Research assistants are highly specialized and employers are searching for candidates with field-specific methodology experience. State your primary research area (psychology, economics, biology, public health) and your methodology strengths (experimental design, ethnography, survey research, lab techniques). Generic 'research experience' claims are far less effective than 'mixed-methods research in public health using Stata and NVivo.'

Any publication credit — even a co-authorship or acknowledgment — is a significant differentiator for RA candidates. List publications with full citation format in a dedicated section. Conference presentations, poster sessions, and symposium contributions also count and should be listed. This demonstrates that your work produced recognized outputs.

Modern research relies on data — and the RA who can collect, clean, and analyze data independently is exponentially more valuable than one who only assists. List every statistical software package you've used and the analyses you've conducted: regression, content coding, thematic analysis, ANOVA, etc. Specific methodological competencies are what PIs and research managers look for.