hey guys ECR G here back with another episode
today we're going to be talking about non-competes
in the clinical research industry this is a video an episode that a lot of
people have been asking me to do because there are some companies out there that
are pushing non-compete on their employees and we're gonna dig into that
a little bit today but before we get into that a little bit deeper I just
want to let you guys know about the resume review program a lot of people
have been emailing me saying they want help with their resume and I've been
helping a lot of people out with their resume but for those people that don't
know about it we've got a resume review program you
can email me at elite clinical group at gmail.com if you're interested we will
take your resume to the next level the level that you need to get into the
clinical research industry this industry is getting more and more competitive
more and more competitive every single day every single year more people are
learning about this industry and it's getting harder and harder to get in so
you need someone who's gonna be able to help you to help your resume stand out
to hiring managers and recruiters so let me help you don't waste any more time
guys a lot of people are wasting time trying to figure out to do it themselves
getting rejected from hundreds of jobs one of those jobs should have been yours
but your resume didn't get by the the algorithm didn't give a the computer
your resume didn't get by the hiring manager your resume was kind of boring
sorry so let me help you help yourself okay let me help you help yourself get
that next clinical research job you're looking for so let's go in and get into
non-compete once you finally get that job offer after becoming a part of the
resume interview program and getting involved with us there they may ask you
to sign a non-compete so what exactly is a non-compete so I'm gonna go ahead do a
search so I can get a decent definition here
this is something that I have actually been offered to sign and I actually have
signed one now I know someone asked me this question a while ago but I have I
ever signed one well I got a job pretty much right after you sign pretty much
after you asked me that question so it has changed and I'm gonna tell you why I
signed it so now I compete what is a non-compete denoting or relating to a
clause provision or agreement by which parties are bound not to compete so
let's see if we get a little bit more information here on Wikipedia so in
contract law a non-compete clause is a clause under which one party usually an
employee agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in
competition against another party the employer some courts refer to these as
restrictive covenants as a contract provision CNC is bound by traditional
contract requirements including the consideration doctrine so basically a
non-compete is a clause that you're going to sign which is going to prevent
you from working that particular job for a competitor or creating your own
company competing with the company you just left
now these clauses are things that are popular for doctors a lot of times
doctors have to sign non-compete clauses where and these these clauses can't be
ridiculous like they can't say you can't work you know in the whole United States
for like five years that's too ridiculous they've got to be
somewhat reasonable so a lot of times they'll say in a hundred mile radius so
you might have to move towns they may some say something like they may specify
which companies you can't work for so they may you know list a few companies
and say that and they usually they can't put a ridiculous time limit on it they
can't say five years ten years that's too long they can say a year maybe two
years max but these are typically employees which are gonna have some
trade secrets like for example if you're working for a pharma company and you're
one of elite you're one of the lead scientists you mean you know how all the
drugs work so technically you could if someone else
could hire you and you could go make that drug for them instead of the
company you're at so that's that's why our non-compete comes in for the purpose
of the the company typically executives may get them because they're gonna be
privy to a lot of knowledge that a lot of other people are not going to be
privy to and that could really hurt the company and really put them at a huge
disadvantage if they were to leave so typically executives typically
typically people doctors will get them maybe scientists will get them but a lot
of times companies bring these non-competes down to lower level workers
and it's really a shame so when I put this up here you see the we work settles
and I was just reading this article earlier they were saying they got
workers that make as little as fifteen dollars an hour signing non-competes
absolutely ridiculous and they're not alone other companies have done this too
in clinical research I'm going to tell you about one now so I was offered a job
this was one of the first job offers I was offered and originally it was for a
clinical research associate program it was an entry-level program this is when
I was first getting into the industry and I'm not gonna shout out the CRO
because they're known for not paying that well you may have heard me talk
about them in some other episode but not not in this episode and I will tell you
they're based in I'm not gonna say that either because you might figure that out
