I am trying to secure a research assistant position but am not getting any luck with applications. I don't seem to have enough research experience. Unfortunately I did not realise until the third year of my course that I wanted to go into research so did not go down the route of getting research experience during my vacations. Can anyone suggest things I can do to improve my CV so that I can get a stab at selling myself in an interview? I am interested in non-clinical psychology so mental health type volunteer work would not be particularly relevant but if anyone can suggest anything else I could try I would appreciate it.

what area are you interested in? neuroscience/educational/forensic/counselling/occupational?

Cognitive psychology mainly but I am also interested in some aspects of social.

I could perhaps put you in touch with someone about occupational. But if your interested in cognitive then my main advice would be contact university departments. You probably won't get paid, or get paid at student rate, but they may well want people around to help set up experiments. Once your foot is in the door it will probably go from there - i.e. you may be able to put something in for a PhD or research job.

Thanks Sneaks for the advice. I really appreciate it.