hey guys ECR G here back with another episode today I've got another question
from a listener who I think listens on the YouTube channel but this is a
very good question and I wanted to bring it to you guys today so this listener
writes in hello my name is blank and I'm looking to enter into the clinical
research industry I have spent the past few days listening to your podcast and I
love the content you are putting out a little backstory on myself I have
recently completed an MBA in health care management and I'm now looking for a job
in health care coming out of undergrad I didn't really have an idea of what I
wanted to do so I found a graduate assistant position and worked on another
degree within the past month I have become aware of the CRO industry in
clinical research I find it very interesting and believe I would like to
I would like to find a career within the industry ideally like everyone else I
would like to eventually work myself into a CRA role however I know I need to
gain experience first from listening to the podcast
I know you do resume reviews and I would be interested in sending you my resume
if you would be willing to help out yeah so for this person if you're listening
go ahead send it to me Ali clinical group at gmail.com we can talk about
some of the different packages and all the different things you can do with
that we've got a few different packages so if you or anyone else is interested
email me Ali clinical group at gmail.com to get your resume reviewed right now
I'm trying to get my foot in the door with any position I have mostly been
looking at clinical research coordinator or CRC entry level training CRA
and clinical trial coordinator positions but have not had much luck I enjoyed
your interview with Eric the assistant project manager I think that would be a
role I would excel at given my MBA but I haven't been able to find any to apply
for looking forward I think a hiccup that I'm going to have is that I have
very little clinical experience hopefully I provided enough information
to get the ball rolling and create a conversation to help
my Avenue into clinical research any help you could provide would be much
appreciated and I look forward to hearing back from you so thank you so
much for this question this is a very good question as I know a lot of people
are interested or new to the channel and the podcast and are interested in
getting their foot in the door in clinical research and I think you
brought up one thing that I haven't really talked about a lot and is
graduate degrees how those help or hurt so I think as an MBA you're in a good
position because it's not like a PhD or like an MD or like a dental degree where
you're supposed to be making so much more money in that in that role where
it's gonna be hard for you to find an entry-level role because they're not
gonna pay you equally or even near what you were making in the other field so
that's good that you went and got an MBA right after graduate school that you
have limited work experience because they're not gonna expect you to they're
not gonna you're not gonna be expected to be get paid a whole bunch of money
because you have an MBA so that's good another thing you want to think about
with this is I guess broadening your career your clinical research options a
little bit it's good you're looking at study coordinator and you didn't mention
where your base but it's good you're looking at study coordinator it's good
you're looking at entry-level training CRA programs which are pretty rare and
very hard to get into but definitely apply and clinical trial coordinator I
think those are that's the same thing a study coordinator but you know different
companies call it different things but I'm assuming that's the same thing if
that's the site at the site level some other things you can look at our
clinical trial assistant which I've done a video on if you need more information
on that just type in clinical trial assistant EC RG and the video should pop
up project specialist and project coordinator those are all the same
positions the same thing as the assistant project manager position which
Eric was in those are the great positions to get your foot in the door
another one could be in house er a good one on clinical
and then there are there are even more actually you could become an intern
that's a good option you could become a contractor a lot of times they will do
you know contract clinical trial assistant positions where they'll bring
you in to contract for a few months and then if you're good
they'll put you on full-time so those are good ways to get your foot in the
door and you know really really with the MBA this is a experience driven industry
as I'm sure you've understood by now because you said one of the things that
you don't have is experience about but you do have the degrees so one of the
things that's interesting is degrees really don't mean much in this industry
it is all about experience so really what you want to focus on is getting
that experience anyway you can get your foot in the door any way you can so it
may not be ideal you may only be making $11 an hour like I was in my first
position but just know that you can move up fairly quickly after you get some
experience under your belt you know in a matter of a couple years you'll be
making a lot more than what you started at if you play your cards right so
that's that's just something to think about pretty much get experience as much
as you possibly can to get your foot in the door is my is my recommendation for
you whether that's volunteering well that's interning whether that's you
know trying to be a patient recruiter whether that's shadowing whatever you
can do to get experience is only gonna help you trying to be is only gonna help
you in your career and trying to get it into clinical research so as far as
being a CRA your best route to get your foot in the door first is as a study
coordinator or an in-house CRA and those can go directly into being a CRA both
through training programs of course but those are positions that directly align
to becoming a CRA and I prefer I think as a strong foundation study coordinator
is probably the best they build you they give you that gives you the best
foundation to understand what clip being a clinical research associate is going
to be in being on the clinical side and then next I would say is probably an
in-house CRA but a lot of people that are interested in clinical research
don't really know much about it they don't really know what positions are out
there so you're gonna learn more as you get your foot in the door what positions
are out there and what you like doing and you know a lot of people come in
wanting to do be a CRA then they find out about project management or they
come in want to be a project manager they find out about data management or
they find out they they really like TMF you know whatever it is also TMF
specialist is another good entry-level role that they have out there they
typically you know want some experience but don't be afraid to apply for roles
that ask for experience you know you can apply for roles that ask for one to two
years they put that there but they very often accept people without much
experience and you know one of the things since you don't have a long work
history it sounds like what you're gonna want to do is kind of translate the
history that you do have or what's on your resume into you know applicable
experience to clinical research and that might be pretty tough so I will
recommend for someone in your in your position the clinical research program
the resume review program I would definitely recommend that for you
and for anyone else like you if you're having a hard time getting your foot in
the door and translating that experience that you have into applicable and
pertinent clinical research experience then you definitely want to partake in
the clinical research resume review program that I've got going on that's
specifically who was designed for essentially so hope this was helpful
keep applying keep shooting I've got tons of content on this you know how to
improve your resume how to improve your strategy how to get your foot in the
door so go back and look at those past episodes on the podcast and on YouTube
and there's plenty of content thank you so much for your question
take care
you