There’s a famous saying by the great author Mark Twain: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” While some people think work is work no matter what the job is, I think Mr. Twain was right on the money.
Working with cars is just as exciting to me as it was when I first started this gig nearly 10 years ago, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else (save for race car driver, fighter pilot, or astronaut). If you’re a regular reader of The Autopian, you probably love cars and/or driving. Getting the chance to interact with cars for a living is exceedingly rare, since automotive media is pretty small.
Every so often, though, a job in space opens up. This one doesn’t require much experience, and it’s at one of the most interesting companies in the car testing arena. Just be prepared to work with data.
Be The Numbers Person At Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports isn’t a normal car media entity, like Car and Driver or Motor Trend. It’s a nonprofit that survives on members subscribing, much like us here at The Autopian. Cars are actually only a part of CR’s business; it also tests more mundane stuff like home appliances, and weird stuff like crypto wallets. I wrote a bit more about this the last time I talked about a cool job up for grabs here.
Of course, it’s the car section that matters for this article. Consumer Reports doesn’t get press car loaners from manufacturers; it buys cars from dealerships with its own money. It tests about 50 vehicles a year, racking up hundreds of thousands of miles in the process. All of that driving produces a lot of data, which is where this job, Automotive Data Analyst and Content Researcher, comes in. Here’s how the listing describes the work:
The Automotive Data Analyst and Content Researcher will report to the Associate Director, Automotive Data Integration. In this position, you will oversee the collection, validation, and internal processes for the various auto vendor and CR survey and testing data. Working closely with other auto team members, you will apply your data management expertise to ensure that our auto data collection is consistent and our analysis is accurate.
Basically, you’ll be collecting and maintaining data from all the tests that Consumer Reports does on its fleet so that the rest of the team can give subscribers the best information. This way, they can make the most informed decision about their next vehicle purchase (which is the whole reason they subscribe in the first place).
What You’ll Need And What You’ll Do
As much as I’d like to just drive cars all day, that isn’t really what automotive media is about, despite what it may look like on social media. I spend about 95% of my time sitting in front of a desk (not that I’m complaining; telling stories about cars and sharing them with the world is a great passion of mine). It sounds like this job will be mostly that—you won’t so much be driving the cars as you will be working with the drivers to gather the data they produce.
You’ll also be scouring the data, as well as outside sources, to build reports on new trends in the automotive space, which sounds like the type of late-night forum digging when I searched for news on the latest ST-badged Ford hatchbacks in college (I’m sure it won’t be this deep, but hey, going above and beyond is always a plus).
As for the job requirements, you’ll be a shoo-in if you have any prior experience working with automotive data. This being a data position, CR also wants experience with programming languages like Python and SQL. While there’s no mention of actually having to test cars for the job, the company also needs you to have a valid driver’s license, which suggests you may get lucky from time to time and actually get behind the wheel.
You’ll also be reporting to Consumer Reports’ automotive testing facility in Colchester, Connecticut, where the company also has its private test track. While you’ll be working with computers all day, they probably want you on-site to work with the people and cars supplying you with the data, which makes sense.
Jobs in the automotive space like this don’t open often, especially at well-established, long-standing places like CR. If you do anything with data and cars, why not apply? The worst they can do is ghost you. Best-case scenario, you get a job working next to a private race track, helping people buy cars.
Top graphic image: Consumer Reports; DepositPhotos.com
so, providing half the articles for Jalopnik? 🙂
As someone who’s made a career in data, I like to tell new data analysts that the specific industry (automotive, finance, retail, whatever) probably doesn’t even make the top 10 of what makes a good analyst job. Better to focus on what are the data problems you’ll be tasked with solving, what is the team like, and how much autonomy will you have to proactively choose impactful analysis vs just being everyone’s charts and reports bitch (which is the default mode for a data analyst at every company in every industry). I suspect that the actual data work at a place like CR is maybe not super complex?
select tire_model,
sum(stop_score + dist_score) as composite_score
from snow_tire_test
where test_year=‘2025’
group by 1 order by 2 desc
/*hmm the person who asked me for this coulda just done it in excel. now i have to look busy for the rest of the morning surfing the Autopian at my desk. maybe i’ll take an early lunch*/
Stef’s comment elsewhere in this thread that the manager of this team is great is actually a better reason to consider a job like this than the fact that it’s vaguely auto related. IMHOYMMV.
This was the perk at my last job. They essentially created a position for me because they didn’t have a data analyst. Most of it was just done in Excel because I didn’t have Power BI license and… I was sorta creating everything from scratch on the fly. There was originally nothing scoped for that, so I did what I could with the tools available. Managed to automate a lot of it and got my weekly reports from 8 hours down to an hour. Boss told me to take that time and nap or play with my cats, since I otherwise didn’t have much to do unless something broke or they had a new project for me.
I miss it.
Salary isn’t very competitive for Connecticut.
Honestly, it’s not really competitive at all, let alone the east coast.
Non-profit moment?
“As for the job requirements, you’ll be a shoo-in if you have any prior experience working with automotive data. This being a data position, CR also wants experience with programming languages like Python and SQL.”
I use Torque Pro in my car, a friend once had a Burmese Python, and there are always squirrels at my bird feeder. When do I start?
I always wanted to be an emoji.
I think Twain was wrong. Make what you love your job and the love will seep away. At least that’s how it has worked for me.
Maybe whoever gets this can fix the way CR reports on vehicle reliability.
