First Few Days as an Undergrad RA

[NeuroFP]

So I started my first position as an undergraduate research assistant a few days ago. It's more or less physical chemistry with a bit of biochemistry thrown in for practical purposes.
I decided to take this opportunity (it's going to be for about a month and a half, more or less) because I wanted to draw a line and see if research was really for me or not.

Right now, I am absolutely hating it. I'm not really doing anything too scientific, which really defeats the whole purpose of the experience. I'm just plotting data points on a computer for 11 hours straight with no breaks. Perhaps that is a big part of research, but if so, that's not for me. But maybe I'm wrong, and that's not a big part of it...maybe I'm being used as a tool. At this point, even though I'm only a few days into the work, I feel hesitant about even showing up. And I've taken into account, of course, that the graduate student (I'm working under someone who's getting their PhD at the end of August) and his specific project, and how they both play a role into the type of work that I'm doing.


So what are your thoughts on this matter? Has anyone else had a similar experience doing undergrad research?
I'm also wanting to understand if this opportunity was worth it or not, since I don't feel like I'm doing what I signed up for.


Thanks a lot for your input and time!

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[patelakshar]

I started out doing research mostly part time and I've been doing it for about 3 years...the first semester (bout 4 months partime=3-4 wks full time) was really dull, confusing and a huge learnign process. I went into doing research excited and that excitment carried me through the first few months. Thereafter, when you actually know what you are doing and can actually do cool stuff and get your own data/results it gets fun...and then when you publish--its like being high...

I say give it more time and keep with it...and don't let this one experience taint all of reserach, b/c are experiences vary so much from lab-to-lab.

 

[NeuroFP]

Thanks for you help.
It seems to be going a bit better now.

I'm handling protein samples, filtering them, etc.

 

[thomasz]

I had the same problem, but I'm not sure how I have solved the problem. Thank to post.