Research Assistant
The Bardic College Campus is a small city in and of itself. The industry backbone necessary to support a student body that size is simply massive, and the college administration has evolved into a small government body in and of itself. The bureaucracy involved is complex and convoluted to the point of madness, and the ability to sort all of it out into a semblance of academic order is nothing short of heroic. The dean of the college campus, Trayvon the Lighthearted, has been doing the job swimmingly for over two hundred years now.
Trayvon, though, started out as a research assistant for a now famous Research and Development Department head named G. Gnormand Gnomanclature III. And, while studying the science of happiness may sound like light work, it is in fact quite complex. So, Trayvon being Trayvon, he boiled his research modus operandi to a single opening salvo; random acts of kindness. His research development techniques were so revolutionary that doctor Gnomenclature was flooded with information from such simple things as offering a stranger a flower. Trayvon, a talented bard and musician, made his way around the Kingdoms as only a young person can, and he found himself in some very strange situations that he barely survived. His adventures are detailed in his book series, The Life That Dreams Are Made Of.
It is because of this period of Trayvon's life that he can lay claim to several firsts for city bred, feather-in-me-cap, lover-not-a-fighter types, including having visited the isolated town of Sgàineadh. The spread of the kindness, and therefore the elevated happiness, was so fast and profound there that Trayvon wrote an entire research paper and rock-opera-documentary1 on the subject.
Career
Qualifications
Expertise in the mechanical and theoretical workings of the item, process, or product in question. For instance, one of Doctor Gnomenclature's research assistants was instrumental in figuring out how to survive long enough in hell to do the actual research the development team wanted, which was an environmental impact statement on Phlegethos
Career Progression
Going into a quality R&D department requires lots of unpaid intern work, overachievement, and sheer ego.
Payment & Reimbursement
Much of the intern work is unpaid, except for expenses while on the road. Or testing Environmental Control apparatus in the Rhegev Desert, in which case receipts are submitted for reimbursement and hazard pay is earned.
Other Benefits
The full weight of the entire Bardic College Campus backing up the research, including the medical department, which (in R&D), is far too often necessary.
Perception
Purpose
To carry out the experiments devised by the doctor and the rest of the development team.
Social Status
These folks are seen as somewhat...crazy...
Demographics
The urge to self destruction runs about the same, percentage wise, across all of the polulation demographics.
History
Research Assistant is an ancient and lauded profession.
Operations
Tools
The need for tools of all shapes and sizes is quite variable, and really the most useful tool for a R&D assistant is good critical thinking. They will, on any given day, be asked to do any number of very strange things, so a good sense of humor is also very important to the job.
Materials
This would depend entirely on the field of study; the answer is 'yes', but the execution will differ across disiplines. For some cosmic and as yet unexplainable reason, they have all needed microscopes almost every day.
Workplace
Anywhere from a giant corporate lab to an improvised, under-stair chemistry desk.
Provided Services
R&D assistants are experts in their repective fields, yes, but even more, they are people who know how to find things out. Which is great! The fact that they can also process that information could be either helpful or harmful, depending on the veracity of the paper being written.
Dangers & Hazards
There are inherent dangers everywhere and in everyday life! There just happen to be exponentially more in a R&D assistant's.
1 Music is omniplanar on Tellus. Many tunes and concepts will be quitre familiar.
Alternative Names
Intern, Gofer, Doctoral Candidate
Type
Research / Scientific
Demand
A good R&D assistant is worth their weight in gold.
Legality
Vey, very questionable at times.
Famous in the Field
Related Locations
Used By
Related Vehicles
Related Materials
Gnomenclature. Genius! I love it!!! <3