I will not I will not I will not say it is impossible for you to get to be a CRA
without any experience find out how coming up
hey guys Serg here back with another video today we're gonna be talking about
is it possible for you to be a CRA clinical research associate without any
clinical research experience is that possible well I'm gonna tell you one
thing if you want it to happen you're gonna have to have a good resume and if
you want a good resume and you're new to clinical research look no further than
our resume review program all you've got to do email us your resume we'll have a
discussion we'll get some context we'll go through your resume comb through it
improve it on a variety of factors if you are curious what those factors are
you can email us or look at some of our resume review videos and you can see how
we do it our process and get a little bit of taste for that but I strongly
recommend it if you're trying to get into clinical research without any
experience trying to get your way into the industry but to be a CRA is it
possible to be a CA without any experience and it is possible there is
one way and this is a very very long shot way very long shot but and I'm
gonna go into the details as to why it's a long shot and what has happened over
the course of 2017-2018 that has made it very difficult for you to be a CRA
without any experience because back in the day 2015 2014 and before you could
have gotten in with without any experience maybe even six months
experience people were becoming see arrays but here's the deal the one way
to do it is to get into a training program now you see these training
programs all the time from major CEOs you've got IQ via you got novella you've
got med pace you've got you know a bunch of other CEOs I've seen Cato research
based out of Durham they have CRA training programs and
there's probably many others too that I'm not even thinking about they have
training programs but you've got to be on top of it wanna play
but occasionally every training program has a focus usually they're like okay
this time we want to make study coordinators into CRA s so all they're
really looking for our study coordinators it's so basically the only
way to get into that program for that cycle is to be what they're looking for
study coordinators sometimes are like okay we just want industry professionals
so they'll take in how CRA s they'll take clinical trial assistants
they'll take project coordinators they'll take study startup they'll take
whatever experience you have obviously the people that have the closest to C
erase the clinical trial assistant project specialist project coordinator
those people that are either on the project management side or a clinical
operations side have the best chance to get in but even if you just have
clinical research experience you have a chance to get in sometimes they're like
okay we just want in-house er aid or remote monitors to get into the program
this year I mean this quarter or this phase and that's it but occasionally
they will say we want somebody with no experience like a college graduate I've
seen it from time to time they have all that have a college graduate class where
they're accepting maybe a small class four or five six individuals no
experience required and they'll put you in the pipeline to become a CRA you may
have to sign a non-compete you may have to work there for a couple of years
before you can leave they'll they'll keep your salary pretty low for those
couple of years because that's really the attractive attractive point to
bringing in somebody with no experiences that you can pay them a lot less you can
train them up and get a higher ROI on the back end from those individuals so
that is the one way to be a CA without any experience now that is a longshot
way I would not hold your breath for that because it's rare when they do that
and you could be building experience the whole time doing that rather than just
waiting for that one opportunity so I would suggest do both if you want to be
a CRA definitely try and get your foot in the door in the end
at some point and make your way towards it rather than just wait for that one
one in a hundred chance of that happening but it is possible to do it
now why does it take years or a year or two to get into the industry and get the
experience you need to become a CRA well one one of the main common
misconceptions about being a CRA is that it is an entry-level job or it's a job
you can just pick up and do right off the street and that could not be
anything further from the truth a CRA is not an entry-level job just as like many
other jobs out there are not entry-level like you can't just like walk off the
street and be like VP of Sales or you can't just walk up off the street and be
you know the head of the company or anything ahead of anything a head of a
department you've got to work your way up and that's because you learned steps
at each way that are gonna benefit you in that role and it may take longer than
you'd like sometimes it's shorter sometimes it's longer but with
specifically a CRA it is not an entry-level position it is there's a lot
of learning that takes place there's a lot of terminology you have to know and
you've got to know the process of how clinical trials works you can't just
walk off the street with any experience and get into clinical trials and know
what's going on that's just not how it works you've got to get your experience
so the sponsor over the past couple of years sponsors like any like
pharmaceutical company or people that make the drug or medical device that's a
sponsor they have been saying pretty steady across the industry that they
want two years experience they want two years experience in the industry before
someone can be a Syria on their studies now they do this to make sure that the
CIA's are competent and know what they doing and see Ras is one of the most
expensive things on a study protocol because they're paying for flights
they're paying for hotels they're paying for the hours that the CRA works and
they're paying for their scientific expertise because they're monitoring the
data so the more the higher you pay a CRA to tip
you're gonna get a better quality monitor which is going to in turn make
better quality data and that data is what is submitted to the FDA for the
drug to be approved so they want the cleanest data they can possibly get at
the cheapest price so the sponsor said okay it's better for us to spend more
money on CRA s we're going to pay them more
once they're two years experience but our data is gonna be a lot clearer a lot
less headaches with the FDA so they pretty much said you know what two years
experience before we even approve you to be a CRA and that's another thing
sponsor approves every single person that works on their study and they want
people that are experienced point blank that's less hassles later on that
they've decided so now even though there's a huge industry shortage of CRA
s and there has been for decades they want two years experience because it's
better now a CRO they're only gonna hire you at two years
they're only going to want to bring you in if you have two years experience for
them to be CRA s because the sponsor is only gonna bring you on in approve you
for study if you've got two years experience so that's why most of the
programs the training programs that are out there require some experience
beforehand so one of the things in the industry they're trying to do is change
the experience level because experience level does not always mean competence so
they're trying to make it so you know people that are competent to BC arrays
can be CRA s which again is not gonna be everyone you may you may think that's
awesome now but that competence standard is probably gonna be pretty difficult
for everyone to meet so it may be better or worse depending on where you fall but
that's pretty much it is it possible it'll be a CRA without
any experience it is possible but it's not very probable so I would keep that
in mind I hope you enjoyed that bit of you know a little going back through
history there but it's very important to keep that in context because a lot of
people think because of the demand that you can be a CEO a without any
experience and it is not an entry-level position it
is not a position you're just gonna get in and understand within a month it's a
lot even being an in-house CRA is a lot a true in-house CRA that does visits and
everything there's site selection business does closeout visits regularly
scheduled site monitoring calls and is the point of contact for sites but too
true in how CRA even that can be a transition for you I mean it's difficult
to get the cadence of clinical research it's not easy by any means and a lot of
people say you know what I'm in this other field I'm high up in this other
field I should be able to come in and be a project manager or come in and be a
CRA no clinical trials is a completely different industry than whatever
industry you're in so keep that in mind put your comments
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