but anyway I'm not gonna say that now but you know it was originally for a
clinical research associate program they were gonna bring you in train you to be
a CRA so for that I would I would have signed a non-compete for that because I
know after that you you can go work anywhere in the country you can go you
mean you can do anything I mean after that the floodgates really open for you
after that and I like the CRA career path was definitely worthwhile enough
even if you have to sign a non-compete depending on what it says but this
company changed the program they made it into a project coordinator program which
is like a project manager assistant and that for me was not a like a dream
job scenario for me my my dream job was always to be a CRA so project
coordinator was just a stepping stone for me it's not worth getting way under
paid for it's not worth saying a non-compete for my in my opinion and
these people were way under paying way under paying and you know it's it's it's
hard to live on the 30s I mean I think they're paying like 32,000 like really
really low yeah really low thirty-two thousand is
really low so and then they said you know hey your pay is gonna go up every
few months by a couple thousand dollars but you know really low especially
depending on where you live - but anyway they were gonna make make me sign a
non-compete and of course I was like okay not for that low salary you're not
that's actually ridiculous and you know this is this is a tactic that come you
try to do med pace is another one and I'll tell you the company that this come
the company that made me do this was Cato research you know overall good
company heard things about them but when I interviewed every single person I
asked them what the downsides were every single person said the money was bad so
that's one of the things if you're in a non-compete you want to make sure that
you're getting paid top market because you're not gonna be able to move so
easily you may have to move states so you may have to uproot your family in
your life for a little while you may have to change industries for a little
while you know there are a lot of negatives with that so you want to make
sure that while you're there you're getting paid top market value this is
not something you want to sign if you're getting way below market value unless
you've got a plan so I'm gonna tell you how to get around these non-competes
here in a second it's better in the clinical research industry so one of the
things that so you don't want to sign that med pace is also notorious for this
they do this to their CRA s they know that people want to be CRA S they know
that there's a huge demand for C arrays they're one of the only people sometimes
other companies will open it up to entry-level people no experience but
there were the only people that does take some no experienced people and make
them CRA s so of course they make their CRA sign non-compete and what they do is
they bring them in at a low salary $50,000 which is really really low for
an entry-level CRA then they have them in a non-compete so they're kind of
stuck there for a little bit and you know they're also doing some shady
things you can look on the last door you can look at my review my Med pace review
I've done and they talk about how they push some of the senior see arrays out
and give the work to the more entry-level people that are making way
less money so it's a little shady and it's bad but I guess that's the tactic
they want to use so they're using these non-competes
to get people in the door and kind of keep them there so this is so this is
something you want to definitely watch out for it's not very common I have I've
heard of people becoming serious and having to sign non-competes ie a queue
via I have also heard of people not having to sign non-competes so it just
kind of depends and you've got to kind of analyze it situation by situation if
you've got a situation you want me to kind of take a look at it kind of give
you my opinion on it you can email me Ally clinical group at gmail.com I'll
talk about it and I'll tell you what I would do in that situation but you know
it just kind of it just kind of depends and how flexible how willing are you to
move around if you need be because this is why I always say while you're
building your career you want to stay mobile stay lethal stay deadly you want
to stay mobile you want to be able to move if you have to you want you want to
be able to if you have to sign that non-compete and it says you can't work
in a hundred mile radius you want to be able to pick up and move if you have to
you want to be able to break that non-compete and get up out of there if
you if you can if you have to especially if they're low balling you you know if
you got CRA experience you know so he is six months you don't need that much
especially if it's good experience and you can go make a lot more money
elsewhere especially if you're able to move
so that's something you definitely want to think about definitely wanna keep in
mind but you know non-compete clauses they're there in the industry and I've
actually seen a bunch of things talking about in the pharmaceutical industry bio
manufacturing industry clinical research industry that a lot of them aren't
really enforceable or that companies aren't really gonna try to enforce them
and that's because like I said before they're really geared towards people
