Does doing undergraduate research help on a resume if one is looking for internships? I am currently a college sophomore looking at doing research in behavioral economics. Should I just forgo this and look for other more helpful things to fill my time, or is this something that is a steppingstone to greater opportunities? Thanks.
as with so many things, the answer is ‘it depends’, in this case on what your goals are and what your field is and what the research opportunity is.
Undergraduate research is a serious plus if you are planning to apply to PhD programs.
If your goal is to be a researcher, it is obviously smart to try it out in college to see how it suits you (more than a few people have found that actually doing research doesn’t suit them as much as they thought it would).
Equally, if you are applying to do a research internship, having done some research is a plus.
But those are all so obvious that I wonder what I am missing from your question. What would be a “more helpful” thing? what do you want to do?
@collegemom3717 Thank you for your response! I am hoping to go into consulting or private equity in the future. I guess what I’m asking is, is it worth the time and effort to pursue undergraduate research when I could be filling my time with more classes, learning a new skill on the side, or other things of this nature? I don’t plan on going to graduate school right after college; perhaps an MBA some day down the line.
Don’t bother with research if that is your goal.
Agree (not for the first time…) with @intparent. More work experience / internships in the areas that you are interested in working will get you farther than more classes or new skills (obv depends a bit on what skills- being nimble with an excel spreadsheet is no bad thing).
I disagree.
I was interested in consulting when I was in college, too (and graduate school). I went to all the consulting events on campus. One of them was an invitational where lots of consultants from the big firms - McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Accenture, etc. - came to meet with the students and talk about what to do to get into a consulting firm, etc. I was getting research experience at the time, and all of the consultants I talked to said that was great because they did a lot of research as part of their jobs. I mean, at it’s core that’s a large part of what consulting is.
Later, when I was in my PhD program, I started talking again with a few consulting firms and was offered interviews (which I ended up not doing because I had a job elsewhere), but again I was told that the facility with research - and all the analytical, synthesis, writing and presenting experience it gives you - was a chief interest for the roles. I have a couple of friends who have gone onto consult with the big consulting firms and their research background was in large part the reason they were hired.
And you want to do research in behavioral economics?! There are lots of skills you can develop in the course of doing that work that would be very valuable in a consulting career.
Besides, I think you are setting up a false dichotomy: it is possible to do both undergraduate research AND develop other skills. One thing you should absolutely do is summer internships at consulting firms, as that’s probably the #1 factor that will get you hired. But that doesn’t prevent you from doing research during the academic year, or learning a new skill (like statistical analysis or programming).