Write a Research Assistant Resume That Gets You Into the Lab
Research assistant resume examples, lab and data skills, keyword lists, and a full writing guide for university and clinical research roles.
Example Research Assistant summary
Research assistant with four years supporting behavioral and clinical studies at a university lab and a trials office. Recruits and consents participants, manages REDCap databases, and prepares datasets in R for principal investigators. Coauthor on two peer-reviewed articles and comfortable with IRB submissions, protocol fidelity monitoring and training undergraduate volunteers on secure data handling.
Skills to list on a Research Assistant resume
- Literature review
- Data collection
- Data cleaning
- R
- SPSS
- Python
- REDCap
- Qualtrics
- IRB protocols
- Informed consent
- Statistical analysis
- Scientific writing
- Lab notebook documentation
- Participant recruitment
- Reference management
What actually gets this resume read
- Name the lab, the principal investigator area of study and the funding source so a reader places your work immediately.
- List the exact analysis stack you touched, such as R, SPSS, Python, MATLAB, REDCap or Qualtrics, rather than the word software.
- Put publications, posters and presentations in their own section with full citations, including submitted and under review items.
- Show the human protocol side: consent, IRB submissions, protocol fidelity checks and secure handling of identifiable data.
- Quantify the study, not yourself: sample size, number of visits, waves of data collection, or instruments administered.
- Keep a one page resume for lab positions and switch to an academic CV only when the posting asks for one.