How long is the duration of a typical paid RA position?

[SpoiledKiwi]

I decided to take time off after graduation to work as a full time RA to improve my grad school app. I had only planned on taking one year off, but a few people have told me that most paid RA jobs require at least a two year commitment. For those of you that worked as full time RA's, how long did you stay? For those that only planned on staying a year, were you up front about this at the time of the interview?

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[Ollie123]

I think most will require 2 years. Of course there are exceptions. For example, extremely simple RA positions (e.g. data entry positions), labs you already worked in and know, or labs similar enough to work you've already done. I'm sure there's cases other than the above, but if you're limited to a year those are your best bets rather than the "project coordinator" type jobs. Sometimes you might find someone with a short-lived grant though, so its not impossible

Basically, the barrier is training. Its not worth training someone who will leave in a year to do anything complicated.

I'd definitely be up front about it. Word gets out quickly in academia and while I think most professors would take it in stride, you don't want adcoms finding out about it.

 

[LM02]

I completed a 2 year RA before I went to grad school, and I think it was one of the best decisions I made. Not only does it benefit the PI, for the reasons that Ollie stated, but I do believe that it benefits the RA as well. After all, even if you graduate and start a position immediately, that gives you only ~5 months on the job before you will have to write and submit your grad school applications. That's not a lot of time to become intimately familiar with what you're doing, and likely not enough time to get a glowing letter of recommendation from your boss.

And remember, it's not only about getting in to grad school... having that extra year will also give you more experience doing independent work, which can also be beneficial for when you actually matriculate as a graduate student.

It's hard to think about "taking 2 years off," when all of your friends are probably jumping right into med school or law school (or whatever). But, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not a long time. And you may find that some of your friends, down the road, will actually envy the time you took to really plan your career. Personally, I know too many regretful lawyers and physicians!

 

[ClinicalGal]

just from personal experience mine started as an 8 months position... that was almost 3 years ago and i'm still there 🙂 i've found that if they like you, they'll find other project to throw you on even after your "contract" is up! 🙂

 

[psychnic]

In my lab, there is a general 2-year commitment. However, one of the RAs is planning to be here for one year, but she was completely upfront about it. With that said, she has a special skill (she is bilingual) in addition to her awesome CV and this may have helped her get a one-year deal. Not being up front about your time constraints is a sure fire way to burn bridges and get a bad recommendation.