Research Assistants work under primary researchers to support the process. The tasks vary depending on the particular research. For this role you require a degree with an above average grade. Some roles may require someone with a Masters or a PHD in the particular field.
1. Why are You Interested in This Role?
The interviewer wants to know what makes you a great candidate for this role. Share what made you to apply.
Sample Answer
“Research is a collaborative role where you interact with interdisciplinary teams within the work. Having gone through the job description, I feel my skills match the requirement. I’m interested since I can see that my skills could help solve the problems or can be helpful to the organization. Through engagement, I will have an opportunity to learn and grow these skills to benefit personally and professionally. Through this, I will have a chance to practice leadership and supportive roles in various assigned projects.”
2. What are the Roles of a Research Assistant?
It is important to understand the role you will play in the organization if given the opportunity. Share what you expect to work on.
Sample Answer
“A research assistant must be experienced in data conception and have both excellent written and oral communication skills. The personnel should know data handling, collection, processing, and analysis through observation by putting parameters on estimates and inputs. A research assistant has a role in coding optimization algorithms to compare the management solutions, forecasting through the development of new business modules through the organization. They should apply interactive geospatial applications to production and testing environments for Geospatial Decision Support Systems. In addition, they should play a leadership and supportive role in the team.”
3. What are the Qualities That a Research Assistant Need to Be Successful?
Research assistants need a particular skillset to be successful. Share these and if you possess them explain the same.
Sample Answer
“A successful research assistant must possess the following attributes; great communicator. They should possess verbal and non-verbal communication skills, enhancing communication with the editors, reviewers, co-authors, and funders. When doing research, one should have attention to detail, data collection, and analytical skills by learning, observing, and putting the information into a meaningful conclusion. A researcher should have the ability to maintain quality, safety, and infection control standards; they should have skills in planning and scheduling for effective performance or execution of the task. It is also essential for them to have technical skills, interviewing skills, and time management skills.”
4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Did You manage Them?
When challenges arise, do you run away or face them head on? Share the challenges you have faced before and how you solved them.
Sample Answer
“In any job set up challenges are usually there. In my most recent role, a former coworker left her job unexpectedly. During this time, she was the team leader on an important new project. She was assigned by the line manager. When she left, my manager asked me to take over. While I had never performed her job duties in the past, I had a rough idea of how to go about it. I then put my leadership, planning and organizing skills to good use. Using planning and organizing, I set out priorities and schedules on different activities to enhance the commencement of the project. Through my leadership and problem-solving skills, I pushed the project forward, encouraged the rest of the team and completed her responsibilities as well as mine. We were able to complete this project successfully and on deadline”
5. Describe Your Daily Routine as a Research Assistant?
The interviewer is interested in assessing your planning skills if given the opportunity. Share how you plan to structure your day.
Sample Answer
“Given an opportunity as a research assistant my daily routine will have a schedule of events. My normal day will include planning and executing experiments, analyzing data, writing reports, attending meetings and talking to my line manager daily about our work.”
6. Describe Briefly About Your Experience
This role requires an experienced person as he or she will be able to deliver value. Share your experience and the skills acquired in the process.
Sample Answer
“Most of my professional experience has led me up to this research assistant role. I have been working in the field for several years in various research projects. The job description stated that you are looking for a candidate with at least four years of experience in research field which I am confident that I meet the expectation. I am highly skilled in data analysis and communication which is part of your requirements. My background satisfies these conditions and moreover I believe it gives me a backbone and confident to handle any assigned project with professionalism. I am interested in this position specifically because it would allow me to learn more and expand my knowledge. Through the interactions I will be able to expand my leadership potential and continue working in an environment that I have a great deal of experience in.”
7. What Kind of Strategies and Mindset is Required for This Role?
Mindsets and strategies are key in this role as sometimes results may take long to be realized. Share what mindset you should possess.
Sample Answer
“I would employ a shift planning by focusing on the main components or key enhancer to do a research. This component includes defining research paradigm which includes positivism, post-positivism or constructivism, secondly id defining the research design since it will impact the choice of the research method and sampling strategy. Thirdly, I will define all research methods which could be through interviews, observation or focus group discussions and lastly is defining the sampling strategy which involves specifying the population. Sample size and sampling the type of research. ”
8. What Is the Biggest Challenge That You Foresee in This Job?
The interviewer wants to assess if you can foresee challenges and develop a strategy on mitigating them. Share how you plan to address the challenge identified.
Sample Answer
“One of my significant challenges will be adjusting to the new workflow and creating a new type of report to present to clients. I would plan to ask many questions when preparing my first report. I’ll also ask a colleague to review the information before sharing it with the client.”
9. How Do You Stay Motivated in Your Work?
Motivation is key for every role. Share what keeps you motivated as a Research Assistant.
Sample Answer
“I am motivated by digging into data. I believe that data tells a story and that is how research findings are concluded from. I take my time in assessing and reviewing data to establish the different patterns. This keeps me going as I will continue reviewing to establish meaningful conclusions.”
10. Describe a Time When You Failed in This Role and The Lesson You Learnt?
Failure is part of learning. The lessons we get are instrumental in helping us perform better.
Share a past failure and the lessons developed.
Sample Answer
“I was assigned a research project by my line manager in my previous employment, and I was so eager to please them that I told him I could finish the research project within three weeks. I thought this was doable, but it ended up taking one month and my line manager was not happy. I realized I should have been more keen and conservative in my estimate to the line managers. I realized that the line manager isn’t going to be upset if you’re clear about the timeline in advance, but they are going to be disappointed if I promise something and then don’t deliver. So I took this experience and used it to become much better at managing the expectations of clients during projects I oversee. For example, on the next project, I told my line manager that it would take four weeks and we finished in three weeks. The line manager was very happy about this and he recognized it as a milestone.”
