Research Assistant

Recently I took up on trial a research assistant position for the head of department. Her RA is going away for her PhD in UK soon and was looking for a part time replacement. As such, I expressed my interest and now we're trying it out to see if I wish to continue.

I just had my first piece of transcribing work 2 days ago. It's a 1 hour 40 minute interview and I took 12 hours to transcribe it!

Transcribing is really hard work. Mostly because I've to keep going back and forth between the text and audio file. And sitting in front of the computer continuously is tiring too. I couldn't hear a lot of things because I didn't have headphones which the RA suggested.

Anywho, I think I'll try it once more. If I really think I can't take it I'll probably "resign". The standard amount of time taken for a 1 hour interview is about 4-5 hours. A 1 hour 40 minute interview in this case should take about 7.5 hours max to transcribe! I took almost double the time. Understandably the RA mentioned most people under report their time taken. Sigh.

We'll see. My prof did say that I must make sure I don't take on too much work and overstretched myself. I am somewhat behind others in my own research.

The rate is pretty good. It's $15/hours plus CPF contributions. Unfortunately I can only work 4 hours per week during term time and 10 hours per week during holidays. Miserable. On the plus side, it's excellent for the resume to say I was a RA for the head of department!