hey guys ECR G here back with another episode today I've got a question that I
don't think I've really touched too much before on this platform either YouTube
or the podcast so I really wanted to when a someone emailed me this question
I really wanted to bring this to you guys
as soon as possible because I think there's a lot of people out there that
may be in this predicament so without further ado I'm gonna go ahead and get
into it before I do I just want to let you guys know resume reviews are still
going on you can still get your resume reviewed you can still do interview prep
or you can still get LinkedIn page reviews if you're interested in that I
have to do is email me elite clinical group at gmail.com and we can go from
there so this person writes in they say I am currently working as a project
manager and have been heavily involved in p.m. work that's project management
work with our clinical group for close to a year now about nine months my past
experience includes a lot of laboratory work and quality experience including
supervisory roles I have extensive experience reviewing data training
personnel developing training programs and organizing studies most of the
studies I have organized previously have been for medical device validation
studies rather than clinicals I have been working as a contractor for a large
medical device company for three years and I'm looking to transition to a
different company where I would ideally like to take on a CRA position I was
hoping to acquire inquire about getting some help with my resume to highlight my
experience that may not have been exactly clinically focused but that
could still translate to the necessary skill set needed to help me land the
role I am looking for I'm also looking for an opinion from someone in the
industry on the best direction to head given my past experience and interests
ie what going from a clinical PM role to a CRA position be a huge step back
career-wise and there's a senior in position to much to shoot for given I
don't have much monitoring experience even though I have audit data review
experience and project management experience which from what I've gathered
through job postings are all part of skills for a senior CRA I'm a very
hands-on type of person and really have a passion for training and mentoring
I haven't find now that I'm often helping the Junior Series at my company
get over hurdles they run into I was hoping you could provide me with
information on how costly seeking out your help would be and if you'd be able
to help with not only resume review but also answering career path questions so
I'm going to detail some of this in this response that I give to you guys
obviously I can't be as specific because each person's background and scenario is
different so obviously me and this put me in this person are working behind the
scenes on the resume review and so many other things that she asked about in in
her question but I still think there will be a lot to gain from this response
for you guys so the first things first is going from p.m. - CRA which is very
doable I definitely hear from a lot more people that are interested in going from
a CRA to p.m. because what you'll find is a CRA if you're interested in
climbing the ladder that it's best to go from project to go from project manager
project director and a associate vice-president and on up the ladder that
way it's hard to go from CRA to CTL and up the ladder most the time they want
they want you to go from CRA I mean they want you to go up the PM side if you're
gonna climb the ladder so a lot of people just like being see arrays and
they have no interest in climbing the ladder or they want to get off the road
they'll either go to an in-house CRA position or to a CTL position but as far
as climbing that ladder goes it's much easier to go up the PM side and I think
most CTL end up having to go be PMS if they are interested in climbing the
ladder so but this person wants to go from p.m. to see array now is that
possible yes that's very possible now why is that possible it's because the
project manager is responsible for all of the different parts of the team
reporting to her so data management reports in CRA is report in CTL is
report in an study start up is going to report in to the p.m. so they're
familiar with a lot of the different aspects of the clinical study team and
allowed the heads of the different aspects of the clinical study
now they now I think her question of becoming going from a p.m. direct to a
senior CRA may not happen because having no background as a CRA it's gonna be
tough for you even though you've been a p.m. before just because it's gonna be
different now I don't think you'll be a CRA one not at all but I think senior
could be difficult because you know it'll be your first time really as a
senior you're you're really in charge of some of the junior series and leading
the team of C arrays and without having any serious perience
I think that could be tough and that's something that I naturally won't do but
I would definitely put you on the fast track to being a senior CRA because of
your previous project manager experience but I think you could definitely get in
as a CRA somewhere for sure if that's what you wanted to do or at
your current company definitely and you also talked about what it'd be a step
back career-wise well I do think that good p.m. should have CRA experience so
I definitely do like when C arrays go on to be PMS because I think it's important
to really understand what monitoring is understanding the type of data you're
actually collecting and not just looking at it from a bird's eye view but to