11. Why Do You Feel You Are the Most Suited for This Role?
Before applying you must have established you are the best candidate. Share what makes you stand out from the rest.
Sample Answer
“My skillset is a perfect match for the job requirements. In particular, my research skills and leadership experience make me an ideal candidate for the position. For example, at my last job, I managed a sales team of five employees, and we had the top sales record of our company branch. I can bring my successes and experiences to this job.”
[VIDEO] Top 20 Research Assistant Interview Questions with Sample Answers: ► Subscribe for more useful videos
12. Share with Us Your Greatest Achievement.
There are career moments that everyone in their career journey celebrates. Share the moments that make you proud.
Sample Answer
“My greatest professional achievement was turning around the success of my last employer’s research department. When I joined, the entire team was struggling in developing research strategies and as a result were failing to meet thee timelines and to hit our quarterly goals. I was hired to bring change in research techniques and possible areas to mitigate the failures. I set a plan where I started by doing analysis on the consistent failures of the department. I discovered that they lack a research strategy which I designed and implemented without any guidance. Within a short period of time, we were achieving 35% above our goals, and my research plan brought in an additional projects and more donors for the company through the second half of last year. This enhance the department to meet the set goals and in the long run impacted on more profitability.”
13.Describe the Hardest Situation You Faced & Outline the Steps You Took to Resolve the Issue?
Research will present hard situations and steps you take to resolve them is important in showcasing your problem solving skills. Share a situation and how you resolved it.
Sample Answer
“I was given an assignment in the marginalized region where the most people are illiterate. The biggest challenge was assembling the Research Team there is an issue language barrier. To mitigate this challenge, I took the following steps, first solicit useful feedback by identifying or cultivating friendships on people who helped me think critically. These people were invaluable in helping me to consider my idea from a different angle or perspective.
Secondly I took a step in vetting my committee. Where I choose a chairperson carefully by interviewing potential city and committee members to make sure there’s a match. We discussed upfront what each party needs in order to go through the process. The chair helps negotiate things if the committee can’t come to agreement, so he or she needs to get along with everyone else.
Thirdly, I set clear about the research needs. Similarly, when it comes to finding mentors, or getting help for tasks such as creating a survey tool or writing your research question, through being very clear about what you need from them. I discovered people are very willing to help when you are structured and prepared.”
14. Describe Your Computer Experience?
Technology is important for every role. Share your experience with computers and any important research software.
Sample Answer
“I am proficient with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I’m very comfortable using these programs and have much experience doing so. In addition, mainly research involves data which requires computer skills at some point. I am also skilled in SPSS Software which is important in analyzing data patterns. Given an assignment, I will not have difficulties in computer application skills.”
15.How Would Previous Colleagues Describe You?
Previous colleagues can say a lot about your personality. Shae what make you look good for this particular role.
Sample Answer
“More frequently, my colleagues have told me that I am extremely well organized, selfless and excellent at time management. In one research assignment on Public health in marginalized communities, my team praised me for planning, developing, and sticking to a timeline for all the project phases. We ended up completing it ahead of time, and it was a huge success.”
16.Why Do You Feel You Are Ready for This Position?
From the roles and responsibilities, you can gauge your preparedness for the position. Share what makes you ready to take up the role.
Sample Answer
“I have been working in this field for more than five years now. Having gone through the job description, I believe I am a suitable candidate for the role since I have a combination of skills and experience. Through my experience and exposure, I understand the ins and outs of research analysis and believe it makes me qualified for the job.”
17. If You Are Hired, How Do You Plan to Run Your Research Project?
Research requires a sequence in handling the different aspects. It helps to be organized and good at planning. Share how you plan to execute the project.
Sample Answer
“I believe there is no best way to design research, but what will be in my blueprint is planning the general steps such as budgeting, orienting myself to gain knowledge, setting and defining my research questions, reviewing previous research on my question, and then selectin in addition to analyzing relevant data to formulate the required answers.”
18. Do You Plan to Build a Research Group? If so, How Many People Do You need for it to be Optimal?
Research groups are great at assessing issues and getting a solution fast. Explain how you plan to build one and the issues it will address.
Sample Answer
“Yes, I would wish
My group will comprise of 6-8 people. I plan on having individuals handling different aspects of the research. Part of the team will be supporting the efforts of the research team.”
19. Have You Ever Performed Committee Work? If so, What Challenges Have You Faced?
Research work may be organized in committees each handling a particular aspect of the research. Share your experience with this.
Sample Answer
“Yes. Through my experience, I have engaged myself in committee work, and there must be a variation of ideas. These are the challenges faced; disconnection in decision making and lack of trust. We had to represent several reports that the decision-makers had to select one this increased honesty, transparency, ownership, and buy-in. Another issue was informational overload and lack of time to address the issue at hand. Through this, we plan on handling issues; like in this case, a suggestion was put, i.e., information to be shared with the secretary before the meeting.”
20. What is Innovative About Your Research?
Research goes hand in hand with innovation. Share the new ways you have devised in handling research.
Sample Answer
“Through research, their easy way to identify new business, strategic techniques, and methods that can benefit financially or strategically in the organization and is innovation. It is evident that through research, we can focus on creating new ideas, analyzing problems, diagnosing them, and identifying their causes. As a research assistant, I will create new business solutions, strategies, technologies, and processes.”
Conclusion
This role requires you to articulate your plans well as it assess your planning and organizational skills. The above questions will assist in acing your next interview. Tailor the answers to the specific industry.
