Resume Examples: Graduate Research Assistant

There is no denying that creating a resume when you have little or no working experience is a significant challenge. You likely already know that resumes traditionally focus heavily on the experience section. As a new worker, you need to shift the focus of your resume somewhere else.

We recommend increasing the size of your skills and education section to compensate. Focus on the experiences you have had, even if they are not professional. These can be anything from internships to school projects. Finally, realize that employers expect the position of graduate research assistant to be many candidates’ first job, so you do not need to worry too much.

As you are applying for a research position, you should focus on your critical thinking, evaluation, and research skills. The exact set of skills that you emphasize on your resume, however, depends on both you and the position you write the resume for. You can find several strong example skills on our graduate research assistant resume sample, but you need to think carefully about the abilities you personally possess. Additionally, a great strategy with this section is to take a close look at the job description. Employers commonly mention the skills they value most in the posting.

The best way to emphasize your team experience is to mention it in as many different sections as you can. This strategy is the same for emphasizing any professional attribute.

It is easy to include team experience as a bullet point in the skills section. You can also mention it in your summary, and under whichever jobs you held that required strong teamwork abilities. See our graduate research assistant resume sample for examples of good ways to integrate skills seamlessly.

Many employers use applicant tracking system software to filter out applicants who do not meet their requirements. The best way to avoid this is to use our step-by-step resume builder. This tool not only makes it simpler to create your resume, but it ensures that your document uses the appropriate language and correct format perfectly. These aspects significantly improve your chances of making past an ATS and catching an employer’s attention.

As you see on our graduate research assistant resume sample, shorter is typically better. Your goal should be to make your resume one full page, but do not bleed onto a second page. While it is acceptable for those with longer work histories to have longer resumes, chances are that those applying for a graduate research assistant position will not have much working experience. If you do, however, remember the rule of thumb: include one full page for every 10 years of work history.