Views on research associate roles

[lidsconeyellow]

I’ve noticed a few times on this board that research associate positions are spoken about a bit negatively and wondered why that was….

I’m just finishing a PhD. I’m already working as a research assistant (small team: Prof, one research associate and me) but it’ll end at the start of the new year. I’m looking at other possible roles, and have seen a research associate position advertised. I’ll have my PhD done by then so it seems sensible to me to try to move up a step, but reading some threads on here have made me wary in case there’s something about research associate positions I don’t know…!

By way of background I’ve come back to academia after 15 years in industry and having my family. I’m not even sure I want a career in universities (from what I’m seeing it’s not particularly aspirational right now…) but I do want to keep researching in some way and make some waves in my current area (which is both related to my industry role and my PhD). I’m enjoying my research assistant role (other than the commute) but also finding it a little stifling being so junior again (although I obviously realise my experience is not in academia so I need to accept I am now junior!). I’m on the humanities side of things.

Thoughts? Is there something I should know about research associate positions?

How much are you expected to be writing up results and doing the original research?
How much are you expected to be grant writing?
How much of the job is clerical, or of a PA sort…organising meetings, taking minutes, collating files for the PI, etc.
Can you get certification in a particular skill out of the post—-data collection, or project management.
What is the expectation of working hours…37 a week, or if considered professional, as much overtime as required.
How much is work at home, vs. At the university. will you have an office, or do you hotdesk and provide your own IT?
If fixed term, do you get preferential hiring for a post similar to it?
How much time do you have for your own research?

The answers to these questions determine if it is a good research associate position or not. If it is poorly paid, fixed term, lots of clerical along with high expectations to be writing grants and papers and organising conference, little IT support and little professional development, it is a poor role. And sadly, many of them are like this.

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply.

From what I can understand about the role it’s focussed on data gathering and analysis to add to an existing project. It sounds fairly independent. There isn’t a huge amount of info in the job spec though so I might contact them and ask for more before I go to the effort of applying.

There’s a specific area of my field I’m keen to focus on going forward: the role is sort of linked to this so it might be useful to broaden my knowledge and network, but not if it’s just focussed on admin….

You are welcome. I think contacting them and asking some questions is a good idea on your part. If it gives you a skillset you wanted to develop, that’s a great role for you, but just be careful about the amount of time you are doing skilled vs. Unskilled work. Good luck!

I can only answer from a science point-of-view, but in science a 'research associate' position, aka a postdoc, is pretty much a necessary step towards getting a permanent university position (lectureship or similar). They can be tough jobs because it is a short term contract with a lot of uncertainty about where to go next, but in the right research group it can also be a great opportunity to do some research without too much admin.

one thing to be aware of - postdocs are seen very much as a stepping stone to academia, and are not a stepping stone towards much else. so if you don't want to end up in an academic position, then a postdoc may not be valuable for your CV and just traps you in a low-paid job when you could earn more in industry.

agree with above but (sadly) also try to ask around about the reputation of the PI. I’ve seen good PIs make an RA position really valuable and enjoyable. I’ve also seen too many others treat staff like crap and put them off academic careers entirely. Do they have a track record of people leaving quickly? Are their staff going on to better things, or jumping ship to get away. Do you know anyone who used to work for them? Universities aren’t great at protecting postdocs and so it’s not unlike choosing a PhD supervisor.

I can’t imagine asking my postdocs to do admin - they’d rightly tell me where to go! In my lab they’re the crucial people who ‘do’ the research. Where I am, postdoctoral researchers of varying seniority (research associates, research fellows and senior research fellows) get engaged in the following: developing research ideas, contributing to grant writing, meeting with collaborators, data collection, analysis, report writing, drafting papers, presenting findings at conferences / to external partners, supervising PhD students, line managing research assistants, engaging in a bit of teaching and marking, sometimes contributing to departmental committees. Obviously not everyone doing everything - depends on skills, interests and career plans. For an academic career, getting involved in paper and grant writing and a bit of university management early on is a good idea. For an industry career, my annual review meetings with postdocs may stress building peer networks, external partnerships, leadership skills, entrepreneurship, project management and communication skills etc. PIs are first and foremost concerned with delivery of the funded research project, which is as it should be given it is often taxpayers’ money. But there is always flexibility to do other things too - extra training, or get involved in another project that’s of interest or hone teaching skills etc.

Thank you all. I spoke with one of the project leads this morning and I won’t be applying. The research sounded valuable but I struggled to get excited about the role itself: it felt quite controlled and process-focussed which isn’t really what I want to be doing.

I am wondering about whether industry might be better for me. I miss the independence and responsibility I had there: feel a bit old to be climbing a hierarchy right from the bottom.

True, but Op mentions that she is in the humanities side of things. Lots of humanities postdocs I know have had to do admin…organise meetings and speakers, design the grant project’s website, etc. in addition to doing their own research and that of the project’s. I don’t think this is a good use of their time, but humanities grants are smaller than those given in the sciences.

If I were you OP I would go into industry. I’ve done a lot of RA posts since finishing my PhD. They can be good roles – you pick up a lot of skills, get to work on interesting projects but in the end, they make you weary. You have to move around from project to project on short-term contracts (of months or weeks), work on other people’s research, become someone’s PA doing admin, photocopying, preparing flyers... It’s difficult to say no to these tasks when the PI (who might be known in your field) will be the referee for your next post or grant application. As a RA in a small research team you can become quite vulnerable. The general idea is that you do a couple of RA posts and then move into a lectureship, but in humanities/social sciences that has become tricky with so few openings and so many applicants.

similar in science too. Nothing unusual about organising meetings, speakers etc. Our seminar program is always organised by postdocs. But it's not exactly a big burden to do, at most an hour or so's work a week. I used to do it to, also ran tutorials for undergraduates etc. But still plenty of time for research.

If an RA is spending a lot more than say half a day a week on this, then it sounds a problem and I doubt the funder of the post would be happy if they knew either.

Thank you. Lots of good advice in there. I’m sorry you haven’t had good experiences. From looking at the other messages on this board and the reality of those I work with, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that slogging through another postdoc to try to somehow work my way up isn’t worth the bother.