how do i get into social research?

Question

I'm going to be graduating w/ my bachelors in sociology, and i'd like to get into social research....where can i work??

Answer 1

The most common and direct way to get into social research is probably to go to graduate school. There are several avenues for someone with a B.A. looking to join the workforce, though. I have worked as an interviewer for the U.C. Berkeley Survey Research Center; some other schools have similar operations, and there are larger national polling organizations like Zogby who regularly conduct telephone-based surveys on a variety of subjects. There are also opportunities for face-to-face interviewers, such as with the National Opinion Research Center based in Chicago. I believe they are currently recruiting interviewers for their nationwide General Social Survey, which would involve going to people's houses and asking them questions.
Once you build up experience as an interviewer, you can work your way up the chain of operations to the planning and supervision stages. Without an advanced degree, however, there will be a limit as to how much autonomy you will ever be able to attain. For the most part, you can probably expect to just carry out research that other people have designed, which can be quite interesting if that's what you're looking to get in to.

Answer 2

You can work anywhere. You can have your research even at home if you have a personal computer with an internet connection. If you want an actual social research, you can work with different people in different places.