Nick Pettigrew, Deputy Managing Director of Ipsos Public Affairs UK.

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
Like many of us, I had no idea that social research was a career option, so my main ambition was to be in a band. I still play keyboard as a hobby in my local ‘dad’ band in Brighton and, of course, the Ipsos UK House band - you can see the video we made during lockdown here

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
In my final year studying Management Science at the LSE, we did a couple of modules on market research, one of which involved a real project in Covent Garden including design, analysis and presentation to the company running Covent Garden. I found learning people’s opinions fascinating and wanted to combine these skills with my interest in public policy.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
My first job was at the Institute of Employment Studies as a Research Assistant working on employment related projects. My first project was a piece of consultancy work to develop guidance on good job search practice, which gave me a great grounding in this policy area.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
After working at IES, I moved to British Film Institute to work mainly on an ESRC funded longitudinal study following people working in the television industry. This was an interesting role looking at how working practices in the TV industry were shifting towards freelance contract work and the pros and cons of this.

After that, I joined BMRB International in their fledging social qual team, having decided that qualitative social research was an area I wanted to specialise in.

Then after a brief stay at the National Audit Office, I joined Ipsos Public Affairs exactly 18 years ago, the biggest provider of social research and evaluation in the UK. There’s lots of reasons why I have stayed for so long including the variety of different roles I have had during my time on hugely interesting policy challenges, the impact and profile of our work, some lovely clients, but, above all, the brilliant, committed and enthusiastic people that work in our team.

What has been your best professional moment?
I think it was when I presented to the executive board of a very high profile client on how to deal with their future challenges. We have done lots of these types of presentations over time, but what made this one special was that we were asked to draw out themes from all our projects for this client. It made me really proud of the work we have done at Ipsos, the relationship built with the client and the level of insight and advice we were able to generate. Plus we got a huge round of applause from the Board at the end, which obviously helped!

...and worst?
There’ve been occasional moments over the years, but the key is not taking things too personally, always thinking about what is in or out of your control, and what you can learn from when things go wrong for next time.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
There’ve been lots of brilliant people I have worked with at Ipsos, who have really inspired me, but Dr Andrew Thomas, formerly of Head of Qualitative at BMRB was a brilliant teacher and mentor when I was starting on my social research qualitative career. He always took the time and patience to talk me through different aspects of projects and how I could improve. He was brilliant at creating a story for the client and writing the findings up so clearly.

Do you have a favourite quote?
Yes, it’s from Ben Page, who has been saying it for years, but it still holds very true - "none of us is as clever as all of us". Social research and evaluation is all about working together as a team, making sure everyone at any level inputs their ideas and specific skills into projects so we get the best possible outcome for the client.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
It’s a great choice for a career - there aren’t many careers where you will get to develop a huge range of skills - from methods understanding, financial and negotiation skills, dealing with clients, dealing with participants from a range of backgrounds, analytical skills, presenting - the list goes on. And all while making a positive impact on society. It’s a fast developing industry with new methods and approaches appearing, and continual changes in government priorities and policies that require high quality research, evaluation and insight. Above all, as social research is a people business, you will get to work with a diverse range of colleagues who are all totally passionate about what they do.