One of the hats that I wear is that of a contract researcher. It is something that I do now and then when a suitable project comes up. These last few months however, my friend and I have been working on two contract projects at once. This time last week I was burning the candle at both ends trying to finish up the evaluation report on the first project. I am currently working on the report for the second project, then my research will be done for a while.
Make Money as a Researcher
It is possible to make a good living as a contract researcher but I choose to work on just the occasional project to supplement my writing and teaching income. This type of research pays betweeb $5 and $600 a day, so it can be quite lucrative if you want to make some money.
However, being a good contract researcher involves several years of studying to learn the theory and methods that are needed to undertake empirical research. Most contractors start with bidding for the project, which is a bit like writing a grant proposal except that with most grants you need a saleable product at the end of it rather than a measly research report that may or may not get reported in the Guardian or the Times Higher.
If you have undertaken social research at school then when you have finished you might want to set yourself up as a research consultant and go looking for projects. There are plenty of community organisations looking for someone to undertake a formal evaluation and if you have basic qualitative and quantitative research experience then this might be a good way to make some money for yourself.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 am
[...] difficult and when you take account of all the work you have done, you’ve not made very much money. I am just coming to the end of an evaluation project that involved both qualitative data and [...]