hey guys Serg here back with another episode today I've got a very good
question in my inbox you could email me a leaked
clinical group at gmail.com if you have any personalized questions that you
would like me to respond to or talk about on the channel or the podcasts or
anything like that the great thing about these questions is if you have them
there's probably other people out there who probably have these same exact
questions so hopefully this is very very helpful but before we jump into that I
just want to let you guys know about the resume review program a lot of people
have been emailing me about it lately it is a program for you to submit your
resume to me I will go through it with a fine-tooth comb
I will provide comments I mean I've got a few different packages I offer and
really I should do a video breaking them down but we've got a top-tier package
which which has which has you know the audio/video file that I will send to you
of me actually going through it step-by-step it's got the ability for us
to talk about your resume on the phone beforehand and it also comes with a
package to help you prepare for your first interview after you have
successfully gotten to that point in the interview process we've got a next tier
package which is just the audio/video file and me commenting on word and then
we've got a basic package just for anybody who just wants some comments on
their resume done via usually Microsoft Word or we can do Adobe PDF also just be
comments on your resume definitely the package that most people
get is going to be the mid-tier package with the audio/video file that's the one
where people definitely have the most things to say about it and the one that
most people do decide to go with just because they really like it and you know
a lot of the other clients have been very very happy with that so just won't
let you guys know about that but back to this question this person emailed me
because well out I'll just read the email they say dear sir first of all let
me begin by saying that I appreciate the chance to contact you I just watched a
couple of videos on your channel and decided to send you an email
I graduated from University of Belgorod in Serbia in February 2015 and I am
working in the pharmacy in Calgary Alberta Canada and I am a permanent
resident here clinical research and clinical trials have been in my focus of
interest since the student days however I did not have the opportunity to work
in this branch of the pharmaceutical industry so far I have gained enough
experience working as a pharmacist and also as a medical representative while I
was in Serbia I wanted to kindly ask you if you could share some information and
guidelines on where I should start in order to pursue my career as a CRA and
what are my options as a international pharmacy graduate could you maybe
provide more information about internship or training programs for
which I could submit an application I look forward to hearing from you so
we've got a lot to unpack here so this person is a resident in Canada which is
great now for those that just a disclaimer I am based in the United
States so I'm not as familiar with how things work in terms of immigration when
it comes to Canada and other countries like that
but I do know one thing and that's how to get into the clinical research
industry I broke in as a contractor so you know making barely anything 10 $11
an hour and work my way up to be to be a CRA as I currently sit at the making of
this video and I love that job I've talked about it a lot on this channel
love that job I think is one of the best jobs you can have it's very rewarding it
is very you got to think what a lot you've got to critically think you get
to travel you get to see parts of the country and even the world on the
company's dime that you have never even thought about going to or seeing before
and also one of the things is if you're a big foodie I'm a big foodie i top-tier
food now I eat at places I never never ever ever
would pay for out of my own money I mean steak lobster you know lobster
bisque I mean different salads entrees appetizers you know it's crazy you know
different drinks so it just kind of depends but it's definitely a great
career path and definitely one that you should get into because demand is very
high so how do you go about getting into one into this in Canada now clearly you
moved from Serbia to Canada so this may be something where you want to move to a
center now I'm not as familiar as in Calgary Alberta how the clinical
research industry is there but I know there are some definitely some centers
maybe Toronto where you do have some CEOs or pharmaceutical companies based
so maybe that's something you want to think about is moving there where you
can words can be easier for you to get a job in the clinical research space now I
think something that's good is potentially be a study coordinator
that's one of my favorite jobs to kind of get your foot in the door just
because you learned so much at the site level it's very you're gonna build a
very very good foundation for your clinical research career so that's
something to think about isn't moving and then also think about the study
coordinator position and that's a very local position that's not one where you
can like work remotely you've got to actually be there but that that's good
and really to try and take anything anything we can get clinical research
experience because this is an industry where it is very very you know they're
very very picky they don't want it doesn't matter if you have bench
research experience or you know some other type of research experience they
