January 30, 2010

Hi Miss England’s class!

Tiddy Teddy came to the office with me today.  There are pictures of him in my cube, at reception, and in our biggest board room.  At Charles River Associates, we work with companies who are suing each other over Intellectual Property (patents, trademarks, etc.).  A typical case would be something like: Company A sued Company B for selling a product with the same name or same composition (that’s trademark or patented) as Company A’s product.  Typically, we are the people who testify in court on how much Company A should get (what the damages should be).  Our office is located at 1 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606.  Being an “Analyst” is a really fun job because we get to work in a ton of different industries, such as Pharmaceutical, Industrial, Home Appliances, etc (those are the ones I’ve mostly worked in).  The work is fast paced and pretty exciting, especially when you calculate damages for trials that are millions of dollars!

To become an Analyst, you need to be good at math and problem solving, along with going to college and getting a degree in Business: either Finance or Accounting.  People that work here also go back to school to get their Masters in Business Administration (MBAs), or study for years to take series of tests to become Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) or Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs).  We even have people that leave our company to become lawyers.

Your Friend,

Hadley