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Twitter raised a storm on the predoc culture of Econ academia, but from what I understand having research experience is no longer an exception but a requirement for pursuing a doctorate degree. This leads to my current dilemma. I have completed both a bachelors and a masters degree (this year), and have worked directly as an RA for two incredible professors. But because of the pandemic, I figured I will take this year to try to apply at institution/industry (university positions/think tanks, NGO's, etc) based research positions to bring some diversity on my resume. However these seem both hard to come by and highly competitive. For background, I got my degrees from one of the best institutions that my (developing) country has to offer, grades are above average, expertise in Stata, some experience in GIS and python, etc. However, the onslaught of rejections is hard to bear. So to now come to the question, how important is a high profile research experience, if I am targeting some of the better institutions (especially considering my education background is not in a top tier class at the global level)? Is the amount of rejections normal, even with previous experience, considering I am not even making to the interview stage? And finally, should I try writing to professors directly for RA opportunities, or would you suggest some alternative way I can boost up my CV? I've been without a 'job' for over a month now, and no offers in sight, leading to my post here.

For people interested in doing theory or applied theory, is there any benefit to doing a predoctoral RAship? Or indeed, anything between undergrad and PhD?