How do I get a job as a research assistant?

Many students can find opportunities for a paid research assistant position at their university. It's a great opportunity for an undergraduate or master's student to gain experience in a research role before deciding to apply to a Ph.D. program.

A good way to begin is to find out what type of research labs are available in your desired field of study. A good deal of research assistant roles is usually not paid or done for research credit.

However, there are still opportunities to find paid research positions. Many labs work off grants, which they use to allocate funds to have one or several paid research assistants working on the study. These paid positions are usually harder to get without prior lab experience.

If you don't have much on-the-job experience, you should include things like this on your resume;

• Experience from when you conducted a research project

• Any technical skills you've honed that relate to the job (for example, a research assistant for a social scientist may need to be comfortable questioning subjects, so any experience interviewing others would be an asset)

• A short summary of an independent study or thesis project, if you've done one

• Any additional strengths, like statistical analysis skills, fluency in a foreign language, or relevant computer skills