A mentor once told me "I know what I think when I read what I write." I spend most of my mornings writing about my questions and their answers. After writing, I meet with my mentors and peers to improve my ideas. I love having discussions that help me better understand the things that have been studied before so I can focus on studying the things that have not. I also take time to meet with my former students and mentees to help them in their journeys.
CAREER
Social Science Research Assistants
Overview
Salary Median (2020)
$49,720
Projected Job Growth (2019-2029)
+11.3% (faster than the average)
Career
Roadtrip Nation Leaders in This Career
What Social Science Research Assistants Do
Assist social scientists in laboratory, survey, and other social science research. May help prepare findings for publication and assist in laboratory analysis, quality control, or data management.
Other Job Titles Social Science Research Assistants May Have
Graduate Research Assistant, Research Assistant, Research Associate, Social Research Assistant
How Leaders Describe a Typical Day at Work
Sometimes I spend a lot of my day at a desk crunching numbers, reading studies, and doing independent research. But the great thing about Children At Risk is that we really orient our data analysis and research toward action and policy change, so we also interface with other folks working in the policy space often. We meet with legislators, other public officials, education practitioners, advocates from other organizations, etc. to build advocacy coalitions and help drive systems-level change.
Tasks & Responsibilities May Include
- Design and create special programs for tasks such as statistical analysis and data entry and cleaning.
- Provide assistance with the preparation of project-related reports, manuscripts, and presentations.
- Prepare tables, graphs, fact sheets, and written reports summarizing research results.
- Perform descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses of data, using computer software.
- Verify the accuracy and validity of data entered in databases, correcting any errors.
Education
Level of Education Attained by Social Science Research Assistants
Most common level of education among people in
this career: Bachelor's degree (53%)
Some college, no degree
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Majors Related to Career
Educational Paths Suggested by Leaders
Suggested Path
High School
Bachelor
Business/Managerial Economics
Suggested Path
Bachelor
Statistics, General
Bachelor
Political Science and Government, General
Graduate
Public Policy Analysis, General
Graduate
Statistics, General
Additional Skills & Experiences That Can Help You Excel
As a social scientist, you must be a great communicator! You have to be able to talk about what you learn with everyone. This requires you to be a writer and a presenter. Writing is a skill that takes many years to develop. And academic writing has a style of its own - so practice! And if you are dyslexic like me, don't let writing deter you from following your passion!
Building my statistical analysis skillset, both in basic knowledge of how to navigate and clean publicly available data sources and more specifically in my knowledge of statistical software such as Stata and R, has been critical. Do more than you think you need. If your program only teachers Stata or SPSS, teach yourself R and SAS. This will help you be more marketable and adaptable. Take advantage of workshops and other professional development opportunities to build this portfolio.
Getting Started
Recommended First Step for:
College Students
If you like to ask "why" certain things happen and then find out, talk to your professors. Ask them about how they spend their time and about research. Volunteer to help them with their projects to really understand how academia works. If possible, ask them to help you learn to create your own project. Look for organizations in your school that support Undergraduate research. For example, I was a McNair Scholar and it was instrumental in helping me learn about research.
A lot of organizations (like mine) have many internship opportunities that can be structured around school and other jobs. Take advantage of those to gain exposure to the policy world.
1. Continue to network, even on LinkedIn. Set up an account there completely and continue to post and reach out to other recruiters and professionals. You want to be able to have a wide variety of connections you could talk to for future reference.
2. Sometimes, you may need to take temporary jobs or jobs that don't quite relate to your major, but it's all to get your foot in the door.
3. Learn extra skills through outside reading or taking courses through Udemy and other online platforms.
Everyone
This page includes information from theO*NET 26.1 Databaseby the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under theCC BY 4.0license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
