Letters/Opinion

WHERE ARE THE DATABASE ANALYSTS?

Direct marketing executive recruitment firm Crandall Associates has a problem: There's a shortage of talent in the area of database analytics. President Wendy Weber offers her take on what the industry should do about this.

We have had clients that vary from catalogs to agencies, publishers to casinos, approach us to fill analyst positions. The salary for these positions ranges from $50,000 to 90,000. And the experience required is generally just three to seven years. Yet these searches present us with the greatest difficulty.

These are nice opportunities. After a few years, analyst typically progresses to a database manager, and upwards to management positions like database director or vice president in the next 10 years.

Some openings are more challenging because they require a specialized skill set, like SAS or Unica experience. But others simply require attention to detail and a love for the numbers and the story they reveal.

One client was so hard pressed to bring an analyst on board that he offered to pay all relocation expenses. And if the person was unhappy after a year, he would pay to relocate him or her back home. We still didn't find a taker who was interested and qualified.

Direct marketing is an analytically driven discipline. How can we make our decisions based on the numbers when there is a dearth of talent to provide the analysis? Measuring results is at the heart of DM.

Direct marketers must do their best to offer analytics training to their bright up and comers. Alternatively, there are classes at the Direct Marketing Association, and at universities both on and offline that teach SAS, P&L analysis, and how to use marketing results to draw conclusions and make recommendations.

The career path for an analyst is a bright one. Let's see if we can get more direct marketers onto it.

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