Summer Centered: Madison Sultan ’19 Does Market Research

An intern for the New York City market research firm Engagious, Madison Sultan ’19 often walks into work with no idea what duties she’ll be assigned that day. And that’s what she loves about it.

“There really isn’t a ‘typical’ day, which is great,” she says. “Oftentimes I will listen in on interviews, focus groups, and dial tests”—a measurement of consumer engagement that involves “people using little hand-held dials while watching a video of whatever message we are testing (e.g., an actress reading a speech a politician might give) to indicate how much they agree with what they are hearing”—“and will then write reports on findings from them that are sent to the client.”

Fusing "research, science, and creativity," Engagious is a customer insights and messaging consultancy that produces research-driven content designed to resonate across demographics. Sultan’s stint there—which is funded by the Center for Career and Professional Advising’s Whitehead Internship Program—is the next step on the path to a job in the market research sector, the economics major’s primary goal after graduation.

“Market research [is a field that] heavily relies upon what I have learned in my behavioral economics courses, my psychology courses, and even in my political-behavior class, which is all about understanding how people think, why they think that way, and the decisions they make based on this,” says Sultan, who is also minoring in statistics and psychology. “For work, understanding this helps to shape the suggestions we make to clients.”

Her time at Engagious has helped to refine her professional focus in some ways, imbuing it with a very Haverfordian commitment to the greater community.

“A lot of the work Engagious does is for people in policy and politics generally, working to perfect their message—like, how to present a policy so that people understand it best and take advantage of it fully,” Sultan says. “I like the idea that the work I do could have a meaningful impact on people that extends beyond consumerism.”

“Summer Centered” is a series exploring our students’ Center-funded summer work.