While you won't leading a research project, you will have some pretty important tasks that lead to the success of research projects as a research assistant. In fact, you're tasked with a number of responsibilities that assist the main researcher on the project.
Pretty cool, right? You might get to conduct literature reviews or analyze data. Maybe you'll even get to prepare a grant to help with the project. Basically your position is essential to the project, which also means you have a lot riding on your shoulders.
Depending on who you'll be working for, you may need a bachelor's degree or you may just need an associate's degree. Chances are you'll probably be a research assistant to a professor or another professional in the field. And no matter what, you'll definitely receive some on-the-job training.
Research Assistant Overview
Research Assistant Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a research assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.02 an hour? That's $43,713 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 20% and produce 139,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Research Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many research assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a research assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.8% of research assistants included lab equipment, while 9.6% of resumes included research projects, and 8.1% of resumes included data collection. 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 research assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most research assistants actually find jobs in the education and health care industries.
How To Become a Research Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a research assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.9% of research assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 26.2% of research assistants have master's degrees. Even though most research assistants 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 research assistant. When we researched the most common majors for a research assistant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on research assistant resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a research assistant. In fact, many research assistant jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many research assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as teaching assistant or volunteer.
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Research Assistant 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 consultant you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title project director.
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 Research Assistant
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Oregon Health & Science University Research Assistant 2 Research Assistant 2 | Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $35,56801/30/2021 $35,568 |
Kelly Research Assistant Research Assistant | Kelly Kelly | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $39,65301/30/2021 $39,653 |
University of Colorado Temporary Research Assistant Temporary Research Assistant | University of Colorado University of Colorado | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $31,30501/29/2021 $31,305 |
University of Washington Research Study Assistant Research Study Assistant | University of Washington University of Washington | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $35,47201/29/2021 $35,472 |
Kelly Services Research Assistant I Research Assistant I | Kelly Services Kelly Services | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $35,47901/29/2021 $35,479 |
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Research Assistant 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 Research Assistant. 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 Research Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Research Assistant 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 Research Assistants
1. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
4. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
5. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
6. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
9. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
10. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Public
Top Skills For a Research Assistant
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, 9.8% of research assistants listed lab equipment on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Lab Equipment, 9.8%
- Research Projects, 9.6%
- Data Collection, 8.1%
- Data Analysis, 7.0%
- Laboratory Equipment, 5.8%
- Other Skills, 59.7% See All Research Assistant Skills
Best States For a Research Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a research assistant. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Hawaii, New York, and Illinois. Research assistants make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $57,956. Whereas in Hawaii and New York, they would average $54,222 and $47,219, respectively. While research assistants would only make an average of $46,335 in Illinois, 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
$57,956
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$45,808
Avg. Salary
3. Illinois
$46,335
Avg. Salary
How Do Research Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
5.0
What do you like the most about working as Research Assistant?
What I like is that,you get to interact with different people from various communities.Relationships are formed in the process Show MoreTop Research Assistant 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 research assistants and discovered their number of research assistant opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that University of California Press was the best, especially with an average salary of $39,742. University of Illinois at Chicago follows up with an average salary of $39,718, and then comes Bureau of Economic Geology with an average of $41,484. 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 research assistant. The employers include Dartmouth College, University of Utah, and Kelly Services
Research Assistant Videos
