It goes without saying that employment as a student assistant can have tremendous advantages and benefits. Based on these, the following questions can help to work out if the job is right for you: Is it the right position for me?Īs in any profession, there are some requirements and desirable abilities that are important, helpful and some even imperative to have. To name just a few: organising, communicating and maintaining an overview of (return-)deadlines and the body of literature. Moreover, and referring to the previously mentioned comparison with mythical creatures named brownies, student assistants do a lot of work that is often imperceptible and almost invisible for an outside observer. No pressure!įurther tasks are proofreading, organising literature, creating reference files and projects, complementing bibliographies, quoting, photocopying, scanning and in rare cases translation work. On that point, I am spending a lot of time working with databases, going to the library and trying to comprehend research papers as fast as possible in order to pre-select and offer something that might become the fundamental basis of future research and lectures. But to finally provide an informative reply, most of the time I am looking at the current state of research and researching or obtaining scientific literature and statistics. “Well, basically you are doing everything your professor does not want to do” is my humorous response delivered with a wink and mischievous smile. In trying to answer that question – way too often heard to reply in the same boring and memorised way – I have developed a range of answers over the last few months. However, I hope my experiences contribute to a wider impression and maybe obtain clarity for those who are thinking about entering the academic food chain.
Therefore, this article depicts only an example of a daily routine performed by a student assistant working in the disciplines of social science and humanities. Your job is to support your professor academically, in any form whatsoever. First of all I would like to mention that since student assistants commonly work for only one professor, tasks as well as the range of responsibilities vary.
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