To become a pricing assistant, you should have strong analytic and mathematics skills. It might be a good idea to take advanced math and business courses prior to entering a business program. A person who wants to become a pricing assistant should earn a degree in a field such as marketing or economics and acquire education or experience related to a field in which he or she would like to work. Typically, businesses have pricing departments, and pricing assistants normally are team members who help higher level pricing managers and team leaders.
People who work in pricing are responsible for performing research and determining for which prices companies might sell their goods. Many organizations that hire pricing assistants break departments into categories; for example, a grocery store might consider frozen food to be one category and dried goods to be another. It is common for these kinds of business to hire pricing professionals for each category, though other organizations might separate pricing departments based on other factors, such as regional market. In most cases, pricing assistants answer to department or category leaders and tend to be professionals who are interested in moving into higher roles.
To become a pricing assistant, you should think about in which field you would like to work. It can be a good idea to participate in internships while in college in marketing departments. Internships offer great opportunities for learning about the real world applications of concepts and practices you might learn about in a classroom. This early real world experience also can help you to learn about the kind of pricing work you might want to do.
You might also want to make sure that you get plenty of business math and accounting training while in college. It is common for marketing students to be required to take some basic business math classes, though if you would like to become a pricing assistant, it can be valuable to have a greater understanding of accounting principles. Pricing assistants should be able to determine factors such as costs and profit margins.
A person who would like to become a pricing assistant should also work to be a valuable member of a team. People who perform as pricing assistants commonly work in groups and collaborate with colleagues to provide the most accurate conclusions. They must also be able to follow instructions closely and behave professionally around higher level managers and executives.
