By gathering information, carrying out tests, analysing data, and writing research reports to present their findings, research assistants collaborate closely with main researchers. A wide range of professions, including engineering, medicine, marketing, education, and psychology, are open to these experts. Knowing the hard talents and soft skills needed for the position can be helpful if you’re thinking about a career as a research assistant. In this post, we outline how to acquire these skills, list those skills, and discuss some strategies for emphasising them throughout a job search.
What Are Research Assistant Skills?
Research assistant skills are a combination of hard and soft skills that professionals use on the job or to advance in their research careers. This includes analytical skills, time management, technical skills and attention to detail. Additional certifications can help professionals to learn and develop the skills they need for this career.
Examples of Research Assistant Skills
Here are some examples of hard skills and soft skills that professionals use:
Research and analysis
The ability to conduct research and interpret results is a valuable skill for research assistants. Some research skills include:
- Gathering data
- Validating the data sources
- Performing statistical analysis
- Ensuring quality control
- Ensuring compliance with safety protocols and industry standards
- Interpreting results
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to analyse information objectively and make informed decisions based on findings. You can use critical thinking skills for:
- Assessing research findings
- Making accurate observations
- Identifying sources of error during experiments
- Determining the accuracy of data
- Verifying whether research subjects meet the eligibility criteria for participating in research
Attention to detail
The ability to focus on details allows a research assistant to collect data and conduct experiments accurately. This skill helps them focus on minor details during the experiment, validate the authenticity of data and ensure that it is reliable. It also enables them to identify inconsistencies in the experiment results and make adjustments to achieve accurate results.
Time management
Research assistants may assist in multiple research projects simultaneously. Some of their duties include conducting and monitoring experiments, meeting with lead scientists and drafting reports to communicate their findings. An effective time management strategy helps them organise their work well and complete tasks on time. By prioritising tasks, creating to-do lists, checking progress and delegating tasks, they can effectively manage their time.
Problem-solving skills
Research assistants often face challenges such as data integrity issues and inconsistencies in data. The ability to solve them and find logical solutions is important, as it helps them work on complex projects and achieve their goals. The steps in problem-solving include having a clear understanding of the problem statement, reviewing the literature, setting the hypothesis, collecting data, checking the data for accuracy, analysing and processing data and publishing the results.
Communication skills
Research assistants communicate their findings to a research team. It may be necessary to prepare reports or presentations that include workflow diagrams, data collection techniques, well-documented results of each experiment and concluding remarks. This information helps the lead researcher make informed decisions. Excellent communication skills enable them to deliver this information effectively and solicit feedback.
How to Improve Research Assistance Skills
Follow these steps if you want to improve your skills:
1. Set a goal
As professionals advance in their careers, they set career goals for tracking their progress. Some of these goals include completing additional certifications, co-authoring a research paper or mentoring junior research assistants. Start by setting a career objective, outlining the steps to follow, identifying the resources you can use and choosing a completion date. For example, if you want to improve your writing skills to help co-author research papers, you may set a goal of completing a course that provides a step-by-step guide on how to write an effective research paper.
2. Get certified
Most employers expect professionals in this field to be certified in their area of expertise. Completing certifications improves credibility, enhances your technical skills and increases your employability. For example, when you are working on a research project that involves analysing and identifying patterns in large datasets, you might benefit from taking a course in data analytics.
3. Stay updated
Update your knowledge of the latest technologies and research areas. Here are some ways you can stay current with the latest developments:
- Reading research papers and journals
- Co-authoring studies in peer-reviewed journals in your areas of research
- Attending workshops, live events and seminars
- Following other professionals and industry experts
4. Focus on your soft skills
Apart from technical proficiency, research facilities or organisations seek candidates who can collaborate well with others and foster a positive work environment. Other soft skills include communication, leadership, problem-solving and teamwork. Here are some ways you can improve them:
- Practising active learning
- Pursuing additional courses to improve your communication and writing skills
- Building positive relationships at the workplace
- Adapting to workplace changes
- Emphasising teamwork
- Asking for feedback and making improvements
Research Assistant Skills in the Workplace
The ability to demonstrate your skills at the workplace helps you gain the credibility and trust of your colleagues and managers. Listed below are some ways to present your skills at the workplace:
- Make recommendations. Suggest innovative ways of improving the current research techniques, which help reduce costs and resources and increase operational efficiency. This shows that you are up-to-date with current technology and industry trends.
- Conduct training sessions. You can conduct sessions to share recent developments in your area of research. This shows that you are eager to learn new things and share your knowledge with others in the team.
- Propose unique solutions. By identifying a unique solution to a problem or an alternative method to accomplish something, you can demonstrate your creative problem-solving skills.
- Accept challenging projects. A challenging project can help you improve your technical skills, collaborate with people from different domains, propose creative solutions and contribute to an organisation’s growth.
How to Highlight Research Assistant Skills
It is essential to highlight your technical skills and soft skills during your application process. Here are some ways you can do so:
Research assistant skills for a resume
You can begin by listing your skills in the professional summary section of your resume. This helps the interviewer gain a better understanding of your professional background and work experience. When describing your work experience, mention how you used your skills to achieve goals in the past. You can include skills such as proficiency in data analysis, working knowledge of laboratory equipment, experience conducting research, writing literature reviews and proposals and knowledge of essential programming languages.
Position the skills section at the top of your resume so that the employer gets a quick overview of your technical skills and qualifications. Place the skills section after you have added the header and contact details. If you plan on writing a professional summary, you can include the skills section below it. Review the job description to ensure you add skills and include specific keywords that the employer may look for when screening resumes.
Research assistant skills for a cover letter
In your cover letter, mention how you used your skills to achieve your objectives in your previous roles. Explain how you plan to achieve similar results for the company for which you are applying. As an example, describe your experience working closely with a lead scientist to develop a kit to isolate ribonucleic acid (RNA) with an accuracy of 98%, saving 80% of the time it would have taken with existing techniques. Through this, you can clearly demonstrate to potential employers that you understand their mission, challenges and goals and are eager to contribute to the organisation’s growth.
Research assistant skills for a job interview
As part of your job interview, the interviewer may ask you questions related to your past work experience. Mention how you applied your technical skills to solve problems in your previous workplaces. For instance, you can mention how you implemented a custom framework to reduce the training time of a neural network by 30% which led to better performance and less hardware consumption. This helps the interviewer assess if you are a suitable candidate for the job role.