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Hi all. I am new here to this forum. I presently work in the pharmaceutical industry and have a BS in Biology, CRA certification, and am completing a MSc in Biology. I have worked in the industry for about 10 years and do have some experience early in my career working in clinical research. In my present position, I am working in a quality and regulatory role so I have a lot of experience with submissions, FDA, ICH, GMP, GCP, etc. I am trying to get my foot back in the door in clinical and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on my next step. I have applied to Quintiles and they turned me down. I have also talked with a few recruiters. It seems that networking is the best way to go. Does anyone have suggestions or can help me in any way? I would really appreciate it!
Amanda, I know what you're talking about. I have a ton of experience (and therefore contacts) in the IT side of pharma / clinical trials (21 CFR 11, validation, computer system auditing), but I left the industry 2 years ago to try something totally different. I miss clinical trials IT and want to get back to it, but I'm just not seeing much open right now. I don't think there are many QA types of positions out there right now. Most of the ones I've heard about from my former colleagues seem to be based out of other countries rather than RTP. They want to put their staff in India, South Africa, and sometimes Europe.
I'm hoping that some suitable positions will open soon, because I really miss the feeling of doing something that serves some greater good. Not getting that at all where I am now. I often sneak away to fda.gov during the day just to keep up with what's happening.
My wife was able to land a job here as a CTA with no prior direct CTA experience for just over the top range you mentioned. The CRA's at her company are paid substantially more than she is making..............substantially!
She is happy that she is in this field now, as she has found a tremendous amount of available jobs in it.
I have a B.S. in psychology, what additional education would be required for this career.
(specific programs, certification etc)
any help would be greatly appreciated.
Working with a recruiter might be helpful, since they will shop your CV around and take their cut from the company (not you) if you get placed. Theres some downsides to this, but if you have some experience they can take care of a lot of the leg work for you. Of the top of my head... Kforce, Clinforce.
Hi all. I have found in my experience talking with recruiters that specialize in clinical research, that they are not interested in speaking with a candidate unless they have some experience. This is frustrating too because I have all the qualifications to do the reports etc. but lack the monitering etc. So, the recruiters won't really even look at me. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any suggestions on other ways in to the job market? I cannot take a pay cut to work as a CTA and actually qualify to sit for the ACRP exam. so what should I do?
This seems pretty interesting to me, but I don't know what exactly a CRO does. Can any describe the typical day to day duties?
My background is in biomedical science doing basic research. I have a BS, MS, and PhD. I'm probably overqualified for a entry level position but not afraid to go there if needed. My current position only pays 40k and we can live fine on my wife's salary.
A CRO (Contract Research Organization) performs services for pharmaceutical companies, including drug development as well as clinical trial admininstration and FDA submissions. In the clinical trials side, there are many different functional groups so there is no "typical" day. For example a CRA might spend 75% of the time traveling to study sites while a SAS programmer may spend all day writing programs. There are many people with backgrounds similar to yours working in the industry, but you would probably have to spend some time (1-2 years) in an entry level position. However, you would almost certainly be able to at least match your current salary starting out and the move up the latter is pretty quick. I would suggest that you speak with people working in different areas in the industry to get a better idea of what you would like to do. I work in data management; please feel free to send me a direct message if you want more details about what I do.
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I need more information about CRA's
Clinical Research Recruiters
