How did you get there? Amy Kirby

Great to hear from Amy Kirby, Senior Executive Director at Aspire, a global recruitment company that operates within digital, media, marketing, and sales. Amy leads the Research & Insight division and specialises in this sector, with over 25 years of industry experience. She actively participates in industry events and mentors recruiters within the business.

So, Amy, how did you get into the industry, and take us through how you got to this point?

After finishing my A-Levels, I realised that university wasn’t the path for me—I wanted to dive straight into the working world. I applied for a few roles and landed an interview with MORI (now Ipsos) to work in their Field Department. So like many others, I fell into the research industry but from the start, I knew that this was a great place to develop myself and carve out a career. 

The company culture and training were fantastic and I was able to progress quickly and seize opportunities and moved into the research side after three years, where I was given the chance to complete MRS qualifications and to work across several projects and sectors.  After just over five years, I decided to make a move to ORC where I could utilise both my research and project management skills, whilst also developing account management skills as well. 

My career took a turn though when I was approached about a role for another agency, but I decided that I wanted to make the move into recruitment. I loved the research industry, but having spoken to some friends who worked in recruitment, this seemed like it could be a good option for me and also combine working in a sector I really enjoyed.  

I relentlessly pursued RPCushing – eager to get my foot in the door. Despite them not having any current vacancies, I think they like my persistence and eventually agreed to meet with me. They took a chance on me and I’ve never looked back!

Recruitment quickly became a passion—I thrived on its fast pace and vibrant energy. It was the perfect blend of my research background and a genuine desire to help people make significant career moves.

Since then, I’ve steadily climbed the ladder in recruitment. Today, I’m proud to sit on the Board of Directors at Aspire, where I focus on developing our internal talent, managing teams, whilst remaining very much in the heart of the Research & Insight recruitment market.

Why should anyone consider a career in market research, data and insights?

This is an ever-evolving industry that offers variety, intellectual stimulation and the chance to build a career.  In today’s data-driven world, people working in this sector are in high demand, which can offer job stability, growth and opportunity.

You will have the chance to work with emerging technologies which can be really exciting and open up opportunities for innovation.

The industry offers training, development and collaboration – where you will have the chance to solve problems and see your work in real life.

A real plus though is the people themselves – friendly, supportive, bright, engaging and just great to be around.  That’s important when you spend the vast majority of your time at work.

Career paths are rarely without challenges. Can you share an honest moment from your career when things didn’t go quite according to plan, but the lessons remain with you to this day?

One thing that I always find interesting when it comes to candidates and jobs is that throughout my career, salary has been the number one factor that people consider when choosing a new job. While salary should be a key factor for you when choosing your role make sure that it does not become the sole factor.

Far too often I find candidates forgetting the other things that they find important in terms of progression, development and company values as they chase a higher return. From my experience when you do that it is not only a short time in the role it tends to be an unhappy one with the candidate back looking for a role sometimes within a year.

When you are searching for a new role of course ensure that you are getting paid a fair salary but be sure to keep your longer-term goals and aspirations front of mind too.

Having chased the money once for something myself, it didn’t pay off and it’s something I am always really mindful of when I work with candidates. In todays world where things are more expensive for all of us, it’s understandable that people want to increase their salaries. But the reality is that you also need to be happy in what you do, otherwise it’s not sustainable.

I think there are times when I pursued things that I didn’t enjoy as part of my role, but felt was the right thing for me to do. I think it’s important to challenge yourself and grow in the workplace, but it’s also important to recognise what you enjoy doing and what your strengths are and how you can optimise your skills to be successful.  It’s OK to make a mistake or the wrong decision, but it’s how you handle it and get yourself back on track that is key.

What two things should junior researchers focus on as they progress in their careers?

For me, there are two vital things they should focus on – passion and development.

When you are building your career, make sure to find the sector or sectors that you are passionate about. Sometimes early in our career, we can lose focus when we are not engaged in the work we are doing but an interest in the sector will keep you there. It will also give you a hunger that will motivate my second key focus and that is development.

Embrace learning and development. That is not just going to critical training that will help you understand processes and better use systems it’s asking more senior colleagues for advice, it’s asking an SRE about how they have previously overcome challenges or to teach you a new skill. Have a growth mindset for your role. The fastest way to progress in any industry is by absorbing knowledge and putting it into practice, but we researchers do it better than most when motivated.

Do you have any advice for our sector?

Each industry is looking at artificial intelligence and machine learning and trying to decide its role within the new ecosystem. My advice for our sector is to be right in the middle of it! We have a fantastic opportunity to be the industry that not just embraces AI but champions it. If we do this in a world where business strategy is being driven more and more by research and data analysis then we will see massive growth.

We can use AI to streamline our data collection processes and enhance our predictive analytics. We can offer better real-time analysis of vast amounts of data and leverage the power of social media to offer better sentiment analysis on brands, products and trends.

AI is great as a tool but humans bring to the table essential qualities such as empathy, creativity, and strategic thinking, which complement the analytical capabilities of AI. By combining the best of both worlds, we can deliver more comprehensive, insightful, and actionable research that truly meets the evolving needs of businesses and consumers.

And do you have anyone who has helped your career so far that you’d like to acknowledge and say thanks or give a shout out to?

So many people have supported me along my journey – too many to mention! You know who you are 😊 and I am very thankful to everyone who has supported me and given me an opportunity. This is such a great industry – it’s really close knit and I love how supportive it can be and you make genuine friends too.

But if I think back to what got me here today and in this sector – my sister played a big part in that.

My sister was studying Government and Politics when I started to apply for jobs and look into what I was going to do when I finished my education.  I found an advert for MORI and she straight away knew who they were and gave me a great insight into what they did and that spurred me on to apply for the role as I thought the sector sounded really interested.

From there I have never looked back and have spent my entire career championing research, celebrating our victories and latter supporting researchers in finding their dream jobs. I still get excited by things like the general election polling data, excited to see if the research team got it right, none of which would have been possible if it was not for seeing that advert.

So, the thank you is either for my sister’s Government and Politics lecturer, or the advert copyrighter but I think I will say my sister.

Equally, I couldn’t have got to where I am now without the support of my husband and family who have always encouraged me to do the best I can and have been my biggest supporters which has really allowed me to push on in my career.