Okay, I am currently reviewing applicants for a research assistant position in our lab (specifically to work on psychological studies with patients), and I'm seeing common mistakes and missed opportunities so here are some tips for applicants:

[THREAD]

First, for context, there are ~250 applicants for 2 positions. This is probably fairly typical for a position in a prominent research lab.

This means, while drawing up a shortlist, I just cannot spend more than 10 minutes reading the CV and cover letter. Probably closer to 5.

More context - it's v common, in the UK at least, to score applicants on a metric (to reduce bias). This means marking whether or not an application demonstrates meeting each essential and desirable criteria from the person specification (e.g. experience recruiting participants).

So, my job is to scan your CV and cover letter in ~5 minutes, and tick off whether you meet each of the criteria.

I want to try and tick them all.

Therefore, *main message* - make it REALLY REALLY EASY to quickly see how you meet the criteria so all those boxes can be ticked

If you have evidence that you meet a criteria, include it!

Some applicants probably do have experience of recruiting participants, but they haven't mentioned that specifically anywhere, so I have to assume this is a part of their research they haven't been involved in.

Cover ALL of the criteria (that you can), explicitly. Every single one. Don't miss one because you think it's obvious or implied.

If you don't quite meet a criteria, but you think you have equivalent experience/demonstrable skill at picking up similar techniques, say this.

Make it really easy and just use the phrases and words from the person specification, so anyone can quickly spot the relevant bits that relate to the person specification (e.g. the word recruitment) and tick it off.

Ideally, don't just restate the criteria ("I have experience with participant recruitment") but provide examples/evidence/details ("Across two studies with psychiatric patients, I gained experience recruiting participants, using online adverts and telephone screening").

Just doing the above would honestly put you above most applicants - but the most impressive go beyond that, and give some reflection/insight (e.g. the above + "These experiences have taught me the importance of using varied recruitment approaches, quickly building rapport" etc)

Give appropriate amounts of space in your cover letter and CV to different skills/experience.

Do not give a sentence on your recent research project, and then a paragraph on hobbies.

Do not give the same level of detail for both your MSc and your teenage saturday job

(Honestly, if it's not directly relevant to the person spec, probably don't include it in the cover letter at all. At most maybe give a few sentences at the end? Otherwise it just makes it harder to find relevant bits, and can feel like padding.

Ideally streamline CV too...)

For an RA position, I'm most interested in research experience (during your degree or prev RA roles). This allows me to judge your relevant skills. Tell me about this! Make this 90% of your application!

Lots of applicants making their *most relevant position* 5% of the text!

To make it extra easy - and to demonstrate the communication skills that are probably part of the person spec - have clear focused paragraphs on different criteria. One on your experience recruiting patients, one on your data skills etc. Have the 1st sentences signal this.

One thing I will learn for my future applications - I'll spend less time having nice sounding summary intro and conclusion paragraphs that probably won't get read, and more time structuring cover letters to just be super clearly related to the person specification.

If you're slightly unusual - different undergrad degree to the obvious ones, have worked in v different research areas - address this directly, explain why you're switching gear, and give evidence that this isn't an overnight change of mind/random application for the hell of it

To reiterate that key message again, you want the assessor to be able to scan your cover letter and CV and go tick, tick, tick as all the ways you meet every criteria jump straight out at them.

For a research position, make research skills 90% of your application!

Practical way to check this - take your cover letter and CV and highlight the bits that directly relate to each of the criteria on the person spec.

At the end, you should have highlighted basically every sentence and should have had something new to highlight for each criteria.

Okay, once I've worked through all the applications, I'll do another thread on the things that make the very best candidates stand out - but hopefully this gives some basic advice to easily avoid falling at the first hurdle.

[END OF THREAD]

Addition - some of the advice might seem a little harsh... Obviously I care that people have hobbies and a life outside of academia! But hopefully the context of how these get scored and how many applications come in helps explain why you have to just focus on the spec.

Also, a lot of this didn't really click for me until I was on this side of things honestly - so it's not meant to be patronising, but just a nudge to get people to step back and think who will be reading it, in what context and with what goals, so you can make them happy! :)

Also I know this is such common advice - you've probably heard it and you probably think you're already doing this. I'm now willing to bet you weren't doing it anywhere near as clearly as you could have!

I certainly didn't, even when I thought I was https://twitter.com/st_psy/status/1278602296251813894?s=19

Clarification re: metrics https://twitter.com/DrAmyGillespie/status/1278695483775557633

Some people have commented critically on the 5-10 mins so I feel the need to make a weird humble brag that I, uh, read quickly (most novels in <4 hours) so 5 mins comfortably allows me to scan a 2 page CV + 2 page cover letter, identity relevant bits, read them, cross ref CV etc

I'm not saying assessors are doing shoddy rushed work! I'll work v closely with whoever gets the role, am v motivated to make a good choice, and take the responsibility seriously. But I have to decide quickly so the quicker you can make me say "ooh they're perfect!", the better.

Follow up thread on how to go beyond the advice above and really stand out as one of the best applicants - https://twitter.com/DrAmyGillespie/status/1283514863726342146