Employment
Intern
Essays from
former interns
Essays from Former Interns
Many of our former interns provided written evaluations of their experiences, describing what the internship was like and what the individual learned from the internship. These evaluations/essays are given below. We hope they are of value to you in deciding whether our internship program is for you.
O’Neil Associates Internship
My internship at O'Neil Associates felt more akin to a "tour of duty" than a traditional internship experience. A co-worker at the office once commented, "This is like extreme office work. Can you write a press release, fax it to 800 clients, publish a survey to the web, and conduct a hiring meeting all in one day? If so, you win the Immunity Challenge." While that may be a slight overstatement, this internship will mold a willing student into a resourceful, highly skilled worker capable of completing nearly any task laid out before him or her.
The workload is demanding, but as, an intern, I tended not to mind because the responsibilities with which I was entrusted were meaningful. While some interns sit around all day making coffee, taking inventory of the number of stables in the office hoping that they will eventually be given “real work” to do on a project, at O’Neil Associates I was performing some of the firm’s most vital functions on a daily basis. Not long after I was brought aboard, I found myself managing projects, interacting regularly with clients, and writing analytic reports. The diversity of responsibilities kept the job interesting and enjoyable.
Essentially, there are no limits to type of work a motivated intern can perform. Prior to working at O’Neil Associates, checking e-mail and doing the occasional Google search was about the extent of my Internet abilities. Less than a week into my internship, however, I was designing and publishing a survey to the web. If you are adept at teaching yourself new skills and problem solving, this position will likely be a good fit.
Another tremendous aspect of the position is learning how opinion research is conducted in the real world. Work at O’Neil Associates begins where social science methods textbooks leave off: so how exactly does the design of a study affect the data produced? how do researchers convince a random sample of people to participate in a research project? How do you manage the logistics requires to conduct 3,000 interviews in a matter of weeks? Interns learn the answers to these and other queries by working on the design, conduct, and analysis of numerous research projects. Because O’Neil Associates conducts both focus groups and surveys, it is a stimulating working environment for students interested in qualitative or quantitative social science research. As surveys do comprise the larger share of the workload, however, at least some statistical training proves very useful in understanding the theoretical basis for much of the decision-making.
Dr. O’Neil has an extensive academic background in the field of survey research and takes great pride in making the internship functionally an apprenticeship rather than just a job. During my time there, he would often meet with me to make sure that I was getting the most out of my experience. He encouraged me to go beyond the types of work I had previously done and learn new skills such as publishing web surveys and working with clients. Sometimes I think he had more confidence my abilities than I did, but that extra encouragement often helped me to succeed in a task I had never tried before.
I recommend this internship only to students who excel at multitasking, have a genuine interest in social science research, and enjoy teaching themselves to overcome new challenges. The volume of work will effectively extinguish any thoughts of spending a lazy summer by the pool, but with summer temperatures in Tempe consistently reaching 115o, who wants to be outside tempting melanoma anyway? At the very least an O’Neil Associates internship will help you develop an expansive portfolio of research skills, not to mention the self-assurance that when your tour is completed, you will be able to handle virtually any research, clerical, or managerial problem that can be encountered.
The O’Neil Associates Experience
It is a generally accepted idea
that interns are hired only for educational purposes. They are there
to learn and the company hires them as an investment in the future.
They are normally not thought of as essential in a business’ daily
activities. This picture is entirely false for the interns at O’Neil
Associates, a fact that I (happily) discovered over the summer of 2000.
There, the interns are vital to the functioning of the company.
O’Neil Associates is an opinion research company that is contracted
by several different types of organizations to discover people’s
thoughts about everything from their workplace environment to companies’
products. There are two basic approaches to this research: focus groups
and surveys. Focus groups are mediator-led discussions among approximately
twelve people who have been chosen at random. This approach is more
qualitative in nature. The client receives comments that participators
gave during the discussion, and from this determines its next course
of action. Sometimes the results of focus groups are a guide for the
types of questions that will be asked on a survey, and sometimes focus
groups yield all the information the client needs.
Surveys, on the other hand, are quantitative in nature. Administered
either on paper or by telephone, they mostly contain multiple-choice
questions that can be statistically analyzed. Surveys can also contain
open-ended questions, in which the respondent gives an answer without
preselected choices. These are helpful because the writer of a survey
cannot always predict all the possible answers to a question and put
them into categories.
The tasks of an intern at O’Neil Associates vary in type and difficulty.
