How to land a research assistant position?

[irvinchiva10]

Hello Psychology peeps!

I am a History student, but I am writing on behalf of my fiancee who is a psychology major with strong interests in cross-cultural psychology. Basically, I will be going to Harvard in the fall and she is moving to Boston with me. Since she was planning to take a year off anyway to focus on her application, this is not much of a problem. However, while she studies for her GREs, drafts her SOP, etc., she would like to work as a research assistant in the Boston/Cambridge area. She has been working as a research assistant here in NYC for the past 3 years in a social psychology lab and a sleep lab as well. My question in short is, how does she go about procuring similar positions once we move? Since we will be there starting in August, should she email professors at various universities, asking if they are interested in taking her on? Or does she limit herself to those positions that are posted online? What's the usual process? Are there interviews involved? Any help would be highly appreciated. She knows how to get positions within her own college, but she has no clue how to approach this particular process in the most effective way possible.

Again, any help would be highly valued!

[Benzene]

I found one this summer just by emailing. I emailed multiple professors at a local university whose research interests were similar to mine, following this format:

My name is Benzene, and I am a second year Master's student in the Psychology program at My School. I am planning on applying to PhD programs in Social Psychology in the fall, and would like to gain more research experience over the summer. I find your research intriguing, especially your work on Stuff That Was Interesting, which relates to my interests in Stuff I've Done Research On. I will be living close to Your University during the summer and would appreciate the opportunity to volunteer in your lab if possible. Please let me know if you have space in your lab over the summer for a volunteer research assistant and would be interested in considering me for that position.

If you are interested, I can send you my CV, and my advisor, Her Name (Her Email), is willing to provide you with a reference letter if you wish.

Thank you for your time,

Benzene

From the three professors I emailed, I got two responses - one stating that the lab wasn't doing anything over summer, and another asking for the letter of reference and my CV. Basically, after that I got an email stating I'd be joining the lab for the summer - no interviews or anything, though I don't know if that's normal or not. I would think since your fiance has the whole year available, that should work in her favor. Note that I was looking for a volunteer (unpaid) positions - I don't know if the process is different for paid positions. I get emails occasionally from my old grad department about paid positions, and I think there is a thread floating around with some links. Check out listservs for psychology organizations as well as the employment pages for universities for paid positions. I don't think it would hurt to just email around though.

[tupacodaman]

try this site out. hercjobs is the one for the entire country, but this link is only for jobs in new england, so lots of boston jobs

http://www.newenglandherc.org/c/search_results.cfm?site_id=660&page=1&keywords=psychology+research+assistant&search=SEARCH&t2204=

if you go to individual college websites, there's usually a jobs page that has available positions. but your fiancée should definitely try emailing individual professors of interest to see if they currently are looking or think they'll need a research assistant in the near future