Speaker 1: Welcome to Grad Life Grind. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out, and if you're already a subscriber, thanks for being back again. I'm a first-year PhD student in clinical psychology, and in this channel I talk about my life as a grad student and bring you information about the mental health field. In today's video, I want to talk about what it's like being an undergraduate research assistant. So if you're interested in a PhD in clinical psychology, or if you're already a PhD student, you know that one of the best ways to be a competitive applicant is to get some research experience. And unless you're coming in with a master's degree, the best way to get research experience is to be an undergrad RA. And I recorded a previous video about what it's like to get into a PhD program without getting a master's degree first, because psychology is one of the only degrees where you can go to a PhD program straight from undergrad with a bachelor's degree. And that's what I did, and I'm going to talk about that in this video. So if you're new to this channel, and in order to be a competitive applicant, I worked as a research assistant for about two years while I was an undergrad. And I learned so much from the experience, and I think that it really well prepared me to understand what it means to do research and really solidified my decision to pursue a PhD. So I can only speak from my experience as an RA, but I want to tell you guys what it was like and the kinds of things that undergrad RAs usually do. So I worked at a research and clinical program that looked into CBT, which is cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis. And that's often known as CBT-P. Essentially, the people that I worked with were developing interventions and then testing them with actual people. So it was an opportunity to do research, but also get a little bit of exposure to clinical work or therapy, because I was learning about how they administer CBT for psychosis. And the way that I found out about the opportunity was that I was in the honors program at my university, and I got an email about it. And basically, there was someone from my school who worked at a research and clinical program that looked into CBT for psychosis. So I got an email from someone from my school who worked for the program already, who was leaving to study abroad, and then passed on the opportunity to the honors students. So I applied and interviewed and then I got the position and I had no idea what to expect. And obviously, when you're an undergrad student, you don't have much experience. So you might have volunteered here and there. But if you're a first or second year college student, you might not even know what your major is yet. So I think that going into the RA experience, it's okay to not have that much work experience or psychology experience in the past. And the people that are looking to fill those positions know that and they know that you're coming in to learn. So to start, I was working on some data that was already collected. And what they had done in a previous study was they had the participants fill out a bunch of questionnaires before and after treatments. So many of those assessments and questionnaires were sitting in a filing cabinet and needed to be scored. So one of the first things that I learned was how to score certain assessments. And one of the things when you're scoring data is inter-rater reliability. So me and other RAs were scoring the same things and then checking our answers to see that we did have the same scores. So that was the first thing that I learned how to do. And for me, it was really, really cool, even though I think after a while it could get boring. It was nice to see what kinds of questions they asked and what kind of answers we were getting. And it's cool to look at data that was collected before an intervention versus after and see how the scores differ. After I learned how to score, I learned how to enter data. And there's so many different ways to organize and deal with data. But for our lab, we did everything in Excel and they had already created databases and showed me how to organize data. And I was just entering the scores that I was getting based on the scoring that I had done and then comparing those results to what other RAs were coming up with. Data entry can be kind of boring because you're sitting there just inputting numbers all the time. But I think for someone who's just starting out, what's really exciting, like I said, is seeing the pre-post scores and realizing that an intervention actually worked or actually did some kind of change. Even though RAs tend to get some busy work or administrative work to do, it's still a really good opportunity because it's something that you will have on your CV for when you move forward. But you also do get to be in the room with certain important conversations or meetings. And if the people you work for are open to it, you can collaborate or give them your ideas. And that can be really cool. So one of the other things that I wanted to talk about that I was able to do as an RA was participate in lab meetings. So most labs are groups of people who are doing research together. And there's a principal investigator known as the PI. And they're the person who is usually first author. They come up with the most ideas. They're the faculty member that's running the lab. And then they'll have kind of senior staff members, which in a school would be like graduate students or a clinical research coordinator who usually help manage the clinic and then help manage the lab. And then there are graduate students, and undergraduate students. So there is a little bit of a hierarchy. And there's always weekly or bi-weekly lab meetings. And every PI does that differently. But as an undergrad RA, I was able to start attending lab meetings and just get a sense of what it looks like to convene and talk about how the projects are progressing, what things need to get done, and things like that. And as an RA, sometimes you're not doing anything crazy. You're just doing, you're like the note taker. But being there and hearing about it was really exciting. And like I said, if you're working with the lab, you're going to be able to do a lot of different things. And you're going to work with a PI who is really open to hearing what the students or lab members have to say, then that can be a really cool opportunity to start developing your own ideas and research skills. So I happened to work with someone who was amazing and wanted to know what everyone thought. So everyone's opinion mattered. Even though I was only there for a couple of months, I was already getting asked like, what do you think? And how do you think we can make this better? And that's really awesome. And not every PI is like that. But I really had a space where I felt like my opinion mattered. And then I was able to hear what more senior members of the lab had to say and how they were thinking scientifically. And I think it was a huge opportunity for me to grow in terms of research. And it was an opportunity to see for myself, like, can I see myself doing this in the future? So in addition to lab meetings, there are other types of trainings or seminars that RAs can sometimes attend. And like I said, I can only speak from my experience. And I personally worked at a hospital and that's where the lab was located. And I was able to attend psychiatry grand rounds. And