Answering phones and opening mail are part of the job. However, after
a couple of months, an intern is involved in almost every aspect of
the business, from doing bills to designing surveys. I was mostly involved
in writing proposals, which detail for potential clients the type of
research O’Neil Associates will do (i.e. focus groups or survey,
written or via telephone), the process required for the research, and
the estimated cost. Because each proposal must be tailored to the needs
of each client, I started with a “boilerplate”, a standard
proposal that has already been written, and added and subtracted from
it according to the situation. At first, Dr. O’Neil would tell
me specifically what he wanted added or removed from the boilerplate.
However, once I gained experience, he would at first give me the general
idea of the proposal and I would develop a first draft, which he then
edited. This “boilerplate” approach is involved in many aspects
of the company, including survey design and reporting of results.
The atmosphere at O’Neil Associates is sometimes high pressure.
Proposals, surveys, and reports usually have a deadline, so we were
often rushing to complete our work right up until the last minute. It
is important for an intern to be able to think and function well in
this environment. Because the company is small, an intern must often
take it upon him- or herself to figure things out. In larger companies,
different people are put in charge of different aspects of the business’
activities. However, at O’Neil Associates, this division of labor
does not exist, and the intern must therefore be prepared to figure
out many of his activities, such as formatting surveys or entering data.
While an internship at O’Neil Associates has more responsibility
and therefore more pressure than an internship at most other companies,
the job is, in the end, more rewarding. The fact that my work was directly
turned over to clients made the job more gratifying than other internships
I have done. If your goal is to gain experience working with clients
and running a business while doing work that is interesting, I encourage
you to apply for an internship at O’Neil Associates.
Summer
Internship at O’Neil Associates, Inc. Tempe, Arizona
I was an intern at O’Neil Associates the summer before my junior
year at Northwestern University. During that time I was able to learn
about almost every part of the research process – from proposal
writing to the final presentation to the client.
A summer internship at O’Neil Associates is not your typical internship,
but this should be interpreted as a positive attribute. The previous
summer, I had an internship at Prodigy On-Line Services in New York,
where I was given relatively little responsibility and had to struggle
to find demanding and interesting tasks. That is far from what you will
find at O’Neil Associates. It is a small company and due to the
unpredictable nature of the work, I was given the opportunity to become
involved with numerous tasks right away. In my case, a day did not go
by that I was not swamped with work. Since the workload can be so demanding,
this internship, unlike many others, requires a lot of work. The wide
variety of tasks should be kept in mind when considering this internship.
The work is difficult, but it can be very rewarding.
O’Neil Associates does a great deal of market research for many
large companies – locally and nationally. The summer I was there,
the research ranged from citizen satisfaction surveys to the evaluation
of new advertising campaigns. The activities involved in the research
process are diverse, with the first stage being the design of the questionnaire.
This involves meeting with the client to discuss what they want to learn
from the research. Once you have finally designed the survey questionnaire,
the next is to go into the field and conduct the survey. This is often
done through telephone interviews, but in-person interviews are also
commonly used. After the survey data has been collected you move into
the data processing aspect of the research. The end result of the data
processing is often cross-tabulations of the data. For this computer-intensive
part, previous computer experience is very helpful, and I would like
to stress the importance of having a strong foundation of computer skills
to succeed at O'Neil Associates. The most important thing to keep in
mind is that at O'Neil Associates you will be given a great deal of
responsibility and the company will expect a lot of you. But don't let
this scare you. At O'Neil Associates you will be given the opportunity
to enhance your analytical research skills and learn, in detail, the
entire market research process. But most importantly, you will gain
an enormous amount of "hands-on" experience as a summer intern
at O'Neil Associates.
I cannot overstate the quality of life in Arizona - even in the summer.
Despite the heat Arizona, and especially Tempe can be a great place
to have a summer internship. O'Neil Associates is located about five
minutes away from the Arizona State University campus, and consequently
there are many different and fun things to do in the area. Tempe has
everything you would want in a typical college town - numerous coffee
shops, museums, clubs, bars, live music, and cultural activities - all
within walking distance. Once you get past the heat, you will find that
Arizona has just about anything you would want from a vacation-oriented
city. And if the heat is too much, all you have to do is take a day
drive up North, where you can visit places like Sedona, Flagstaff, the
Grand Canyon, and other places that will remind you more of Colorado
than the Valley of the Sun.
Letter From a Former Intern
I interned for O’Neil Associates in the
summer of 1995, the summer before my senior year of college at Yale
University. It was a tremendous experience, one which provided me the
opportunity to learn a great deal about the entire market research process.
My experience at O’Neil Associates was an enjoyable and challenging
one which I will briefly describe.