Amen brother, why are infotainment and creaking interior issues weighted the same as transmissions blowing out?! I like CR, but they need to get that crap together.
And if you get the job, you get to work with Stef Schrader! She just started there, too!
Yep. There’s even a Puffalump in the office now.
(The immediate boss over this job is awesome, too.)
They don’t need you to have a valid driver’s license to test cars on their private test track.
They need you to have a valid driver’s license to get lunch for the test track crew.
I wonder if they have any requirements faking data for advertisers? I’d be interested but CT is all the crap from NYC without the benefits. I have lived in New Britain ct for a time. Basically the people are like family and friends of celebrities. They try to live the life of the actual stars when they are actually hangers on and failures. IMHO.
At least it’s east of Hartford and away from the coast.
They don’t have advertisers.
I believe they offer companies to advertise a CR approved logo in their ads with a QR code that leads to the CR appraisal for a fee which according to CR pays for most of their operations
Do they provide morning bagels or doughnuts?
There is no reason this couldn’t be a remote position, but I get it. Consumer Reports is big on hands-on testing. There’s no reason for them to support remote employees when 90% of the staff shows up in person.
The reason to allow remote work is to get the best person for the job – not the best person you can find that happens to live in Colchester or is willing to move there.
With remote you literally can hire anyone in the world that fits the requirements.
Probably not that important in this case. They’re not looking for someone to write the next great american novel. They’re looking for someone to analyze data.
The options are an employee willing to show up, someone on Fiverr.com or just let AI do it.
The difference between the best in the world at automotive data analysis and someone in the 50th percentile will make no real difference to the publication.
How do you collect and verify data if you aren’t there? Making this job remote works as well as making your proctologist remote, everyone prefers it but you don’t get the best results.
That is why I choose cologuard or as I call it shit in the box.
Is this job posting for a data analyst or an engineer / tech to do the instrumentation?
Those are often two different jobs and you verify data by talking to your coworkers.
My department has people spread across 4 different time zones and we do just fine. Actually works better than when we were all sitting within 30 feet of one another.
I definitely do data analysis and cars. But I don’t do moving for a job. I prefer to choose my living place and find a living rather than choose a living and find a living space. So while I might actually qualify, I shan’t pursue it, though it might be really interesting.
I’ve been laid off enough times that I can heartily say, fuck moving for a job. The company says “move your life to work for us,” and then at any time reserves the right to tell you “tough shit, hope you’re ready to pay rent in [wherever we required you to move to work for us]. Here’s COBRA as an extra kick in the balls: we both know you’re not going to pay $900 a month for coverage out of your $4000 severance.”
I’m looking at using Cobra for 5-6 months next year. Yes, it is expensive but it is much cheaper than purchasing insurance individually or on the ACA exchanges
Personally my wife and I have moved for jobs 4 times to 4 different states. One of those was very honestly to a state we never considered or even entertained living in but it got my wife a job in her field in the 2008 recession while jobs were very hard to find. We ended up staying 7 years instead of the 2 we originally planned.
Research the ACA options even with the lack of subsidies it is cheaper for single employees
Did that. A similar BCBS plan on the Oregon exchange to my employer plan is $1,764 per month for my wife and I. Cobra is $1,718 per month.
Similar monthly premium but if I switch plans mid-year the $5,000 deductible starts over. (I could get as low as $1,100 a month with a Bronze plan that has a $18,000 deductible)
Also the older you get the cheaper Cobra is because companies don’t vary their rates based on age like individual plans do. 12 years ago when be bought on the exchange it was much cheaper than Cobra.
I was only asked to relocate once. I didn’t care enough for that job to move to Amway Detroit (Grand Rapids). I hung out as remote for a couple of years until they downsized me. Got a lovely severance (and even got a good portion of my bonus for the next year for the work I had done in the 6 months before we parted ways).
If I had moved, I would not have been able to afford to move back home where my family is. I knew it was coming, but I had just bought a house and I wanted a severance so I hung on. I was on my wife’s health insurance so I didn’t have to deal with Cobra.
But seriously, Cobra is terrible. The only reason to pay that extortion was to keep coverage on someone on the plan with a preexisting condition that could lose coverage if there was a lapse of insurance.
Cobra is just paying the full cost of the insurance – Employee cost + Employer cost.
People WAY underestimate how much insurance costs their employer.
I understand that, but it’s still a terrible situation to lose your income and now have to cover 5x-10x of your health care contribution from no paycheck.
It really highlights the terrible situation most employees in the US work under when we need a national program just to allow for this financially crippling option.
Yes, I’ve been laid off – it sucks.
It is unfortunate that the USA has decided to tie medical insurance and retirement to employment but that is the reality we live with today.
If you are single you might want to rethink your position. I worked in circulation of newspapers for decades lived in many different states I would not have ever seen and moving and experience was all at the employers expense.
Not to mention interviews at a employer in good vacation spots is a paid vacation. Request an extra day or two to investigate the area the employer is jazzed and you got a free vacation. Always wished I could have scored the Hawaii interview but Lake City Nebraska was almost as good.
Living in different places does bring a different perspective on life.
I’ve moved a few times for a job, but they’ve also given me moving packages that wind up costing $40k between movers, house hunting trip, corporate housing (which is massively overpriced lol), and lump sum payments in case they missed anything.
I won’t even consider moving for a job for anything less.
Oh, that kind of data. I was thinking Commander Data, guess I’m not qualified.