really understand and I do think it's great for your career to go from p.m. to
C array just looking at it from a holistic point of view because now you
understand more about the clinical aspect of things and your decisions
later on when you're a project director or vice president you'll be able to draw
from that experience of being a CRA but you know unfortunately you don't have
that CRA experience so I'm not sure you'd be able to come in directly as a
senior CRA it kind of depends on your project management experience and it
doesn't sound like you have a ton you may have like a year or two I think you
said nine months we even work with your clinical group but you've been a
contractor for three years now I don't know if you were a contract PM for three
years or what but I do think the more PM experience you have probably the more
likely they're gonna give you a higher seer a position but all of that is is
negotiable so you can you can Gosha for that senior CRA title but get
paid like a CRA - if that title is really important to you but it's really
more so like a lateral move I would say even though the PM is the boss when it
comes to salary wise CR A's tend to make more if not the same as PMS just depends
but CRA is definitely tend to make a lot more and there's a lot more incentives
to make more money as a CRA they're always running programs they're always
running bonus programs where if you get your reports in on time you get a bonus
you always get a sign-on bonus as a CRA you're making money in Reverse by having
your cell phone bill paid your home internet bill paid working from home
constantly not running up on your gas and depreciating your car there's a lot
of perks to being a CEO a I'm not having to buy as many groceries because you're
on the road a lot that you just end up making a lot of money in Reverse as a
CRA that you don't get as a p.m. necessarily if you're if you have to
work in the office per se so that's what I would say about that let's see yes as
far as translating your skills I do think because you don't have a lot of
clinical experience but that is something I should definitely be able to
help you with translating your project management skills into more clinical
skills a lot of them will translate automatically but but I think a lot of
it where I would be helpful is to narrate that story for you on why you
want to go from p.m. to CRA because most people do want to go from
CRA to p.m. because p.m. is how you really climb the ladder and like I said
before it's definitely not a step back at all I would not think about it think
it's more like a lateral move and in some ways it may be a better move for
you if you if you don't want to be in the office all the time and a cubicle
you want to be out in the real world that's definitely something I would
consider like you said you do have a lot of data review experience and project
management experience and other experience I mean not to not to mention
that a lot of times at companies if CRA s can't go out on site is the project
manager who's backing them so a lot of times probably project
managers do have CRA experience so I think it's good that you want to do that
another thing I would consider is I don't know maybe you just want to be a
full time see array is see if you can get some CRA action at your current role
maybe they'll put bring you down to like a point eight point seven FTE and put
you on a study as a CRA so you can get some serious perience that way if you're
just trying to really boost your resume and boost your ability to be a better
project manager I look I would look for that also that could be something good
to think about let's see what else handle have a person helping out the
junior series including supervisory role yes so I think this is a great move for
anyone I'm definitely I mean I've been a CA for a number of years now and I love
it I love the role don't really see myself going in a project management so
I definitely like people that good that go into the CRA role and I think you'll
be very very happy with it if you love to travel you've got to love to travel
you've got a you gotta got to love it so I think this is this is a good move
and it just goes to show people that you know there's all different ways of
routes for your career and you just got to choose what's best for you it's not
always going up up up all the time sometimes it's going sideways sometimes
it's going backwards and so that just that's just your path that's just your
journey so not everyone's journey is gonna be the same let's see what else I
really don't want to miss anything in this question because this was quite a
long email I want to make sure that I touched on everything so yeah I think I
think that's it and like I said before I think the real kicker here is that you
don't necessarily have monitoring experience now maybe if I looked at your
resume you might have some monitoring experience if you've been on site before
but you do have other experience talking with pee is talking with study teams
things of that nature site teams that would make you a great CEO
once again I don't think the thing here for you is can you be a CRA I think
easily you'll get hired up as a CRA but I do think that you wanting to be a
senior CRA could be a little problematic at a number of places just because you
don't have the monetary experience but I do think for sure you'll get hired as a
CRA no question about it so if anyone's listening to this still and you're
interested in getting your resume reviewed email me elite clinical group
at gmail.com and we'll get you we'll get you straight so if that's it take care
guys