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Social Science Research Assistants

Also called: Graduate Research Assistant, Research Assistant, Research Associate, Social Research Assistant

What they 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.
On the job, you would:
  • 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.

Knowledge

Arts and Humanities
  • English language
Engineering and Technology
  • computers and electronics
Business
  • administrative services
  • customer service
Math and Science
  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics

Skills

Basic Skills
  • reading work related information
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
Problem Solving
  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it
People and Technology Systems
  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Abilities

Verbal
  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say
Ideas and Logic
  • order or arrange things
  • use rules to solve problems
Math
  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem
  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Dependability
  • Cooperation
  • Attention to Detail
  • Independence
  • Adaptability/Flexibility
  • Integrity

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Object or component oriented development software
  • Perl Hot Technology In Demand
  • R Hot Technology In Demand
Computer based training software
  • Appletree
Analytical or scientific software
  • IBM SPSS Statistics Hot Technology In Demand
  • The MathWorks MATLAB Hot Technology In Demand

Education

Education: (rated 4 of 5)
bachelor's degree or
master's degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Bright Outlook
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
Salary
$49,720
$31,240
$79,140
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Explore More

See more details at O*NET OnLine about social science research assistants.