You do need specific qualifications to get hired for the position of research assistant. For one thing, you must hold a doctorate degree in your field of expertise. In addition, you must have completed research projects related to your field and published the results, as well as published scholarly articles in academic magazines. The main thing to understand is that even if you have exemplary qualifications, you may find it difficult to get a job if there are not many openings in the field you have chosen. Before you start on a career path to become a research assistant, you should carefully research the availability of jobs in your field. The number of job openings change from year depending on the numbers of students enrolling in courses at a university, so there may be no job openings one year and plenty of them the following year.
You do need to keep your recommendations for the position of research assistant up-to-date. If you apply for a position and your recommendations are from five years ago, the selection committee may think you have not updated your credentials in that time. Therefore, you should always be making contacts with those in a position to recommend you for a job. These people should be well respected in the field and have had close contact with you in your studies or your research. References from supervisors or evaluators are also essential to include in your application package.
Before you submit your curriculum vitae to a selection committee hiring for the position of research assistant, make sure you proofread everything to ensure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. Even if you hire a service to prepare this for you, you must still check for typos. A selection committee reading the materials you provide in an application will not look kindly on one that contains a lot of errors. It may give them the impression that you don’t pay attention to details and this is one of the requirements for a person in this job.
Make sure that your credentials are all from accredited institutions. This is one of the things a selection committee looks for when selecting a person for the position of research assistant. Relevant experience as an assistant conducting research is important. Graduate students often become teaching assistants during their doctoral studies, thus giving them some experience. You also need to look at where you want to work and the salary paid by that institution. You need to have enough salary so that you can conduct further research and devote time to writing instead of having to get a second job.
When you choose a university for obtaining your doctorate degree, look for those that often hire recent graduates in the position of research assistant. Although the ultimate goal of achieving this high degree is to attain a position in higher education, if you want to get hired at the same university where you do your work towards the degree, you have more motivation to do extremely well.