want clinical research experience and that's about all they want and I could
tell you even even if you get two months of it it's gonna change your whole
application vibe it's gonna change everything and it's gonna be a lot
easier for you to move around and get different jobs with that I noticed a big
difference after my contract it was only for a couple months but I was starting
to get phone calls I was starting to get call backs and it's a game changer so I
would definitely try and just get your foot in the
door somewhere now that might require moving I've been getting a lot of
questions lately from people who you know they've been apply to a bunch of
jobs and can't get jobs and a lot of it could be because there's just so there's
not many where you're currently living so that's something you got to think
about but also you may not have done the research so I would do the research on
which companies have offices or have offices in the Calgary Alberta this is
something you you've got to think about because you know you want to make sure
that you even have the opportunity to work for someplace there so I would look
up pharmaceutical companies I look up CR OS and I would look up sites in that
area and how are you gonna do this well one great way is to talk to somebody on
LinkedIn so definitely make sure you have a LinkedIn profile and reach out to
people that are study coordinators in the area maybe CR raised in Canada just
reach out connect with these people ask them for you know 20 minutes of their
time to talk to them 30 minutes of their time CEOs are really really busy but
they would definitely love to talk to you and you can kind of get more
information so maybe that's something you haven't thought about before but
that's something that you definitely want to think about because they can
tell you what what needs to happen they can tell you what you need to do and
what steps they took in Calgary Alberta to be successful and ultimately break in
so that's something else I would think about another thing you want to think
about is okay maybe you you know haven't apply to some jobs and you've been
getting rejected but you might want to think about your resume now we talked
about earlier in this episode the importance of resume and we talked about
the resume review program so I can help you condense that to a you know one-page
resume that's really really good and really really potent but you know that
resume is important because that's that's what people are gonna read about
you and you're only as good as your resume and you really want to think
about that so definitely think about your resume does it doesn't need help
don't be too you know proud to say okay it might need
some help but I mean that's what we that's what I do I do these all the time
for people and they notice a big difference and you know I think one of
the big things that they notice is just how much how much better prepared they
are for the interview and how much more they understand their own background in
their own skills in order to get into clinical research so that's something to
think about also now when it comes to training programs internships etc I
would definitely look out for contract positions because that's that's where
you get a lot of people that are new to the field they sign you on maybe three
months maybe six months and you know you just you work in the industry you get
that experience and don't be afraid to take it even if it's only like ten
fifteen dollars an hour because after you update your resume and get that
experience your whole life is going to change so look at contract positions
internships you definitely look at internships because that's real-world
experience also you can look at universities you can look at hospitals
you can look at clinics and you can look at pharmaceutical companies and see
arrows for that too but I think most interns are gonna
happen well really I don't know that but you know internships can be hard to come
by too even though you might as most likely will be working for free or very
little very little money but they can often time to turn into full-time work
also so you definitely want to do that look out on indeed indeed I've done in
tutorials on tutorials on indeed.com how to apply for things how to look at
internships etc so go look at those old videos if I need to make an updated one
I can do that too and then training programs this is not something where you
want to pay to be trained this is something where the training programs
really help you after you have been in the field for a little bit this is
something this is an experienced base industry this is not something where you
want to go get a degree in clinical research or go get go pay for some class
or something like that this is this is something where you want
to get experience and experience is something that matters the most in this
industry so I would look at internships definitely look at contract work of
course look at full-time work but don't be too picky when you're just trying to
get your foot in the door just get your foot in the door because you can always
change after that you can always change your role and it doesn't matter if
you're in the finance department or if you're in the clinical or data
management department just get your foot in the door in the industry and
everything everything will change after that so hope that was helpful
hope that answered your question and gave you some things to think about
alright guys if you have any other questions email me
alie clinical group at gmail.com take care
you