he wasn’t the smartest guy in his classes, but he never flinched in the face of a good opportunity and he wasn’t afraid to jump in and fall flat. I will always remember that.

Someone once told me that if it feels difficult, it’s not for you. I don’t agree with that! Everything I have ever accomplished was through hard work. Hard work is difficult, that’s why it’s hard! If you have the determination to stick with it, even when it is tough, you should go for it.

The advice I have for teenage girls is to dream big and believe in yourself. Don’t let others tear you down. The only person who knows your abilities is you. You might even surprise yourself!

I was always very serious and focused in school with my major. I wish I had taken a few more classes to stretch myself and my personal development. I wouldn’t have filled my schedule with them, but I think I missed out by not taking an art or even a music class in college.

My path starts in high school where I had a great business teacher. When I was in high school, they did not have a lot of business classes – just marketing and economics. A great teacher encouraged me to join the school marketing club (DECA). I became very involved and was president during my sophomore year, then went on to serve as the district rep and state rep. I competed in competitions each year, placed well and went on to Nationals. This set the stage for my love of business and marketing in particular.

I then went to college at Brigham Young University (BYU) and graduated with an International Business Degree with an emphasis in Marketing. I also took the opportunity to complete a work exchange program for four months in Switzerland. This experience taught me that I could be independent and it exposed me to a whole other world out there.

My first job out of college was working as a marketing manager for a pet food company in San Francisco for six years. While in San Francisco, I also married my college sweetheart and had my daughter. Shortly after having my daughter, we moved to Boston and I decided to get my MBA. I completed by MBA at Boston College and then I went to work in marketing for a large energy company in the Northeast which gave me great experience with channel marketing, federal regulatory requirements and the legal aspect of this industry. I loved the advertising side and was able to hone my strategic skills as well with this company.

In 2004, my husband was offered a position to move overseas to Europe (Switzerland) for an assignment with his company. Although, as a guest in the country, I wouldn’t be allowed to work, we jumped at the great opportunity for both my husband and our family. While there I focused on learning French and took great advantage of being involved with my daughter’s school and community and social groups.

After three years, we returned to the United States and shortly after I went to work at MarketStar in my present position as a Business Analyst, where I love my job!

I have always enjoyed marketing, but in order to properly market a product you need to understand the market and the competitive landscape. Being a Business Intelligence Analyst allows me to be able to provide my clients with this data and with suggestions in order to help them make better marketing decisions.

The challenges that I have overcome are similar to those that many working professionals, especially women, face. I would summarize it as “tradeoffs”. These tradeoffs involve deciding where your priorities are at the moment and making the situation work.

Although I had a scholarship while I was an undergraduate student, I needed to work in order to support my living expenses while keeping a very high G.P.A. in order to keep my scholarship. Consequently, the tradeoff was that I didn’t spend as much time socializing as some of my roommates.

Both my husband and I got our M.B.A.’s while our daughter was very little. My husband worked full time while he completed his MBA and my program was very rigorous and I had to commute one hour to school each day. We had to make a concerted effort to organize our time together and maximize the time we had as a family while juggling work and school.

Later, when my husband was offered a position in Europe, I had to make the decision to quit my job and take my career off track for a few years.

Sometimes juggling being a good mom, a good employee, and being personally fulfilled is difficult. There are times when one or the other takes more or less of my time. These are the tradeoffs that I have had to make being a working professional, wife, and mother.

Take a career class. I was lucky to find what I loved early on. I have known many others who have taken a career class and this has really helped them find a profession that they love.

Also, don’t let anyone tell you what you should do. I graduated as the #1 student in my major - summa cum laude. Just before graduation, a career placement counselor tried to tell me which careers best suit women. Unfortunately, none of those careers had anything to do with what I had studied! I ignored that terrible advice and followed my own lead. I knew what I could do best BOTH as a woman and as a professional person.