At a market research firm, polling organization, university research center, or federal statistical program, you conduct surveys by phone — administering structured questionnaires, capturing responses, and contributing to the data that research studies, polls, and statistics require.
The phone bank is the work setting — a CATI station, a headset, and a queue of dialed numbers that the surveyor works through one by one. Each completed interview feeds the study's data set, with the surveyor responsible for script fidelity, rapport, and clean response capture. Completed surveys per shift and data-quality measures are the operating outputs.
Variance across employers is real: at academic research centers the work runs on methodologically careful studies with longer instruments; at commercial market-research firms it tilts toward shorter, faster studies; at federal statistical programs (BJS, NCES, CDC surveys) the work follows specific protocols. The declining response rate environment of modern survey research has made every completed interview harder to land.
It fits people who are steady on the phone, comfortable with high-rejection environments, and disciplined about consistent script delivery. AAPOR membership and survey-research training anchor advancement. The trade-off is the contract or project-based nature of much survey work and the modest pay typical of phone-room positions across the industry.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Admin & Office roles →At a market research firm, polling organization, university research center, or federal statistical program, you conduct surveys by phone — administering structured questionnaires, capturing responses, and contributing to the data that research studies, polls, and statistics require.
Median pay for a Telephone Surveyor is about $44K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $32K to $61K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, and Service Orientation.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 11.6% through 2034, with roughly 157,310 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Entry Taker, Consumer Recruiter, and Desk Interviewer.
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