getting an RA job

[anansi]

A lot of the advice for those of us without much in terms of research or work experience seems to revolve around finding a position as an RA for a couple of years before applying to grad school. But how exactly does one "get" an RA job? Can anyone recommend a few organizations to look into that would hire people right out of undergrad? And how much do GPA/classes taken matter for something like this?

[whatdoido]

The Federal Reserve system hires students straight out of undergrad. Or, are you referring to summer research positions for students still in undergrad?

[tm_member]

Getting an RA job with a professor is difficult at a phd-granting school. You just don't have the experience the graduate students would have.

 

Getting an RA job at JPAL, the Fed, DC Think Tanks (Urban Institute etc.) is the same as getting any other job. Painful online applications where you try to highlight your matlab skills and research ability, supply references, get called for interviews, etc.

[anansi]

Yeah, I was talking about a job to have for a year or two after graduation to get my bearings. And the Fed is a given, but I assumed there would be a lot of candidates for a limited number of positions, no? I'm not all that familiar with DC think tanks but I've found a list via Harvard Kennedy school and I assume if I wade through some of them I'll find a few that need RAs.

[whatdoido]

Yeah, I was talking about a job to have for a year or two after graduation to get my bearings. And the Fed is a given, but I assumed there would be a lot of candidates for a limited number of positions, no? I'm not all that familiar with DC think tanks but I've found a list via Harvard Kennedy school and I assume if I wade through some of them I'll find a few that need RAs.

 

If you don't have locational preferences, you can apply to all of the different regional feds.

[TomRod]

If you don't have locational preferences, you can apply to all of the different regional feds.

 

^ This. Also, there are a number of regional think tanks, typically located around state capitals or occasionally large metropolitan areas.

 

Try using Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed.com -- it's a decent job search engine, similar to Google I've found.

[Roark3]

Hello. I am joining as an RA in India in May this year and I have absolutely no prior knowledge of STATA (I guess my position requires more of field work than data analysis). I'm expected to hire a team of 20 surveyors who will typically be helping me with my research and data collection/analysis. But I will, obviously, need to learn STATA asap. I wanted to know how hard it is to learn STATA and begin applying it immediately. Does the team at JPAL train you or are you expected to pick it up along the way?

 

Also, will this position of an RA help me if I decide to pursue an MBA (with a public policy track)?

[Econhead]

Hello. I am joining as an RA in India in May this year and I have absolutely no prior knowledge of STATA (I guess my position requires more of field work than data analysis). I'm expected to hire a team of 20 surveyors who will typically be helping me with my research and data collection/analysis. But I will, obviously, need to learn STATA asap. I wanted to know how hard it is to learn STATA and begin applying it immediately. Does the team at JPAL train you or are you expected to pick it up along the way?

 

Also, will this position of an RA help me if I decide to pursue an MBA (with a public policy track)?

 

There is a subtety here that I think you are missing, and that is the nuance between "the difficulty of coding" in stata vs. "difficulty of learning what you need to code" in stata'

 

Stata is a fairly easy code to learn-it is not nearly as temperamental as SAS. You will have a more difficult time figuring out how to run exactly what you need to. In general, Stata is fairly easy to work with.