After a difficult year for the start of professional life - training is only conditionally suitable for home office - we are also arriving at this topic in the New Normal: On 1 September, two newcomers, Johanna Pickhard and Anders Öden, started their training as market and social research assistants (FAMS).

An occasion for Jens Krüger to reflect on the job description of FAMS, which has already changed significantly in the 15 years since the introduction of the training profession:

Welcome FAMS to the New Normal!

We are pleased that we have once again been able to take on board two trainees and future specialists for market and social research at Bonsai . Johanna Pickhard and Anders Öden enrich our team - and have already passed their baptism of fire at this year's summer party. Good to have you here!

The training course has now been running for 15 years. In recent months, there have been discussions - here or in our relevant trade media (planung&analyse / marktforschung.de) - about whether "FAMS" is still up-to-date in view of the changing requirements profile of our industry. Here is a brief classification:

Yes, market research is changing. But at the end of the day, there is insight - there always has been, hasn't there?

I myself accompanied the trend towards telephone interviews and the era of large telephone studios at the beginning of the 90s - at that time still as a student. And in Bielefeld I trained far more than 1,000 telephone interviewers in the "new" medium. An exciting time. Similarly, the change in the first decade of the new century towards more online surveys. And with it, new possibilities. For example, I fondly remember a project we did at Emnid together with Eyesquare for Google - on the impact of AdWords campaigns in different industries. 

Today, we are all "mobile first". In the next stage of evolution, which has already begun, platforms and software- and AI-based research applications will be the "hottest shit". We are looking forward to it and are prepared.

But despite all the AI and software obsession, it will always be about the tools of our trade. It's about how we handle, process, analyse and interpret data. The data volumes are becoming larger, more complex and more fragmented - from different sources, like in our case: surveys, sales/receipt and behavioural data within an increasingly complex customer journey, which today differentiates less and less between online and offline, but has become a holistic journey.

This requires qualified people - analysts, consultants and more and more specialists. One of the possible and broadly based qualifications is training as a specialist in market and social research (admittedly - the job title could be revised). Here, the tools of the trade are taught and put into practice in everyday work. For three years. Maybe one or the other will decide to go on to university, maybe not. And both are good. Because there is always a lot to do here. And the FAMS is an important component of our personnel policy at Bonsai.

Johanna and Anders - welcome to our industry, which is still "hot". Or as they say: Sheesh.