Research assistants provide support to individuals or research teams conducting experiments, analyzing data, and collecting information. Many research assistants work in academia for colleges and universities, but are also in demand from research centers, think tanks, public interest groups, and private consulting and market research firms.
Most research assistant jobs are temporary contract positions. While this means that there are fewer permanent roles for those seeking additional job security, it provides a high level of flexibility, with many jobs available part-time. Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts an employment growth of 5%, which is above the national average.
Becoming a research assistant generally requires at least an undergraduate degree in a related field, though some positions will require postgraduate qualifications. The role is ideal for recent graduates and PhD candidates, as it provides hands-on experience with applied research, including opportunities to publish papers. Whatever your academic background, all positions will require you to possess technical skills, experience in the field, and an aptitude for data analysis, problem solving, communication, and time management.
Research assistants work with lead researchers and scientists to conduct experiments in a specific field. They may work at a variety of organizations from universities to private companies. Many students pursuing a master’s degree may take a research assistant position in their chosen field to gain expertise. Research assistants will file and organize paperwork, assist senior researchers with experiments, help perform data analysis, and more.
To become a research assistant, you will need at least a bachelor’s degree in a closely related field. Previous experience with research or data is preferable, and prior roles as a data specialist or data analyst can help you land the role. Ideal candidates for this role will have superb research and data collection skills, developed time management skills, and the ability to create accurate reports.
Research assistants are needed in a variety of fields from marketing to medical devices. Since this job title can be so broad, it’s important to tailor your resume to the type of research you want to do. For example, if you want to become a research assistant in the field of biology, you should highlight relevant coursework and work experience you have working in medicine, healthcare, or biology.
If you are trying to get a research assistant job directly out of college, certifications can help show hiring managers your knowledge in a comprehensive fashion. You can obtain credentials like the CRA (certified research assistant) and highlight it on your resume.
The duties of a research assistant will vary depending on the field you’re working in, but will almost always include planning research projects, reviewing literature, writing proposals and grant applications, conducting interviews and surveys, developing statistical models, analyzing data, producing reports, and presenting research findings. While research assistants can be found in just about any academic field, they all share a need for communication, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.
Your resume needs to be tailored to the job you’re applying for — every time. There are plenty of ways to do this quickly and easily, like adding a resume title, using the exact title of the position you’re applying for, and writing a quick resume summary that highlights your most relevant achievements.
When listing your skills at the end of your resume, stick to hard skills only. If you want to emphasize soft skills, you can do this through your bullet points instead. Accomplishments like “streamlined work instructions and developed easy-to-use checklists” show attention to detail, while “developed surveys to collect information and implemented automated reminders” highlights problem solving and communication skills.
Clinical research assistants work on clinical trials in hospitals and medical research centers. As a clinical research assistant, you’ll be assisting doctors and senior researchers by recruiting and enrolling research subjects, developing protocols, setting up and managing trials, collecting and analyzing data, and contributing to trial reports, regulatory authority applications, and grant writing. Ideally, you’ll need some experience or a degree in the field of study and clinical trial experience.
When applying for a more specialized position like clinical research assistant, you want to keep your resume as tightly focused as possible. That means prioritizing clinical research experience. It’s fine to include general research experience, but try to tailor your bullet points by including accomplishments relevant to clinical research, like preparing regulatory documents and conducting medical research.
Jobs that require a lot of hard skills, like clinical research, may end up with a larger than usual skills section. Avoid making recruiters’ eyes glaze over by splitting it into subsections, like certifications, techniques, and technical skills. Make sure you’re exclusively listing hard skills — employers want to see things like relevant software skills and clinical trial experience.
As a laboratory research assistant, you’ll be working in a laboratory environment to design projects, conduct research and experiments, write reports, perform general laboratory maintenance, and assist senior laboratory staff — so make sure to emphasize your technical skills. You may be working for a private laboratory, medical or research facility, or pharmaceutical company. Unlike standard research assistant positions, lab assistants typically work full-time, including weekend and evening shifts.
