Skills
Graduate Teaching Assistant Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in graduate teaching assistants, and how to build and show them.
Graduate Teaching Assistants need technical skills such as subject knowledge, leading discussions, and lab instruction, plus people skills like patience and organization. They also use tools such as Learning management systems and Lab equipment.
Technical (hard) skills
- Subject knowledge
- Leading discussions
- Lab instruction
- Grading
- Tutoring
- Time management
People (soft) skills
- Patience
- Organization
- Communication
- Reliability
Tools, equipment and technology
- Learning management systems
- Lab equipment
- Grading rubrics
- Video tools
- Office hour booking tools
- Spreadsheets
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how graduate teaching assistants put their skills to work:
- How to lead your first discussion section
- How to grade consistently with a rubric
- How to balance teaching and graduate research
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Subject knowledge” and “Leading discussions.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “patience,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as TA training near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our graduate teaching assistant glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Graduate Teaching Assistant training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.