Are you thinking about researching your relevant field after completing your doctorate? And what if you are told that you will be getting paid for doing that research? Don't get surprised as most educational institutes offer Post Research Associate jobs to assist their research department using your skills and knowledge.
Collecting data, analyzing research, and writing research reports are the major tasks that you have to do. And just by doing all this, you can make around $24 per hour. Of course, you got to complete your doctorate before applying for this post. Still, there are a fraction (8-9%) of professionals working as postdoctoral research associates without completing their degrees.
In addition to that, oral and written communications are much required skills to express your work effectively. Excellent grip over knowledge in the relevant field, data collection, data analysis, and working experience over varied research projects is all that it takes to prosper in this field.
Postdoctoral Research Associate Overview
Postdoctoral Research Associate Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a postdoctoral research associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.46 an hour? That's $48,790 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 10,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Postdoctoral Research Associate Do
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a postdoctoral research associate, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.0% of postdoctoral research associates included phd, while 11.1% of resumes included research projects, and 6.6% of resumes included molecular biology. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the postdoctoral research associate job title. But what industry to start with? Most postdoctoral research associates actually find jobs in the education and health care industries.
How To Become a Postdoctoral Research Associate
If you're interested in becoming a postdoctoral research associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 2.2% of postdoctoral research associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.9% of postdoctoral research associates have master's degrees. Even though most postdoctoral research associates have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a postdoctoral research associate. When we researched the most common majors for a postdoctoral research associate, we found that they most commonly earn doctoral degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on postdoctoral research associate resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a postdoctoral research associate. In fact, many postdoctoral research associate jobs require experience in a role such as research assistant. Meanwhile, many postdoctoral research associates also have previous career experience in roles such as graduate research assistant or teaching assistant.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Postdoctoral Research Associate Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of research scientist you might progress to a role such as senior scientist eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title principal scientist.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Postdoctoral Research Associate
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Research Foundation Cuny Postdoctoral Research Associate Postdoctoral Research Associate | Research Foundation Cuny Research Foundation Cuny | 03/16/2021 03/16/2021 | $36,47603/16/2021 $36,476 |
American Psychological Association Postdoctoral Associate-Tools for Rigorous and Reproducible Research Postdoctoral Associate-Tools for Rigorous and Reproducible Research | American Psychological Association American Psychological Association | 03/10/2021 03/10/2021 | $65,00003/10/2021 $65,000 |
University of Maine Postdoctoral Research Associate-Computational Modeling and Design Optimization for Large Area Addi Postdoctoral Research Associate-Computational Modeling and Design Optimization for Large Area Addi | University of Maine University of Maine | 03/05/2021 03/05/2021 | $55,00003/05/2021 $55,000 |
The Metopolitan Water District of Southern California Postdoctoral Research Associate LT Temp (Recycled Water) Postdoctoral Research Associate LT Temp (Recycled Water) | The Metopolitan Water District of Southern California The Metopolitan Water District of Southern California | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $87,73701/28/2021 $87,737 |
Texas A&M University Progress Postdoctoral Research Associate Progress Postdoctoral Research Associate | Texas A&M University Texas A&M University | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $55,00001/27/2021 $55,000 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Postdoctoral Research Associate Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Postdoctoral Research Associate. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Postdoctoral Research Associate Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Postdoctoral Research Associate resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Postdoctoral Research Associates
1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
5. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
6. University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA • Public
7. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
8. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
9. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
10. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
Top Skills For a Postdoctoral Research Associate
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.0% of postdoctoral research associates listed phd on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and observation skills are important as well.
- PHD, 18.0%
- Research Projects, 11.1%
- Molecular Biology, 6.6%
- Data Analysis, 6.1%
- Python, 5.3%
- Other Skills, 52.9% See All Postdoctoral Research Associate Skills
Best States For a Postdoctoral Research Associate
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a postdoctoral research associate. The best states for people in this position are Nevada, Alaska, California, and New Jersey. Postdoctoral research associates make the most in Nevada with an average salary of $70,144. Whereas in Alaska and California, they would average $67,531 and $62,234, respectively. While postdoctoral research associates would only make an average of $61,016 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Jersey
$61,016
Avg. Salary
2. California
$62,234
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$57,699
Avg. Salary
How Do Postdoctoral Research Associate Rate Their Jobs?
Top Postdoctoral Research Associate Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ postdoctoral research associates and discovered their number of postdoctoral research associate opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that University of Illinois at Chicago was the best, especially with an average salary of $49,213. Battelle follows up with an average salary of $58,185, and then comes Washington University in St. Louis with an average of $45,734. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a postdoctoral research associate. The employers include Washington University in St. Louis, Alderman Library, and University of Southern California
Postdoctoral Research Associate Videos