Every bullet point should start with a strong action verb. Remember, your resume is supposed to highlight your accomplishments, not simply list your job duties. As a laboratory research assistant, you’ll want to emphasize your scientific expertise. Verbs like Researched, Designed, and Developed all reflect the skills you’ll be expected to use on the job.
Including metrics in your bullet points is the best way to demonstrate the outcome of your work. This doesn’t mean every bullet point needs to include numbers but try to quantify your accomplishments whenever possible. If you analyzed data with 98% accuracy, reduced processing times by 25%, or performed research on 1,000 subjects, say exactly that.
Graduate research assistants are able to work while they study, receiving a tuition reimbursement or stipend as well as valuable experience working in academia. As a graduate research assistant, you’ll have completed an undergraduate degree and be pursuing a master’s degree or PhD. You’ll generally be working closely with a supervisor to support their projects, including conducting research, analyzing data, writing reports, and supervising undergraduate research assistants.
As a graduate research assistant, hiring managers won’t expect you to have extensive paid experience. If you’ve worked on previous research projects as a student, you can list these under your work experience or in an education or projects section. For greater impact, use action verbs and metrics to frame your accomplishments in an action-focused way.
Even as a graduate, you may have significant research experience, especially if you’ve been heavily involved in student research. You can highlight your skills and background with a short resume summary — no more than 100 words — explaining your years of experience, research or educational specialization, and 1-2 of your most impressive accomplishments.
A graduate research assistant is typically someone carrying out research as part of their master’s or PhD program. Graduate research positions can be found in a variety of fields and disciplines. Usually, graduate research assistants help conduct experiments, research, and collect data for a university department or professor. They may also help teach undergraduate lectures in their field of study.
To become a graduate research assistant, you usually must be pursuing a continuing education degree, such as a master’s degree. Typically, students will hold these positions at the university they attend. You must also have a strong academic track record. Professors will look to hire graduate research assistants who are well-versed in their area of study. Moreover, graduate research assistants must be highly organized because these roles are held simultaneously alongside their coursework.
Regardless of the field, graduate research assistants can expect to have to compile data and present it efficiently. For this reason, it’s important to highlight projects where you have had to compile various sets of data and information, and had to synthesize it to create a comprehensive report. You can use examples from your undergraduate degree.
An undergraduate research assistant is someone who assists in the act of executing experiments, collecting data, and executing analysis of data collected. Typically, the undergraduate research assistant is guided by a master's student or postdoctoral researcher, who guides the undergraduate research assistant.
To land a job as an undergraduate research assistant, you’ll need strong attention to detail, superb communication skills, and critical thinking abilities. Hiring managers for the position will be looking to see relevant experience, whether that be coursework, research reports you’ve published, and relevant internship and/or past job experience. Technical skills developed through relevant coursework, such as technical writing and quantitative research, should be noted on your resume.
To get an undergraduate research assistant position, hiring managers will be interested in candidates with relevant knowledge to the subject matter they research. If you have a psychology degree, you should apply to work in departments that primarily conduct research having to do with the brain. You will be better able to utilize your knowledge with experiments that relate to your chosen field.
Showcasing that you are able to write using scientific and technical principles will go a long way when trying to get an undergraduate research assistant position. You should make note of any published writing or research you’ve done in your resume. Being able to showcase the relevant technical skills you have will catch the eye of hiring managers.
An entry research assistant is someone who helps prepare studies, conduct them, record findings, and synthesize the information. You may work with undergraduate students who will assist you in conducting studies and learn from your area of expertise.
To get a position as an entry level research assistant, you’ll need a strong educational background in science or another technical field. You’ll also need experience assisting with conducting research, great attention to detail, and strong technical writing skills. Usually, people who get roles as entry level research assistants have a combination of relevant education and experiences. Experience using data management tools like SOLIDWORKS and IBM SPSS, as shown in the example resume, is also good to demonstrate.
To get an entry level research assistant role, it will help if you are familiar with the area of study the lab is focused on. For example, if you know the lab you are applying to mainly studies genetics, you will want to include any relevant educational or research experience you’ve had in the field. This could be academic or past job experience. Showing you are well versed in the area of study you’ll be researching will make you more credible to hiring managers.
