<p>I started getting into research as a research assistant with no former experience or knowledge of research. Just after three months I was promoter lab manager. So I would argue that being smart and having necessary skills are very important and extensive experience is far from a requirement. However, when professors take their pick on students to work in their labs, I know that they like to see people with experience within the field or at least experience with related fields. After having been part of two rounds of recruiting, I know what is focused on: GPA, coursework, work experience and extra curricular activities. What is nice to see is lab/research experience, but a word of caution, if you have an experience like that, you will usually be asked for a reference from the person you worked for. So if you did bad or the person says something bad, you are done. I had exemplary candidates who I thought definitely would be picked, only to get really bad letters from their references, and then immediately excluded from the shortlisting.</p>