It never ceases to amaze me how incredibly cyclical the research business is. I guess it's always been like this, but it's definitely become even more obvious to me in the three years that I've been in leadership positions (ie. paying closer attention to sales). Based on what I've seen in recent years, you can always count on a bump from October to early December. Then, from February to May, we get another bump, but June-August are D-E-A-D. My favorite is working with anyone from Europe and getting the "I'll be out from July 1st through August 15th" message. That's really the good life! Anyway, it's busy out there right now. It seems like a day doesn't go by that I don't talk to a colleague on either the client or supplier side who is overwhelmed with requests. All that work is good for me because I'm starting to find a niche as an overflow outlet. This week I turned a quant report around in just a few days for a client who was just too underwater to get to it. I love that kind of work, especially when I have the freedom to do the analysis myself.
Of course, that brings up the issue of needing statistical software. I've been testing out some alternatives to SPSS which is my native software. I'll write another post on that soon.