Usually, hiring managers are looking for a specific skill set when it comes to hiring for an entry level research assistant. Some things they might be looking for include experience with scientific writing, composing reports, data analysis, and more. If you can bring up past examples of times you have used relevant skills, such as scientific writing, it will help you land the job. You can use projects completed in an academic setting if you do not have relevant work experience.
If you have an interest in studying people’s psychology and behavior, a role as a psychology research assistant might be right for you. Psychology research assistants help conduct studies that test hypotheses about the human brain and behaviors. Using findings from the studies, you will help people by using the new data to choose suitable treatment plans for their psychological disorders.
To land a job as an undergraduate research assistant, you’ll need a bachelor's degree in a technical field like statistics or a biology-related degree like abnormal psychology. Sometimes, a master's degree is required depending on where you want to work and your location. Extra credentials, such as a behavior analysis certification, can help you land this job more easily. Hiring managers will be looking for candidates with solid technical skills, a background in science, great writing abilities, and strong attention to detail.
To get a psychology research assistant position, some workplaces may require a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) certification. If you take a master's program in a relevant field, this certification is usually offered as a part of the degree. However, you do not need a master's degree to get this certification. A BCBA can be obtained through a standalone course. Taking this course, and obtaining your BCBA, can make you stand out among other applicants.
Though the role of a psychology research assistant is a very technical one, it also requires good foundations for counseling and interacting with a vulnerable population. Research assistants may be helping psychiatric patients through a crisis or traumatic events. To stand out, it’s important to show you have experience handling and de-escalating patients in a psychiatric setting.
The skills you’ll need as a research assistant will depend on your field and the specific position you’re applying for. Clinical or laboratory positions will require more technical and scientific skills, while academic or market research positions may place a heavier emphasis on soft skills that don’t need to be listed in your skills section.
To find out what hard skills you should be including on your resume, the best place to start is the job description itself. Pick out the most important skills from there and make sure to list the ones you have. For more comprehensive suggestions, you can check out our list of top resume skills and keywords or use our free Targeted Resume tool for keyword suggestions and personalized feedback on how to improve your resume.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Research Assistant job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
One of the easiest mistakes to make on your resume is listing the job duties for each position you held instead of focusing on your accomplishments. The best way to prevent this is to start each bullet point with a strong action verb. As a research assistant, you’ll want to choose verbs that highlight clinical, scientific, and technical skills. Use Tested or Analyzed to highlight your experience with running tests and performing data analysis, or Monitored and Documented to show attention to detail.
If the position you’re applying for requires soft skills like teamwork and communication, choose verbs like Assisted and Supported to show how you’ve worked with senior researchers and academics, Supervised if you’ll be leading a team of research assistants, and Presented if the role required a lot of public speaking or outreach.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
If you're a senior-level employee, or you're changing careers to become a Research Assistant, it's useful to add a paragraph at the top of your resume highlighting your most impressive accomplishments. This is called a resume summary.
Here's an example of a summary that can be used on a Research Assistant resume.
A resume summary is a totally optional section, and in most cases, it's better to leave it out of your resume than include it. For example, if you're a student or mid-level hire, you should not include a summary, and instead use the space to add to your work experience.
To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Research Assistant resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Resume Summary Examples for Job Seekers: When To Include One.
You should use bullet points to describe your achievements in your Research Assistant resume. Here are sample bullet points to help you get started:
Created and maintained models for M&A plans, Discounted Cash Flow Analysis, Product SVA Analysis, Credit Risk Assessment Models, and Common Stock Liquidity Comparisons
Conducted private equity due diligence in $400M portfolio. Performed strategic and analytical valuation of assets based on interviews with experts and created extensive models of the industries; persuaded client to move forward with acquisition
Created economic model to assess financial feasibility and operational synergies throughout the supply chain; identified >$50M in savings
Generated Excel models which produced risk-weighted composite valuation scores of country and sectors based on quantitative signals
Designed merchandising strategies for grocery retailers based on regression analysis identifying key store attributes to increase traffic and conversion; resulted in a 25% sales lift
For more sample bullet points and details on how to write effective bullet points, see our articles on resume bullet points, how to quantify your resume and resume accomplishments.
