Research skills & where to get them: For beginners
April 2021 | 2 mins read
By Sophia Gu
Third Year | Faculty of Science, Pharmacology
Research in all fields is crucial to fill in knowledge gaps and discover more about the unknown. University is an amazing place to explore the research topics that interest you most and build upon the theoretical knowledge that you acquire in class.
If you’ve never been in a research lab before, URO is here to share how and where you can develop the research skills necessary to start building your research experience portfolio! To do so, we’ve outlined the hard and soft skills that are valued in research positions.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are a set of personality traits formed by habits. While these cannot necessarily be taught in a course, they are nonetheless important for any employment or volunteer position that you pursue, and are great to include on your resume and cover letter. We’ve highlighted some soft skills often used in research:
- Attention to detail: This is important to minimize the risk of errors and reduce the amount of revising needed.
- Taking notes: Probably the easiest habit to form, and you can do so in your lectures. Taking notes and listening effectively for the most important information is useful in research labs where information can be complex and detailed.
- Problem solving: This is a skill that you are likely to develop in group projects, lectures, and exams. Applying your knowledge to solve problems forms the basic foundation of research.
- Communicating results: This is the ability to review, analyze and interpret information about a topic, and share it in a clear and concise manner.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are teachable and quantifiable skills. These are technical skills that you can develop through work or school. Below you can find examples of hard skills that are valued in research:
- Analytical skills: The ability to collect and analyze information, problem solve, and make decisions. Analytical lab skills are particularly useful in life science labs and can be developed in lab and statistics-based courses like CHEM 211,an introductory analytical lab course. In-lab skills, such as micropipetting, are also taught in corresponding UBC courses offered at the first and second year level. Make sure to research the area you’re interested in (eg. organic chemistry, psychology, etc.) to find what UBC courses and labs offered.
- Coding: You can learn coding through beginner computer science courses offered at UBC (CPSC 103, CPSC 110). UBC also offers many coding teams and hackathons that you can attend to improve your knowledge of coding in a real life situation.
- Report writing: These are writing skills that you’ve been building since high school! Introductory english classes are mandatory for all students and you can really take advantage of your class material and your professor to develop your writing skills. To improve your writing skills, you can read published journal articles in research. You can search up research topics you’re interested in to read what other people are currently doing in research.
We hope that you have a better idea of the types of skills that research labs are looking for and where to start looking for them. If you’d like more guidance, you can connect with one of URO’s Research Coaches. Please note, you must purchase a URO membership first. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about URO’s initiatives, please contact us at uro.ubc@gmail.com.
