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
Oh, that kind of data. I was thinking Commander Data, guess I’m not qualified.