As a small, yet very successful market research and public opinion firm
in the metropolitan Phoenix area, perhaps the greatest advantage at
O’Neil Associates is the intimacy of the workplace. There are always
a number of projects running simultaneously and everyone is well informed
and familiar with each project. I also found the people at O’Neil
exceptionally knowledgeable, motivated and more than willing to lend
a helping hand.
At O’Neil Associates, I performed a number of functions including
questionnaire design, data processing, analyzing and interpreting data,
preparing reports and creating graphs. It was the opportunity to perform
a wide array of tasks which I found most beneficial. Rather than just
focusing on one aspect, I was able to have a hand in almost every step
at one point or another. Unlike other internships at large firms, at
O’Neil Associates I was given immediate responsibility. I was given
the opportunity to take a "hands on" approach to a number
of projects and become directly involved in the market research process.
While at O’Neil, I was fortunate to work on several major projects.
One major project was a focus group study for a well-known pilot’s
union. Although I did not get to personally view a focus group, I was
involved with the project in a number of steps, from the transcription
of the audio tapes to the final preparation of the written report. There
are facilities for the moderation of focus groups at O’Neil Associates,
with a separate viewing room where the discussion can be video taped
and recorded behind a one-way mirror. Focus groups provide the opportunity
to analyze qualitative information, versus polls in which the data from
telephone interviewing involves mainly quantitative analysis.
O’Neil Associates has its own telephone room from which all telephone
surveys are conducted. Another major project which I worked on was a
survey for a large national corporation. This poll was performed year
since 1991 which allows time-series data to be compared over the last
four years. It was a tracking study which allowed us to observe the
changes in people’s opinions and attitudes towards the company
and attempt to identify any significant trends and their underlying
causes. This project provided the opportunity to work with a survey
from start to finish, performing such tasks as processing data, coding
open-ended responses and preparing a final written report complete with
graphs.
Marketing research is a unique and challenging field. As the leading
market research firm in the metropolitan Phoenix area, the work done
at O’Neil Associates is very exciting and challenging which promotes
an intellectually stimulating work environment. I enjoyed my internship
tremendously, I also found Dr. O’Neil exceptional in teaching and
explaining all aspects of the market research process, as well as very
candid about the specifics of running a small, successful business.
If you have a genuine interest in market research or have a strong desire
to learn about it, I strongly recommend this internship for you. You
will find it a tremendous experience and will have the opportunity to
work on a number of projects and face many challenges. If you have any
questions or inquiries, please feel free to contact me.
O’Neil Associate Summer
Internship: How it played in Interviews, Followed by Homilies and Candid
Advice
Part I: How It Played in Interviews
The summer of ’94 I worked as a summer
intern as O’Neil Associates. The summer of ’95 I spent in
J.P. Morgan’s core training program, preparing to join their new
global technologies and operations consulting group. The experience
I gained at O’Neil was invaluable in helping me attain the career
path I wished to pursue, and was instrumental in securing the interviews
I had with major technology, consulting, and investment banking firms.
This wide range of industries (I was a confused liberal arts major)
reflects something more than my indecision – it shows the broad
applicability of the skill sets it is possible to gain working at O’Neil
Associates. Working as a research analyst, I performed qualitative and
quantitative analyses on market data. I served as a project leader and
made a final client presentation on an analysis which I had partially
performed and partially supervised. I learned enough about PC networks
to be able to troubleshoot them by summer’s end, and installed
software to enable remote LAN access. All of this experience was extremely
relevant while interviewing for jobs this past year, and represents
a far higher level of responsibility than is typically given to college
students.
There is a reason that all of this responsibility was there for the
taking; O’Neil Associates is a small office, and tends to work
understaffed and under tight deadlines. This is the inevitable down
side to the previously presented up side – not only are you given
as much responsibility as you can handle, it is heaped on you. This
is not a summer internship for those seeking a summer vacation in Arizona,
for the workload can be grueling. Before I scare you off, though, I
might add that my workload was atypically large. So, while you may not
be able to add all the above items to you resume, neither will you work
six days a week, ten hours a day. It will help both you and Dr. O’Neil
if you come in with a clear idea which facet of the business you would
like to focus on, such as qualitative research, quantitative research,
or technology and data processing. Of course, what you actually end
up doing depends largely on the current projects on the docket, but
having a specialty of sorts will help keep you from spreading yourself
too thin. If you know what skill sets you wish to gain during the summer,
Dr. O’Neil will work with you to see that you get them.
Dr. O’Neil is very good in general about acting as a mentor for
his summer interns. You will be able to interact with clients, and learn
as much about the business of market research as you wish to learn.
