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| How to Get a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) Entry Level 1 Job Article |
I have met many people who want to become a CRA. I have also talked to many people who are CRAs. From this I have found there is no one way that someone becomes a CRA. There are steps you can take to help make sure your job application stands out. Overall, most all companies require a bachelor's degree preferably in science. However, I have seen a few people with only a 2-year college degree but who have industry experience get CRA jobs. It is getting harder though to get a CRA job without a 4-year college degree.
First thing is to learn the language of the clinical research industry. There are a lot of acronyms and it is important to understand the different groups working in the industry. If you can know a few key terms and concepts at the time of the interview, it will show that you have genuine interest in the field and an understanding of what is involved.
There are a few free resources that you can use to learn this information. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a certificate in Human Subjects Protection that is free. NIH also has another free certificate for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training. A bonus in completing these programs is that you get a certificate of completion and can add it to your resume. In clinical research, staff keep their resumes/CVs on file as documentation that they are trained and qualified by experience to perform study tasks. By having this certificate, you are one step ahead. The certificate should take you a few hours to complete and is enough that you can start applying for entry level jobs.
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| How to Get a Clinical Research Associate Level 1 Job Article |
It is often easier to get into an entry level Clinical Research Associate job once you have a job already somewhere in the clinical research field. This often means getting an in-house position at some company like a CRO or Sponsor and then transferring into a CRA 1 job once it becomes available. Many companies will hire internally as part of job promotion opportunities. Also as an internal employee, you can also an employee, you can request to accompany CRAs on their work trips to observe and learn. Often there are data deadlines and a CRA will need an extra set of hands from someone who understands the study. This gives you the opportunity to prove yourself as a valuable and qualified job candidate prior to getting the CRA 1 job. Internal jobs can be a Clinical Trial Assistant (CTA) / Clinical Research Assistant (CRA) or an Administrative Assistant (AA). Most people go from CTA to CRA 1 went they want to transition. I do know one person who worked 6 months as an AA before she became a CRA. To do these jobs requires living near a Sponsor or CRO office so you can work in-house. Unfortunately, the industry tends to be clustered in a few key areas in the United States but search to find what is near you.
Another path to becoming a CRA is to be a Study Coordinator (SC) / Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC). (Read this blog post about getting this job.) On and off over the years, different Sponsor/ CROs have hired CRCs as entry level CRAs. The benefits of this route is you don't necessarily have to be near a Sponsor or CRO office. Qualified CRCs understand the clinical research process, but they have not learned the Sponsor/ CRO side of study management. A Sponsor/ CRO will bring the CRCs in-house for approximately 2 weeks of on site job training on how to be a CRA. After that time, the new CRA goes back to wherever they were located and works regionally from home. The main demand for CRC to CRA positions is in the field of oncology given that it is an in demand therapeutic area but there have been CRC to CRA opportunities in all therapeutic areas. A benefit of being a CRC is that you will get to meet CRAs as part of your job. If you become friends with the CRAs and are applying to their company then the CRA can be a referral for you too!
For both routes, you'll need to subject your job application to a Sponsor or CRO. The big CROs (Quintiles, Covance, PRA, PPD, Parexel, Inventiv, INC Research, etc.) use an online application form. I have talked with the corporate recruiters over the years at the various companies to ask them about their CRA 1 application process. Most advise applying online and putting in a job search for the CRA 1 position. The recruiters advise submitting an updated resume every 6 months.
Good luck & start applying!
Written by Laurel Latto
ACRP Certified Clinical Research Associate
Learn more about Careers in Clinical Research