the best way for me to describe grand rounds is basically a big talk where someone comes or a team of people come and present their research. And then the audience can ask questions at the end and kind of pick the brain of the researcher. I didn't even know what grand rounds were, but the whole lab would attend grand rounds together every week. And sometimes I had no idea what they were presenting on. And because it was a hospital, a lot of times there was like a lot of like neuro anatomy and things like that that I didn't know much about. I didn't know anything about psychiatry yet because it was just starting college. But it was really, really interesting to see how all these like intellectuals and academics gather to talk about the work that they're doing, how it applies to everyday work and where the field is going. So again, these opportunities to just get excited and kind of fired up about the work that you're going to do in the future. Once I was in the lab for a while, I got a little bit more, I guess, seniority and I started training some of the other RAs that were coming on. And that was a really nice experience. So I got a little bit more experience with the RAs because I got to, you know, add to my CV that I was supervising other student RAs and we were all volunteers. But I started to kind of develop a little bit more of a voice in the in the program, which was really, really gratifying. And really the major benefits of being an RA while you're an undergrad is to get experience that is going to help get you into a master's program or a PhD program or get a job in the future. And one of the important things for PhD applicants is getting publications or presentations. I highly recommend, and I should do another video on this, I highly recommend that if you're starting to work for someone, anyone, you should be upfront about what your goals are and what you want to get out of the experience, especially if you're a volunteer. So the compensation that you get as a volunteer research assistant is the opportunity, the exposure to research and clinical experience, but also the outcomes of that are being included as an author on publications, going to presentations and conferences. Those are things that you can add to your CV and that look really good on you. So one of the things that I was able to do after I was an RA for a little while is talk to my supervisor about being on papers and doing some writing for the lab. So I was able to work on some papers that were already kind of in the works. That's one of the things that RAs get to do, start working on preparing manuscripts or seeing what it's like to work on a manuscript, what it's like to submit to a journal. Another amazing thing that I got to do after I was an RA for a while, after I passed the scoring and data entry phase, I got to actually collect some data. So I was able to do some structured clinical interviews that I was taught by the PI and by other people in the lab. And then I was able to actually meet with study participants and do those structured interviews. So that was something that the PI told me would actually set me apart on my applications because I was learning how to do structured clinical interviews that people don't actually know how to do. So I was able to actually learn until they're already in a PhD or master's program. So because they needed someone to help with those things, I was able to jump all over and say, yes, I want to learn. I want to see some of the participants. And I got to have a little bit of one-on-one experience with the people that we worked with. And like I said, the program was CBT for psychosis. So some of the people, most of the people that we worked with had schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. And I was able to work one-on-one with these people, go through these interviews with them. Learn a little bit about establishing a relationship with someone while you're trying to collect data. And doing research and collecting data is completely different from doing therapy, but it was as close as I was going to get to working with a client or someone from a clinical population. And I think that the key to succeeding in the lab was asking for those opportunities and really taking initiative in what your goals are is also key as an RA. And the other amazing thing that RAs get to do is network. So being part of a big lab means that there are a lot of people that you can pick their brains, talk to them, ask them questions. So the lab that I was in had a lot of people from different points in their careers. So there was the PI who obviously had a doctorate degree. There was the clinical coordinator. And eventually there were two clinical coordinators, both of which had their masters. And then there were postdoctoral fellows. So those are people who had just finished their PhD. Then there were people who are currently getting their PhD. Then there were the other people that my PI worked with. So I got to meet their staff as well. So it was a really nice opportunity for me to meet people and ask them questions about graduate school. So what do I say on my interviews? Where should I apply? How many schools should I apply to? A lot of the information that I got was from the people that I worked with. So all that stuff is probably the most valuable thing that you get from being an RA. So in summary, this is all about what RAs do. We collect data. We organize data. We enter data. We score assessments. We network. We go to seminars. We go to trainings. And we do also a little bit of administrative work, but we also get opportunities like writing manuscripts, attending conferences, and really being part of this collective group of people that help us advance our career as we help them do the things that they need to do in their labs. And I really think that the key to being a successful RA or getting the most out of an RA experience is being eager, being eager to learn, being excited to learn when we were in meetings and people were like, we really need someone to score this data or we really need someone to enter this data or we really need someone to develop a manual for this. I always offered myself. I was like, I could do that. I would love to learn that. I would want to try that. I can do a draft of that and show you afterwards. And oftentimes that led to me having a lot of work on my hands. And I think that there's definitely a balance. And I learned just so much about how to say no versus saying yes to everything. But I think that my willingness to learn as much as possible and do as much as possible was really a benefit to me. So I really hope that this video was informative to you and helpful in some way. If you are a student who's looking into being a research assistant, I hope that this video gave you an inside look to what that experience is like. And if you're someone who is hoping to apply to graduate school and you're wondering how to get research experience, I highly recommend trying to get a research assistantship. If you've ever been a research assistant, I would love to hear about your experience. So please let me know in the comments. I want to thank you for watching this video and I want to remind you to subscribe if you enjoyed this video. And if you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends. And I hope that you enjoyed any of my other content. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. So I hope you'll check back in next time.