This assistance, however, remains on a rather high level: this is not
a job for someone who needs their hand held. You must be very self-motivated,
with enough self-confidence to jump into completely new activities and
make a success of them on your own, If you are that type of person,
then an O’Neil Associates summer internship should work better
for you than an internship at a large firm, as it will allow you a much
greater level of responsibility in a much broader range of activities.
Part II: Homilies and Candid Advice
Moving on to the little concerns, such as quality
of life, I’m happy to be able to say truthfully that Arizona is
livable in the summer. The heat is a dry heat, as the residents are
so fond of saying, but more importantly, everything is air-conditioned.
When I did make it out of doors the effort was worth it – the botanical
gardens on Phoenix are wonderful, Sedona (red rock country) is only
two hours north, and of course the Grand Canyon is also in Arizona.
Tempe, where the office is located, is a bit of a funky college town,
with great bookstores, cafes (Coffee Plantation is a must), and strange
little Southwestern shops. Scottsdale, another bordering suburb of Phoenix,
is a renowned winter retreat for Westerners, and is still quite pleasant
in the summer. Great restaurants, expensive boutiques, five star hotels,
and plenty of golf courses may entice your parents to join you for a
weekend of sybaritic luxury. In Phoenix proper I didn’t spend much
time, except to go to the Heard museum of Native American art, which
is by far the best of the Native American museums I have seen, and definitely
worth the trip. In general, the region is an odd mix of (real) cowboys
and (real) Indians, with tons of Northern transplants thrown in to give
you strange juxtapositions.
The dress code is more casual than a Northern office would be, but Dr.
O’Neil is more of a stickler than most other Arizona businessmen
(probably because he comes from the North). The dress usually ranges
from business casual to business suits (without jackets, in deference
to the heat) Mondays through Thursdays. Fridays are casual. Use common
sense – if you wish to gain client exposure and be trusted to represent
O’Neil, don’t wear shorts and tennis shoes.
Another issue you’ll be facing is transportation. Though told before
I came that a bike would be sufficient, I would strongly advise having
a car for the summer if at all possible. As I got a sublet right next
door to work (listing from Arizona State University), technically I
didn’t need a car. Technically I suppose I don’t need many
things, but God is in the details. The public transportation in Phoenix
is not particularly well developed or reliable, as everyone has a car.
Bikes are great, but in 117° F weather, don’t expect to arrive
at your destination fit for polite company. Phoenix is a sprawling city,
built with wide avenues and a fine disregard for pedestrians (other
than for a few shopping districts). Get a car. Or at least rent one
on the weekends. Having come down so equivocally on the side of having
a car, I’ll now note that I didn’t have one, and managed fine.
However, that was largely because my roommate did have a car, and was
kind enough to let me use it. If I hadn’t had the use of a car,
I would have managed my basic needs without trouble, but would have
seen far less of Phoenix and environs, and been much less positive about
my summer experience.
So figure out what you want to gain out of the summer internship and
aggressively pursue it: as long as you are adding value to the firm,
you should be able to attain it and have a great summer. If you’d
like to talk to me further about O’Neil Associates, or living in
Phoenix for a summer, don’t hesitate to contact me. My email address
is thompson_anna_marie@jpmorgan.com.
Good luck with your internship search and enjoy your summer.
An O’Neil Associates
Internship
I worked for O'Neil Associates in the summer
of 1990, at which time I was between my junior and senior years of college.
It was a terrific experience and a fun time, in a distinct occupation
that I will do my best to describe.
The company is a small but influential marketing and public opinions
firm. It does research primarily in two ways.
1. It does polls.
Companies, political candidates, and government agencies hire O'Neil
Associates to gauge receptivity to a recent product, service, or position,
or to test the waters for a new one. News agencies employ the firm to
test public opinion on recent events and predict election results. Clients
wish to know what some group of people feels. The group tested may be
some segment of the population, such as residents of Maricopa County,
residents of Arizona, or citizens of the United States. IF may be a
particular interest group, such as customers of a certain power company,
or members of a specific profession.
With this target population in mind the poll director selects a method
of obtaining a "sample," or statistically viable cross-section.
A good sample almost always consists of the most random selection that
can be made while remaining true to necessary criteria. Poll directors
must operate with an excellent grasp of both clients' needs and demographics.
The sample (and, most importantly, its size) determines the type of
poll to be conducted. Polls may be mailed out, they may be distributed
by mail, or they may be conducted by phone. The office has an elaborated
facility for phone interviewing, which is able to interview the often
vast numbers of people required for an accurate poll. Phone polling
is most often done at night and on weekends, when most people are home.
