Where can I employ a private research assistant?

What will be more helpful for admission in a grad school: job experience at a core company for a year or experience as a research assistant for a year?

• I will be graduating from Pune University in a couple of months and i am planning to apply as a Research Assistant at one of the IITs. Would the experience as a research as a Research Assistant be more helpful in landing a good college, or should i stick to the job in a core company?

• Answer:

  Answer to your question depends on four aspects. (1) What is the PG degree you will be pursuing: (~60%) a. PHD: A post as research assistant is valued more than the job itself. *But it goes without saying that you should have done some substantial work and should show on SOP* b. MS (or any equivalent): Practical or industry experience is given more weight by the University. Your major advantage will be the Job fairs in foreign. (2) What is your degree about: (~30%) If your degree is about System administration your job help will rather than research work, unless and until you are researching on new Technology. (3) University to which you are applying:(~10%) The university which you will be applying also has a selection pattern to filter out. Few colleges prefer RA's from IIT. Few prefer people from MNC's (*) Your life goal : There is no weightage because this should be there always in back of your mind when evaluating above three points. If you plan on becoming researcher or proff then RA will help you. Even if you don't know what you want to do, you can become RA to try out the work in that field. ** People generally in this field don't care much about money. If you want to go into MNC's and think research is not my game, then there is no use of becoming a RA in long term. PS: The answer is framed based on the experience which I gained while I was researching about the same.