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.

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Healthcare & Human Services, Public Service & Safety

Career Cluster

What do they typically do on the job?

  • 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.

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.

Intellectual Curiosity

Attention to Detail

Dependability

Integrity

Achievement Orientation

Perseverance

Interests

Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.

Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz

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Investigative

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Conventional

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Social

Abilities

Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.

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

Skills

People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.

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

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

1. Do some research

  • Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
  • Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
  • Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career

2. Plan your next move

  • Talk to your college and career counselor or school admissions staff
  • Visit Idaho Launch
  • Search for available Social Science Research Assistants jobs on Idaho Works

Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop