hey guys ecrg here back with another episode
today i've got an interesting question from someone who emailed me
from the youtube channel and they have an interesting question and their
question was is it possible to be a cra right out of
college now i believe i've answered this
question before in some other videos in the past
but this is something that i've been getting a question about a lot recently
and of course it deserves uh my full attention and full respect as a question
and so i wanted to make another video an updated video here in 2019 on the topic
because as you guys know things change the way the industry moves change
and of course it deserves a 2019 lens to view this
question from so before we get into it i always want to let you guys know
the resume review program is still available if you're interested
in getting your resume reviewed if you're trying to break into clinical
research or trying to get a better position in clinical research
or you're having a hard time really changing uh
your stature in the clinical research community you just want some help with
your resume there's also interview preparation
that's available and of course of course of course i'm
also going to be doing something new with the
resume review program 2 and i'm going to be adding linked into that also
so if you're interested in any of that or part of that
email me elite clinical group gmail.com so this person emails in and of course
if you have a question you can email me also i will not say your name or
anything like that keep you anonymous they write in hello
i am emailing you through finding your youtube channel
i am currently a biology health science double major from the chicago
area i graduate this upcoming may and have been applying for jobs around the
clinical research job field i mostly was focusing on clinical
research coordinator but was wondering if it's possible to
obtain a clinical research associate position with a bachelor's degree
and a year of undergraduate research while on job sites it's hard to sift
through what position is what with differing titles and feel i might
need some assistance i also would pretend i also would be
interested in your resume editing you have talked about in some of your past
videos thank you in advance when they sign your
name so just to address one of the small
components of this question first is it's hard to sift through what the
different positions and titles are so if you are having that same issue go
back and look at to some of my previous videos i talk about what a
clinical trial assistant is what a tmf lead is what a cra is
and all of those thumbnails are the exact same it's like what do they do
so if you're having a hard time with that i've done
videos on that episodes on that in the past so go check those out
but the crux of your question is can you be a clinical research associate
coming right out of college essentially with no clinical research experience
and the short answer is no and the reason
for that is and i don't know where this stigma comes from but people think
that clinical research associate is a position that you can just walk off
off the street and get or they call it a quote-unquote entry-level
position and i know where they get this from
it's because recruiters on the websites put out entry-level cra
and what they really mean is someone that is new to the cra role
but has clinical research experience so they may have two years three years of
clinical research experience but they want them for an entry-level
cra and it's very confusing it's very very confusing so
you've got to kind of take a step back and look
at the job posting and you'll see in there where it says
they want two years or three years of clinical research experience
usually study coordinator experience etc so i think that's where the stigma comes
from but because you'll never see entry-level
project manager or entry-level vice president or something like that you'll
never see that um but so recruiters really got to stop
doing that and le and it's it's leading people to
believe that they can just walk off the street and become clinical research
associates and that's far from the case um
so in the past i would say maybe five six years ago
you probably could have because companies have these programs
where there are clinical research associate programs and even still today
very very rarely i would not count on this happening
but very very rarely you might get a program where they're accepting people
straight out of college they don't do this that much anymore
like i said very very rarely but they do sometimes accept people
into a clinical research associate program where you'll be training for six
months to a year to become a cra and it's gonna be a very intense
training program uh because clinical research associate is
not an entry-level job you are given lots of freedom you're
you're given i mean you spend thousands and thousands of
dollars a month so you've got to know what you're doing
um you're even so much freedom uh in the position and you're responsible for a
lot you're responsible for reviewing data
and ultimately patient safety and you know gcp
and things of that nature you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders
and you can't have someone who doesn't know what they're doing in that position
so that's something to think about also and to talk about um
you know you were interested in clinical research coordinator position that is a
great position that is one of my favorite positions
in clinical research because they build such a strong foundation of
clinical research knowledge at the coordinator level
you work hands-on with the patients and hands-on with the research
hands-on with the protocol and you really get to understand what research
is all about and i think that's one of the best
positions to become a cra knowledge wise it is the best foundation
wise it is the best but i think practical wise probably
in-house cra is the best position to actually go
from uh you know your first position into cra
just because you're already working in the cro you're already working in the
pharmaceutical company whereas to go from the site level to the
cro level or from the site level to the farmer level
it can be a little challenging doable for sure plenty of people have done it
but it can be a little challenging and i think going from in-house cra
at a cro to your same crows cra position is a little bit smoother of a
transition um but you know i do i definitely love
people going into study coordinator path it's a great path
and you're going to learn a lot and it's going to be a great path for you so i
would definitely recommend that and a lot of times programs do roll out
where they only want people with study coordinator experience
so it's great for that you just got to keep your head up for those programs
when they come out and be ready to apply when they do come
out if you're still interested in being a
cra a lot of people do have a nursing background that go into study
coordinator and or a nurse practitioner or whatever
whatever it may be but a lot of times they do like to hire
nurses as study coordinators and they make great study coordinators
also but even you fresh out of college can make a great study coordinator also
so i think that's a great path but basically the punchline of this video is
no you cannot become a cra right out of college because
you do not have the knowledge base and even though you may have some
undergraduate research experience it's probably not
clinical research experience on the side that we work in you may have
worked in a lab doing bench research but it's not the same as clinical
research you haven't worked with gcp you haven't worked with a 1572
or a delegation of authority log or how to cross-reference the two
or how to make sure that everyone is trained how to
uh you know source data verified data things of these nature these are things
that cras know how to do and you learn a little bit about these
definitely the essential documents but you learn about these tasks
as you are getting in your entry-level position
be a study coordinator project specialist project coordinator
clinical trial assistant whatever your entry-level position is you're learning
about these things and then you just take it to the next
level as a cra a cra is a very very technical job
very very detail-oriented and it takes a lot
to learn how to be a really really good cra
it takes a lot to really learn how to master being a cra
because it's tough it's ever changing and
it requires a lot of effort a lot of work to be become good at it
and it's definitely far from an entry level position
i would not recommend it if you are coming in without any experience
i definitely would not recommend it it's going to be a lot to handle
when it comes to doing the actual work and then handling the logistics of the
travel balancing your personal life and all
that stuff in there it's a lot it's a lot a lot
so now there is one way that you probably could
if you were if you were asking me this as a freshman in college
wanting to be a cra right out of college and most people don't know what they
want to do in college so i mean there's probably one way which this
could happen and that's by doing internships
every single year at a cro and even then i don't know if it would
happen but if you did one every single year let's say you did it for three
summers working in the entry-level role now what
would probably happen is they would hire you in as a
senior level of the entry-level role like a level two or level
or senior level of that if you had experience at the internship level
doing the exact same thing so you'd make you'd be making pretty good money right
out of college but after that then you could probably
quickly jump into a cra role after you've been in that role for six months
to a year
or maybe you might get super lucky and get into a cra program
if you did your resume right during that time
or maybe even if you worked part time somehow during this during the year
and you're doing that the entire time and in your college career or for
your last two years in college or something like that then you could
probably apply for cra role and be taken seriously but you'd really
have to and be able to demonstrate your knowledge and what you've learned
in that interview uh but that's the one way i could think
of it actually working actually being a cra right out of
college so hope hope this helps um sorry
to uh kind of come down on people that think cra is an entry-level job it's
it's not your fault i think it's the recruiters that put it
out there that it is an entry-level job so not your fault at all
but hope this was helpful if you have any questions email me
eliteclinicalgroup gmail.com as always thank you guys
take care
you