what you are about to hear is a video of me giving my thoughts before my first
ever clinical research associate entry-level interview this was after
I've already had a couple years experience in the industry and I finally
finally made it to the point where I got a call back to be interviewed for CRA
position and this was official so this is what I call a preview you've heard
some of the other previews I've done the in-house CRA
position which I currently had before I was a CRA but I did a preview of that a
review everything in between so I'll be releasing the same thing for the CRA
stuff so this was previously recorded but enjoy this preview hopefully you'll
learn something that you'll be able to apply
so I've got a CRA clinical research associate interview with a company not
gonna say their name tomorrow I'm pretty nervous about it they are not
a CRO actually they are a sponsor so I'm excited about that
it's gonna be a lot different than you know being an in-house CRA for CRO and I
think some of the difference differences are going to be that the
decision making is gonna be a lot faster because working in a CRO you've got to
ask the sponsor a lot of times for questions on things and you know things
of that nature I'm not really gonna delve into that but if you're working at
a CEO you know you've got to always refer to confer with the sponsor on a
lot of things but I'm looking for that to be diminished you know because you're
the project manager is gonna know the answer and gonna be able to give you a
defined answer so that's one of the frustrations with working I see a row
but that should be alleviated working for a sponsor so I'm really excited
about it the sponsor is actually specialized in certain therapeutic areas
but they are looking to branch out and they're looking to bring in a couple see
Ras so I'm one of the candidates and it has been a long process to get to this
point because first they had a recruiter screen which was not like most recruiter
screens most of the recruiter screens I've had before are very simple they
tell you about the position you know the last bell like 15 to 20 minutes max they
tell you about the position maybe they may ask you a few preliminary questions
like tell me about your current role or why you want to leave and come to this
company etc etc they may ask just a few maybe like four but this was like a
full-on interview this lady pounded me she asked the full question she asked
the full slate of questions like you know like um tell me about a time that
it was difficult for you talking about it telling about your greatest weakness
time value one of your greatest strengths or and like what would your
line managers say about you if we asked them or you know all these
different questions that normally aren't asked until the actual interview she
asked so yeah that was interesting I wasn't I wouldn't even expecting that I
was expecting like a normal recruiter screen very chill very laid-back but she
kept hounding me a pound at me but anyway made it on to the next step
the next step was a phone slash Skype interview which with with one of the
hiring managers and one of the managers and that went pretty well
that was even easier than the recruiter screened to be honest she didn't really
ask them any questions and in fact she actually had to stop in the middle of it
and answer a phone call for like three to four minutes so that was interesting
so the whenever someone does that I know it's kind of like laid-back so that's
that's good so I imagine that in between those two times they cancelled out a lot
of the candidates they just marked them off and the only having probably a few
people come in and they're kind of having us coming for a long for a while
so I imagine they have cut down a lot because typically the interviews are
only 30 minutes to an hour but this is on the range of two to three so I
imagine there's only a handful of people that they're even seriously considering
and so I'm lucky enough and gracious enough and thankful enough to be one of
them I've been wanting to be a CRA for a long time that's one of the reasons why
I left medical school was to be a CRA and you know the moments finally here so
I'm ready to knock it out the park and killing crush it so yeah looking forward
to doing the review afterwards you know did some preparation earlier and yeah so
did some preparation earlier not really going to film or recording the
preparation this time because I feel like I've had a lot of the preparation
because I went through two pretty intense interviews and a rapid amount
time so I'm just gonna kind of think about my answer to the common questions
that we talk about I see what else am I gonna do I'm going to oh yeah right my
questions down in my little notepad that I bring in in there so wrote those down
so I've got some I've got some pretty good questions so I'll share that with
you guys some of my questions that I'll ask so one of the questions I asked are
how are the studies assigned to see Ras so I'm thinking you know when you work
in a CRO there's maybe some business units so like oncology business unit if
you're not and then if you're not in that business unit or that department
you're not gonna get oncology studies or they may have like a cardio unit where
all you do is cardio studies you know something like that
so I'll ask that question you know maybe it's just a lot of readings just pick up
the draw I don't know what they're gonna say so I feel like that's a pretty good
question another thing I might ask is can you describe the training process
and you know this is it's a good question because a lot of companies will
do different training processes some will have like dedicated programs where
you're in there for a few months someone just to kind of you know maybe talk to
you for two weeks some will give you a mentor to fly around with for a few
months and then dump you out there yourself so interested to hear what
that's about and I talked a little bit about that on the Skype call with the
previous manager and you know she gave me a little insight there but looking to
see what some of the other people say so I got another question you know what in
your opinion makes a successful CRA versus another versus an unsuccessful
one well we'll see what they say to that and that's probably ask that to every
single one of the people other thing I'm asked about a CRA burnout and what do
you guys do to combat that I know that the big thing in CRA world people can be
CRA s and you know a lot of times they are on the road constantly and they
eventually get burned out so I'm gonna reiterate saying hey look now what this
relationship to be a long term relationship so I
you know girl my career here girl grow up here at this company but I obviously
see rate burnout is a real thing and you know it's one of the things there's a
lot of turnover what do you guys do to combat you know see rate burnout are you
guys help mitigate it then you know I asked them what makes you want to work
for this company I have some more like what made you want to work for this
company and then you know that's that's pretty much it I don't like to have too
many prepared questions because I kind of want it to be a conversation so I
kind of want to lean on my ability to ask follow-up questions or to some of
the things they say or I'll probably write down questions during the
interview as well they say if they say some interesting stuff so we'll see how
that goes I think it will go pretty well you know like I said the recruiter
screen was pretty was pretty rough because I was not expecting it it was a
rough I mean I had answers but I was not expecting her to go so deep in those
questions as she did so khuda kudos to her she kind of caught me off guard but
I think I you know kind of held my own there and then the next interview was
even chiller so not gonna lie hope this is even chiller and you know so they got
I'm meeting with for four or so people it's gonna be two hours about 30 minutes
each so we'll see yeah so also another tip write down the names of the people
you're meeting with you can even like do a little research on them see what
they're up to so curious to see that I still haven't
done that yes I'm gonna do that right now after this so anything else I'm
missing no I don't I don't think so I mean that's that's pretty much it for
this preview so if you enjoyed this want to see more previews for any of the
other jobs that we'll be applying for in the future or you know other companies
or any things like that obviously there'll be a review a second part to
this talking about the experience I record that following day or a couple
days after or same day as the interview we'll see and we'll definitely upload
that for you guys to see before and after I know a lot of people are
interested in the CRA process and what it takes to be a CRA so what better way
to learn about that then to hear about how a CRA interview is now you can
better prepare what you can expect so thank you guys for listening as always
like this video share it comment down below what you guys think and as always
email elite clinical group at gmail.com for any questions or inquiries you may
have take care guys