Applying for a role that requires research skills? Here’s how to list your research experience on a resume, with examples you can follow.
3 years ago • 7 min read
Research experience isn’t just for science and academia. Research is a valuable skill that’s required for a number of roles and industries, which means it almost certainly has a place on your resume. And no — that doesn’t mean writing “research” in your skills section and moving on.
If you’re applying for a job that involves research, listing research experience is a no-brainer. Research-specific positions, scientific jobs like Research Assistants, Lab Assistants or Technicians, graduate school applications, and most jobs in academia all require evidence of research skills. Even outside these positions, research experience demonstrates valuable transferable skills, like critical thinking and attention to detail. Which is not to say that you need to include research experience on every resume — if it makes you a stronger candidate, include it, but if it isn’t relevant and doesn’t add anything else to your candidacy, leave it off.
Before we dive right in, here's a sample resume that emphasizes research skills. You can use this as a template or as inspiration to write your own resume from scratch.
Like a lot of desirable skills, research is a soft skill, meaning it’s not something you can claim as an objective fact on your resume without backing it up. What you can do instead is prove it — what previous role involved a lot of research? What resume accomplishments do you have that highlight your research experience? Showing how you used research skills in action is the best way to demonstrate the value you could bring to the company and role you’re applying for.
There are a number of ways you can highlight research experience on your resume:
Let's take a look at each of these options in a little more depth. But first, let's look at an annotated example to help set the context.
If you come from a research background, you might want to title your work experience ‘Research.’ Alternatively, you could create two experience sections — one titled ‘Work Experience’ and one titled ‘Research Experience’ — if you also have a lot of non-research experience but want to highlight your most relevant experience first. You can go into more detail when applying for a research-focused role by describing the project and specifying the nature of the research and your role in it.
Including research experience in your main work experience section is appropriate if it was paid work or if it was your most recent and relevant experience. List the employer — for example, the university or research department — job title, dates, and accomplishments, just like you would any other work experience.
If you’re a current student or recent graduate, you can list your education section at the top of your resume. You can also make this section a little more comprehensive if you don’t have a lot of work experience, by including things like awards, coursework, and academic research.
If you undertook research as part of your studies and it demonstrates skills relevant to the job you’re applying for, list your research accomplishments in bullet points under the education section of your resume.
If you have a lot of publications that came out of your research, and you want to draw attention to them — and if they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for — consider creating a separate publications section. Formal publications like these are an excellent way to add credibility to your research experience.
List each publication in a new bullet point with the title, year, and name of the magazine, website, or journal. Academic publications can be listed more formally if it’s relevant, like if you’re applying for graduate school or a role in academia.
When it comes to listing research on your resume, like other soft skills, you need to show you’ve used this skill in your previous roles by showcasing your research related accomplishments. Upload your resume to the tool below to find out if your resume highlights your most relevant research experience and achievements.
If your research experience is less extensive or wasn’t quite relevant enough to include alongside your work experience or education, you can still highlight it in a projects section. Keep this brief and include 1-2 bullet points showcasing your key research accomplishments.
Research skills can go in your skills section — as long as they’re hard skills. Steer clear of listing generic skills like “Research” — instead, use our keyword finder to look for relevant skills and keywords and include specific hard skills like data analysis, project management, software proficiency, and certifications.
You can also use the skills search tool below to get a list of hard skills relevant to the research-focused role you’re applying for.
If you’re applying for a position where research experience is essential, consider emphasizing your experience by including a short resume summary at the top of your resume. This should include the title of the job you’re applying for and a brief overview of your background and key skills.
No matter where you choose to include it, always list research experience in concise, accomplishment-focused bullet points. These should follow the structure of action verb + what you did + what the result was. Here are some examples of resume bullet points you can use or modify to suit your own research experiences.
If you have significant research experience, describe it! The more relevant it is to the position you’re applying for, the more detail you can go into. Make sure to specify exactly what stages of research you worked on and what your contribution was.
If the high quality of your work has been acknowledged by an award, early promotion, or similar outside recognition, include it! In addition to the name of the award or accolade, don’t forget to specify context (e.g. 'out of class of 500 people' to increase its credibility.
If you have experience with specific software or tools that you’ll be using in the position you’re applying for, include a bullet point accomplishment specifying how you’ve used them. While this isn't direct 'research' experience, it uses tools that are relevant to research projects — this is a good way of showing that you have research skill sets without having formal research experience.
Use action verbs like "Researched" or "Scoured" which clearly emphasize research skills. In some cases (like in this example), you can list publications in your bullet points itself. If you’ve authored academic papers, books, or articles, this is a great way to show the validity and importance of your research.
Not all research positions involve pure research. Make sure you highlight appropriate related accomplishments, like managing research study participant data and enrolments or managing a team of research assistants.
If research is part of the job description, make sure you include at least one bullet point highlighting how you’ve used those skills in the past. Including metrics, like the number of cases you’ve researched, contextualizes your accomplishments and helps them stand out.
Research isn’t just limited to science and academia. Demonstrate your skills in action by the context and end results of your research, like the number of leads it generated or the increase in sales figures.
