How to write an RA application
If you’re thinking about a career in research, working as a research assistant (RA) can be a great first step on the ladder. You’ll be working with an established academic, and possibly a team of other researchers, on a real-world study. The exact project will dictate the nature of the job, but it might involve recruiting participants, collecting data, preparing data for analysis, and possibly doing some of the analysis too. These jobs are competitive. I’ve read through several hundred RA applications now, and there’s an art to writing them. Here are my tips. 1. Before you begin: get some research experience outside your undergrad degree I know: this is the crappy can’t-get-experience-without-experience bind. But the reality is that few people get RA jobs without some prior research experience. This could be in the form of a masters, but this is not the only option. (Masters are expensive. I never did one.) The other option is to get some paid or voluntary short-term R