The actual design of the poll is done with varying degrees of input
from the client. Some clients submit ready-to-conduct polls. Others
need help refining what they wish to find out, or in asking proper questions.
(Questions on polls must possess mutually exclusive and exhaustive answers,
among other things, and above all must be clear.) Some clients with
only a vague idea of the information they want are content to meet with
O'Neil Associates analysts and let the firm design the poll on its own.
Few polls are unprecedented, but every one is different. Polls can take
days, weeks or months to conduct.
The firm organizes the results of a poll into a report for the client.
Often, the most important facet of these reports are cross-tabs. All
polls contain questions that demographically identify the respondent.
When a poll is finished, all responses to it are coded into a computer,
which is able to cross-index, or cross-tabulate, specific answers with
this demographic information. Thus, not only can a report tell a client
how many people answered "yes" to both questions 17 and 25,
it can say how many 55-year-old males who smoke and register Republican
answered "yes" to 17 and 25. This information is usually of
the highest value to the client. The goal of anyone writing a report
is to present the findings in a manner that may be easily understood
by the client. Analysts frequently meet with clients to discuss findings
as well.
Clients may prefer static study, done only once to determine the shape
of things at that time, or tracking study, which is done repeatedly,
and measures trends.
2. It conducts focus groups. Polls are
useful primarily for obtaining quantitative information. Questions asked
on polls usually have to be answered yes or no, or on numbered scales,
since open-ended responses are difficult to code in large numbers. Hence,
to achieve a free-er dialogue, the firms holds focus groups.
A focus group is a jury-size group of people selected as randomly as
possible--within the criteria relevant to the study--to come to the
office and discuss an issue or product. Sometimes they are called from
particularly helpful telephone survey respondents. Almost always they
receive a monetary incentive to come.
There is a facility for focus groups at the office. Clients can watch
through a one-way mirror as participants sit around a large table and
talk. Groups can also be audio- and video-taped. Group participants
are alerted to all forms of surveillance, and yet tend adopt a surprising
ease and candor after a short while.
Although a moderator conducts the discussion
from a pre-planned agenda, focus groups tend to take on a life of their
own, and it is this free flowing conversation that overlooked or simply
unforeseen opinions surface. At best the moderator needs only to steer
the conversation to salient points, and can let it move around on its
own otherwise.
Focus groups have their own dynamics, which analysts much understand
in interpreting results. They are generally too small to be of any statistical
use, providing qualitative information only. Reports on them contain
direct quotes and very few tables. To offset statistical problems somewhat,
the firm usually runs several focus groups on any particular issue.
Many studies utilize both focus groups and polls. Focus groups are helpful
in determining what kind of questions a poll should contain and, simply,
provide a different type of information.
One of the most rewarding jobs at O'Neil Associates is compiling the
Valley Monitor. The Valley Monitor is a regular publication that contains
the results of polls taken in the public interest and released to the
press. These polls are usually of a political nature. Often they are
short, tacked on to the end of other polls. It is for the Valley Monitor
that one gets to ask questions like "Is it more important to you
that a candidate share your views on abortion or the environment?"
and to interpret the results.
Although the firm does research for advertising firms, and may test
creative advertising ideas or even do something like finding a ideal
slogan for a company based on polls and focus groups, it is not a marketing
company. It does marketing research.
As an analyst for O'Neil Associates, I was involved in every stage of
survey research. I interviewed clients, stream-lined polls, interpreted
results, and prepared reports. I video-taped and edited focus groups.
I wrote for the Valley Monitor. I enjoyed the mobility that a small
firm allows: not only do most people at O'Neil Associates do every job,
they tend to have a hand in every project running. Everyone knows what's
going on. Additionally, Dr. O'Neil was very candid with me about the
workings of the business as a business, both economic and political--one
of the most interesting elements of the job.
The job required a high degree of literacy and an understanding of the
research concept involved. I had taken some methodology in college,
and prepared for the job by reading several books on social research
(Babbie's Survey Research Methods, Philliber's Social Research, and
a book called The Art of Asking Questions). This was more than enough
preparation; I recommend concentration on the abstract ideas in such
books rather than specific formulas and such, which are more easily
picked up on the job.
Survey research is a pretty rarefied field. There are several firms
in Arizona--O'Neil Associates is foremost--but in general, survey researchers
do not occupy a tremendous demographic niche. The job is unique. It
is project oriented; there are flurries of activity and surprising challenges.
And it provides a range of experience, in field sociology, political
science, marketing, and business. I found it to stimulating and fun.
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