04/07/2023
At IE University, our mission is your success. We celebrate the wins and take pride in our students’ achievements in the world of work and beyond.
The Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and, for the first time ever, conferring the MRCB of the Decade award to mark this milestone. Our inspiring alum Ryan McCourt was the inaugural recipient of this accolade.
Ryan currently works as a key account manager at Meltwater, an IT consulting company based in Austin, Texas. His success since graduation is further proof that this program is truly transformational. We recently sat down with Ryan to learn more about his IE Experience and his current role and future goals, as well as his reaction to receiving the MRCB of the Decade award.
Why did you decide to pursue the Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior at IE University?
I had been working in marketing for a few years and really enjoyed the possibilities in the field. But I was ready to take my skill set to the next level, so I thought it’d be great to study a master’s program. I found IE University and quickly realized it had a great curriculum, a great reputation and I knew that I could get some really good value out of the institution.
Tell me a little bit about where you work and what your role is.
Right after graduation, I worked at a smaller startup called Userlytics for about four years. In that time, I got to see the company grow from six to about 70 people—a lot of them came from IE University, especially at the beginning, to help turbocharge our growth. Six months ago, I joined another company based in Austin, Texas for a role in account management, where I help our clients find value for the tools they purchase.
How has studying the program made an impact on your career?
I got my first role at Userlytics directly because of the Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior. They were using the IE University Careers Portal as one of their main sources for potential candidates.
And sure enough, within my first year there, about half of the new hires were from IE University.
However, IE University also indirectly got me the job. My role was in UX, which is a bit like product research—helping improve products by using a lot of market research principles. It was wonderful to come from this program with an understanding of what surveys or focus groups were, and a base of all the core concepts that we talked about in depth. I was able to start using them in practice from day one because of the program.
What do you think has helped you most from the program in your professional life?
One of my favorite things about the Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior is that we studied tactics. But what was really cool about this was that the professors we learned from had such varied and strong backgrounds—many of them have worked for 20 or 30 years in the field. They told us so much more than just what these individual elements were, like why they’re important, how to use them and how to communicate them to the client to ensure they’re going to be wowed. The program really was end-to-end.
What I’ve realized in my current role is that it’s not at all market research anymore, but I still have those same elements of diving in deeper to see what the clients really need. I think some of those soft skills that aren’t even advertised or talked about are really where the strengths are.
You received the award for the MRCB of the Decade. Tell us about what that means to you.
Honestly, I was blown away. It’s an awesome achievement and something I would never have thought I would receive. I was really excited just to get accepted to IE University; I was really excited to be here from day one, just because of all the good things I had heard about it. And in the process of being here and meeting the professors and students, I grew an even deeper appreciation for IE University because I could see the real value that they were giving in the classroom—I had a great time. So to have this award exist and even be nominated for it is awesome. I’m really over the moon.
Since graduating, how have market research and consumer behavior changed? What will the next decade look like for the field?
A lot of market research is moving more online and toward digital. Ten years ago, it was difficult to make surveys and analyze them; now, it’s a piece of cake. You had to talk to a lot of people individually to get relevant answers. Today, you can easily create a test in an hour, launch it and receive results by the next day—and they’re all going to include 30-minute videos!
You can get so much more information so much quicker with technology, so I think it’s just going to be easier for more people to do market research and get better results faster. And with AI tools like Chat GPT, it’s going to become faster, smoother, more accurate and probably a lot cheaper.
I also think things will be easier for consumers. Think of Amazon or Instagram and how you can buy items at the click of a button. We’re naturally going to see a pretty quick evolution: whenever you see something online, you’ll have a quick and easy way to purchase it.
What would you say to someone who is thinking about studying the Master in Market Research & Consumer Behavior?
My advice would be just to do it. The classroom is super-diverse—everyone has great backgrounds and comes from different countries and cultures.
A lot of people have varying life and work experiences to share. It’s really international and a fun group to be a part of.
The teachers are phenomenal. You’re learning practical things from people who’ve been honing their craft for such a long time. Everything about it is just a good experience: so much so that I remember toward the end, a lot of students were wishing that the program would run for two years, just because we were all having such a good time.
