Get the most out of an RAship

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bre333

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Hey y'all.

Shortest possible background: I graduated this May, majored in psych, and am definitely interested in getting a PhD in clinical psych. My research experience is somewhat limited. I did do a senior thesis, which my advisor (with whom I'm pretty close) thought was awesome, and it was independent research in a relatively unexplored field in Psych that I'm very interested in.

So, I'm currently a volunteer RA with a local professor in an area that's pretty related to my interests. Our meetings are once a week, and while I've been extremely productive thus far, and have done a pretty good job of self-promotion without being obnoxious, I get the feeling that the PI knows nothing about me. I'm not offended by this, as I'm the most junior member of the lab and have only been there a couple months, but at the same time a big chunk of my motivation to work in the lab is to get a letter of recommendation regarding my research skills, and this does not bode well for that.

I'm going to be meeting with him soon to talk about grad school, and what he says in the meeting is pretty much going to determine whether I can apply this year, or will have to wait till next year--if he can't write me a strong letter yet, I'm going to be one letter shy of three, which is required by most schools.

So far I've been punctual, friendly, meticulous, productive, and have done what I can to show that I'm knowledgable about what we're doing. Unfortunately, most of the RA tasks have been things like data-checking, very simple statistics, and contacting participants. While I'm perfectly willing to do grunt work, most of these tasks could be done by a well trained monkey, and I guess I'm just worried my ability to use statistics programs and check numbers don't speak very well to my research ability.

So, tldr, two questions.
1. How do I politely ask him whether there's anything more analytical I could be doing (in addition to gruntwork, of course), and ask if there are any tasks I could do that would let him see my research abilities?
2. What else can I do to get the most out of this research assistantship? How do I make this experience more rewarding for myself and for the other people in the lab?

[side note, again, i'm not trying to come off like I think I'm too good for data entry, it's just that I seem to be miles ahead from the two other RAs in the lab, and I just want to make sure he knows that I'm able to do more complex stuff than that)

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Before entering a doctoral program, I was coordinating a project. I started as an RA, and worked my way up over the course of a year and a half.

From a coordinator's perspective, it took time to get to know our RAs. We were working with a vulnerable population, so it was exceedingly important that we trusted the people we sent out into the field. Sometimes, it's just a matter of consistently showing up on time, doing your work (with enthusiasm)...

If it were me, I would ask the PI if there was anything else I could do to help out. It's all about how you frame it!
 
if you just started the position this summer, it may take more time to get established in the lab and get a good recommendation. If you are counting on this recommendation, waiting until next year could be wise- but this depends on how competitive of programs you are looking at.

As an RA, I was able to get more involved in the lab's research by coming up with data analysis ideas and taking on responsibility for those projects. Once I proved I could handle a small research project, my PI started trusting me with more involved things. In my current lab in grad school, I would be happy to help the RAs with any projects they come up with, but I don't necessarily sit around thinking of research ideas for them. It can be intimidating to come up with ideas, but they don't have to be perfect- just show some initiative.
 
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