that have intimate knowledge that can really be used against them if you're
just a janitor you know mopping up the floors and stuff
you're not gonna have that intimate knowledge it's not even really worth it
to them to kind of to you know sue you because you know you don't you don't
really have that knowledge I mean it's not really worth it but if you're a
high-level executive then they're definitely to be watching to make sure
you're not going to a competitor because you're you're gonna have that knowledge
and you know it could be the same thing said 4c arrays you may not have that
knowledge or other positions you you might have a project manager you're not
gonna have that knowledge and I've seen a lot of people say that they just break
them on the internet and you know nothing really happened so definitely do
your own research definitely you want to consult with your legal professionals
don't just take my word but the informations out there you can google it
and definitely wanna consult with your legal professional about that but you
know the information is really out there for you to free to look at and you know
non-compete clauses are something that are there in clinical research
unfortunately and you know these companies are smart they know they know
when they've got they know especially in the industry where you got high turnover
for CRA s you got hot you got high turnover in the industry in general but
especially high turnover in certain positions this is just a mechanism that
they're gonna use to try and keep you in your place and not let you move around
but as you you know after you become a CRA
you shouldn't have to sign a non-compete again you should not have to sign a
non-compete again after you become a CRA because there's just way too many jobs
out there for you to take there's just way too much demand you should not have
a sign a non-compete and if you if they try to make you sign
one you you negotiate out of it because you're not going to have those trade
secrets you're not going able to use use stuff against them so that's that but
they're gonna try to on your way up on your way up to becoming in those
positions they're gonna try and get you to sign stuff because you know that
that's how they can control you they're gonna try and get you to sign a
non-compete now I did mention earlier that I did sign one and why did I do
that well this was for my first CRA job so I did sign a non-compete
but my first CRA job is for a pharma company now and this and this
non-compete they specified which companies I could or cannot work for so
the company I work for is specialized in certain areas so that narrows their
focus down even more so there's really only a handful of companies which I have
never seen jobs for by the way so they're not even really on my radar then
I don't think I'll ever you know come into a situation where I need to go
there but there's only a handful of companies but they said I could not work
at and this of course was the job of my dreams trying to be a CRA at the time
and you know I think it just made a lot of sense the overall package was amazing
because everything I could have wanted it was everything I asked for they
really played ball and you know I was very happy with the decision at the time
you know you guys were there I kind of walked you through everything that was
going on at the time and I did sign that non-compete and like I said it's a
pharma company so you got to think you're only not allowed to work at
places that compete but other pharma companies that do similar things that's
not all pharma companies or sponsors that's only ones that do the same thing
but even if it was all sponsors look guys I came from the CRO world I can
just go back to the CRO world under that non-compete I can work for any CRO so
we're all good then cuz I mean I think I would probably go back to the CRO world
anyway but you're all good so that's the same
thing for CEOs if you sign a non-compete for a CRO make sure you read it
carefully maybe have a legal professional read it
someone who's knowledgeable about the industry because they're gonna
understand more the ins and outs but it's likely that you're gonna be able to
go work for a farmer or sponsor company after that which is excellent so now you
have an opportunity to break your non-compete because you're not competing
so they're there thinking that durka they've got you locked in when you've
got a way around it so you can go work for somebody with with a different
business model so there's two things that people go back and forth all the
time if you've signed a non-compete with Pharma go work in a CRO you sign a
non-compete with a CRO go work in pharma so that's something you can do and keep
in mind once again you've got to be wary and what the non-compete says but you
definitely want to keep your options as open as possible if you are gonna sign
one but preferably you don't have to sign one and I think that's more the
minority of cases than it is the major majority so we'll see you guys will see
so hopefully this was informative about non-competes in the industry I'll
probably make another video detailing about more specifically about how to get
out of them so stay tuned for that but and I'll probably talk about how what
this says on the internet about how people are getting out of them and stuff
too but other than that guys and I hope you enjoyed this email me Ali clinical
group at gmail.com or any questions you may have
take care guys