Research Associate

A research associate is a business professional who accumulates and reviews business data from primary and secondary sources to obtain solutions. They aid policymakers and administrators in companies in managing products and services. Moreover, the senior or postdoctoral equity research associate jobs require tolerance, technical skills, communication ability, and brainstorming.

The associates are generally employed in research divisions and utilize varying data types to help decision-making procedures in organizations. To clarify, their salary typically lies in the range of $40,000-$87,000.

• A research associate is a professional responsible for regulating research concerned with company strategies, business, finances, and market conditions.
• The job description of a junior, senior, or postdoctoral research associate entails data collection and analysis, management, supervision, fact-checking, and maintenance.
• The associate’s salary depends on the education, experience, industry, field of specialization, additional skills, and designation.
• An associate must be adept in budget and project management, punctual, multi-tasker, patient, technically sound, a good communicator, and a critical thinker with attention to detail.

A research associate must certainly be updated with conceptual and empirical background and the status quo of the research development. Moreover, this job is loaded with enthusiasm and adventure but has many obstacles and potential challenges during the analysis. Therefore, it benefits people with good diagnostic and evaluative reasoning skills.

Junior and senior research associate need minimal to no traveling, can have extended office hours, and work permanently in specific research departments (urban or semi-urban regions). Furthermore, there is a broad range of development possibilities in this position.

Please note that aspirants can specialize in domains like corporate social responsibility (CSR) or can get into research and development (R&D). Subsequently, this assists them in perceiving advanced and improved methods for manufacturing expansion and discovering new ways concerning different issues.

This sphere certainly has prolific saturation capability and research scope to a great extent. To clarify, all firms have their team of researchers dealing with the company’s growth issues. Moreover, the areas of expertise are industries, investment banking, mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings (IPOs), or market research.

Please note that the remuneration figures can change depending upon expertise, industry, designation (junior, senior, or postdoctoral research associate), and specialization area. So, here lie the details,

The above figures certainly depend upon various relevant elements, encompassing certifications, education, experience, and additional skills. Moreover, besides the fixed package, they may also typically receive other benefits like a transport and medical allowance. Also, some employers also offer paid holidays and pension benefits.

The compensation package is subject to change as per the project (complexity and funding) and employer. That is to say, a few research sectors demand professional know-how, thus matching the associate’s experience and specialized skills with the salary.

Let’s go through some relevant instances to understand the roles and responsibilities of an equity research associate.

Example #1

Say, Angelina is a research associate at XYZ Co. who plans, administers, and researches investments, economy, and firms or markets. So, she works with its research department to do experiments or conduct theoretical research tactics. Her day-to-day responsibilities involve (but are not limited to),

1. Overseeing research teams
2. Handling research resources
3. Reviewing data
4. Organizing research work
5. Drafting reports
6. Securing participants and funds
7. Monitoring research activities for compliance with industry protocols
8. Preparing observations and upgrading databases
9. Verifying numerical information in both written and digital form, and
10. Producing research summaries in several formats

Example #2

Deutsche Bank AG has appointed Joe Ahlersmeyer as their vice president (VP) of the US building products research department under the company research body. Per the internal memo on March 24, 2022, he will join the firm in mid-April and report to its US equity research head, Matthew Bernard.

Earlier, Ahlersmeyer was a senior equity research associate at Evercore ISI (since 2019) after working with Coca-Cola as an investor relations manager.

The research associate jobs entail the administration of documentation, business units, and projects. To clarify, the researchers deal with numerous research projects from scratch or intermediary involvement. In addition, they conduct investigations and track them.

Please note that their profession is divided into two types, namely, experimental and theoretical. While the experimental feature incorporates demonstrations, test implications, and outcomes, the theoretical facet deals with the project’s theories and calculations.

In other words, their job description includes

1. Management
2. Guidance
3. Team leadership
4. Fact-finding, and
5. Maintenance works

Usually, aspirants start their career as research assistants, get promoted to an associate, and finally attain the research analyst position. However, they may also begin as an associate and become an analyst. They collect data, develop tests, and assist in properly recording and evaluating the information.

Their responsibilities also cover data gathering and comparison via multiple sources, reviewing the latest market trends, and producing drafts for documents. Therefore, they must be great multi-taskers with efficient time management skills, particularly while studying reports and meeting strict deadlines.

This has been a guide to Research Associate & its Meaning. Here we discuss its job descriptions (senior, equity, & postdoctoral), salary and examples. You may also have a look at the following articles –

• Forensic Accounting Careers List
• Budget Analyst Careers List
• Management Accounting Careers List
• Careers in Bookkeeping
• Treasurer Job Description