hey guys Serg here and today we're gonna talk about a couple things that you
should not do if you're new to clinical research hey guys EC RG here and today
we're going to be talking about a few things you should not do if you're new
to clinical research these are things that may oftentimes be overlooked and
not really thought about especially if you're new to the industry are new you
to the to the job obviously if you work in an entry-level position you want to
take these things into consideration or just really anybody who's coming into
clinical research from a different field may not know a little bit about the
culture and some of the pitfalls that you may come across and these are just
here to help you and hopefully help you have a better and more fruitful career
in clinical research so without further ado the first one I want to talk about
is don't discount an opportunity a lot of times you're presented with
opportunities that you may not realize the value of them until you actually do
them for example I was new to clinical research and I was presented with the
opportunity someone didn't want to go to a kickoff meeting and now I had heard
that I kickoff meetings you have to take minutes for eight hours if you're if
that's your role if you're in the entry-level position there you have the
ten minutes for eight hours and this kickoff meeting was located in the city
I was kind of living in so there would be no travel now that's a great trade
off if you get to travel because I really like to travel I love travel so
if I get to travel then you know I'll travel anywhere for anything at this
point because I'm new to the industry this
would have been the first time I would have been able to travel with the
company but this one was located in the same city as me so no travel just what
if in a normal day at work but this time I would have been taking eight hours of
meeting minutes and if you know anything about me just go watch the most-hated
test and clinical research video and you will know how I feel about meeting
minutes so with that said I passed on the
opportunity and you know it would have been a good opportunity for a few
reasons one being you know in my first few months on the job new brand new to
clinical research not knowing anything the kickoff meeting is really the time
where you get to understand the whole project in its entirety and I'm a big
macro person I like seeing things from macro before I go into the micro details
of things so that would have been a great learning opportunity to really
start it off start my clinical research and journey on on the right foot and you
know I got opportunity to go to kickoff meetings later but to really start with
that knowledge and that foundation would have just been amazing for my career at
that point so I pass on the opportunity and you know another kickoff need and
come around for many more months after that but you know everything ended up
being okay but what I learned at the kickoff meeting is I did go to was wow
there are really some key stakeholders in the industry that go to these
meetings you got executives you got executive
directors you've got all kinds of people that are there that you get to interact
with now you get to trade business cards with that you get to have interesting
and enlightening conversations about and you know how important networking is so
you really get an opportunity at these kickoff meetings to network with some
great people that can help you even land bigger and better opportunities not to
mention their executives from your own company there so it looks good
especially if you're brand new to the industry you know that you're helping
out and digging in you know early early on and in the beginning of your career
so it's really just a win-win all around even though you weren't you are getting
to travel there are a whole bunch of other positives from going to a kickoff
meeting as well obviously the big negative is you have to take meeting
minutes rate hours but I still say the pros far outweigh the cons of that and
you know so that really just comes back to say don't discount an opportunity I
really wish I had gone to that kickoff meeting because it would have been
awesome and I was just really kind of scared and annoyed with meeting minutes
at that I'm and you know I pass on the
opportunity but in hindsight I would have gone back and taking that
opportunity and you know used it it did the best I could with it so that's
number one don't discount an opportunity and then the second one I have is when
you're new to the industry don't be too picky about which studies you're placed
on in the beginning and that's because you're new you have no experience get
your experience first you can always go back you can always go back later and
get asked to put on different studies after you have some more experience
because people like working with experienced people because things go by
quicker you don't have to troubleshoot things there's not as many errors you
know what to do you're already a contributing member of the effort of the
team so you know if you get placed on you know oncology or some CNS studies do
that but you say you're really interested in in like some kidney
studies or something will do that and then go back and do the kidney studies
you know when you next at your next opportunity or if you really enter
interested in like GI studies and my infectious disease you get placed on
those first but you really want to do oncology studies well get that
experience first and then you can move over to oncology a lot easier what you
have experience already so I would say don't don't be too picky about which
studies replace lon just get your experience first and then you can always
be picky later so the third thing that is very very important that you should
not do in clinical research and this is very important for clinical research for
a couple of reasons so the third thing is don't assume everyone is like you and
this this has multiple reasons layers to it because one clinical
research is a very global industry for example when I was first started I
worked with people from all over the world you cannot assume people are just
like you you can't assume people work like you and I assume like people talk
like you obviously everyone you talk with knows English because that's like
the language of clinical research but you have to take into account that
they may not know words and phrases you may use if you're using you know some
kind of slang phrases they may not understand and then you have to also
understand that their translation of what you're saying it might be different
than how you're saying it so you have to be careful with how you say things so
that it can be interpreted in the best and in the most thoughtful way so don't
assume everyone is like you and it's hard to it's hard to keep that in mind
because you know the people I work with speak fluent English like you just would
not be able to know the difference other than the accent their English is
flawless but of course you know there can be some cultural differences there
and you don't want to offend anybody unnecessarily so just keep that in mind
you are working in a global space probably gonna be placed on global
studies you'll be working with different people from all over the place and
that's even true if you're just based in the USA working with people that are out
on the west coast if you're on the East Coast or vice-versa you've got time
differences there that that needs to be accounted for so there's a lot to be
accounted for in clinical research just just based on location so and then
keeping that in mind you've got to be flexible cuz you're gonna be working
with different people you mean working with different work styles and just all
everything that comes into that and so you've got to be flexible too and you
know that you just cannot assume everyone is like you you've got to be
able to be flexible and understand the differences and the nuances and
understand how people work together and you know it's really it's really a great
learning opportunity to be in clinical research just because everybody is so
different and works differently and you get a really good understanding of how
to work well in teams with different people and I would say some of the best
things that prepared me for that cuz I felt like I was fairly well prepared for
it some of the best things that prepared me for it was a nice type of study
abroad opportunities any type of camps or internships that focused on diversity
or something like that and bringing people together of all types of ethnic
groups genders and sexual orientations just get
you used to working with people that are way different than you would have a
whole different set of beliefs than you and whole different working styles and
then another thing is obviously volunteer work volunteering with people
from all over the world all over the country all different backgrounds as
well so any type of exposure you can have to that it's really going to do
wonders for your clinical research career so I would definitely keep that
in mind and you know especially if you're on the project management side
during me working with clients from all over the world so I know in Japan it's
always a big deal because they're really serious so you have to be really serious
you have to understand that understand how they work and you know you've kind
of got to adapt yourself and be flexible to that so that's that's gonna be
interesting and I would definitely you know keep that in mind when you're
working in clinical research or you're looking to get into clinical research so
just to summarize don't discount an opportunity don't be too picky about
which studies you're on at first and don't assume everyone is like you so
those are my my three things that you should not do in clinical research if
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