Let's Get Clinical! - Job search into clinical trials

Coming to a close - New beginnings?

2010-06-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

One of my internship is coming to a close next week. I've worked hard, taken on as much as I can, and learned a large amount. My supervisor and I have talked several times about job possibilities at the institution. I will ask her for a letter of recommendation and am sure she will oblige beecuse she indicated that she would give me great one.

During the course of this internship I have been applying for jobs within the institution. All kinds of positions from clerical staff to clinical study coordinator. The only jobs I haven't applied to were the housekeeping jobs. I've been a janitor/maintenance engineer before and I've got to stay focused on where I want to go, not where I've been. Not only that, but I make more money doing what I currently do. I need something closer to what I am making now if not better.
[ I have to insert here that after I posted this, my wife noted that it was my turn to clean the shower and bathroom. Talk about the humor of the universe!!!]

I've can't count the number of jobs I've posted for. Every week it's been about 15 at a variety of sites. I've gotten over not applying for jobs where I don't meet every requirement. I know that I can learn anything and pick up the smaller requirements quickly. I have to make sure that my cover-letter and resume' reflect that. I've made sure that my resume' is updated almost weekly with the new responsibilities I've taken on in the internships.

So then IT happened. I received an interview email for the one job I thought was the ultimate! My cover letter was passionate about the position and how I could help them succeed. I think my resume' presented a very good fit. I can't begin to describe how excited I am. This job is not just 'a job'; but an awesome job and a great fit! It's almost beyond belief to me that after NINE months of looking that the one (so far) opportunity for a paying job is such an amazing opportunity. I have the interview tomorrow and I've been on a mission since I first received that email.

To prepare for the interview I've not only researched the doctor who's interviewing me, I've looked up the entire department. I've researched what this doctor is working on and what his past projects have been. I've been looking up the terminology so that I can drop it into the interview where appropriate. I asked a buddy of mine who's an hospital VP to do a mock interview with me. He was gracious and got me into his schedule. I've been working on his feedback ever since and doing more background work. I am even more passionate about this job than before now that I have a bigger picture of the potential work.

One final thought: It's important to me to help others succeed. I receive a lot in doing so. I don't think it's just me. People in my network really enjoy helping each other succeed. It's a natural collaboration. We will naturally gravitate toward like-minded people.

In the internships

2010-05-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've learned over the years that managers all have different styles. Now that I am starting two positions almost simultaneously it really comes through. I've had to become a little dual-personality like ;-) So the take home lesson is to be flexible. I am alway looking to learn new aspects and take on challenges in my jobs, yet sometimes it's nice to just do something you are good at and enjoy doing a great job with it.

One job is purely an internship and it was stated up front that the actual possibility of getting a paid position was very low. They offered to give me experience wherever I wanted to apply myself and they had an opportunity. Wow - here's awesome resume' building potential! The other has the potential for future employment; but, I learned, not necessarily in that particular area. S'okay. Learn what I can and make connections - network - and get to know the culture so I can know if it is a great fit (it is).

In both cases the jobs required a LOT of extra home time learning new skills and dusting off old ones. But what about that is unusual for starting a new job? Just that I was doing it times two.

The big thing is to get to know your managers' style and have a plan. Sometimes you may have to take charge of your direction; other times your manager is a mentor too and will help guide you along. All the time you have to have a plan for your goals.

Catch-up time - Starting Internships

2010-03-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Let me catch up on what's happened over the last few months. (Thanks to Michelle for prompting me to continue) I've been really busy. Foremost three great job events happened:

I interviewed for the internship program through my university. I am really embarrassed to even post that I was late to the interview, but my goal is to let people know what really happened in my process so that hopefully they can learn from my successes as well as my mistakes. The interview itself went okay, but I knew that arriving late killed it for me. Being late threw me off as well in the interview. So now I am committed to giving myself an extra hour to arrive at the appointment. In this instance I thought that 1.5 hours to get from Santa Cruz to Santa Clara would be sufficient. It wasn't. It rained earlier and there were accidents. I got turned around because I was flustered as time was ticking down and ended up making mistakes in my directions. I'd visited the office once before, but the path wasn't solid in my mind.

Lesson for you: Print a map even if you have a GPS. Plan to get there an hour early. Once you've actually parked in the lot and you have more than 10 minutes to wait, go hit a local coffee shop and relax and review notes about your interviewer.

Tips: Go into the bathroom immediately upon arrival and make sure your collar and clothes are correct. Take the time to urinate as you don't want a full bladder during the interview. After the interview send at a thank you note. I send both an written and email note. There's lots of advice online as to what to say. I was advised to add some additional selling point that wasn't brought out in the interview itself.

So I'd given up on that prospect because when I've interviewed people myself I really don't care why they are late - its a big BIG negative. Later on I called up one of the interviewers and asked if she would de-brief me on my performance. She did and it was very helpful. Yes being late was a big negative.

After that unfortunate performance I kept asking my network about other internship possibilities. Almost immediately one of my contacts mentioned one at a non-profit company and set me up for an interview. I showed up very early and waited at near-by coffee shop. The interview was so easy that after 10 minutes max I knew I had the position! I started the next week.

Two days after that I received a call from the previous internship interview that they wanted me to come in the next day and start the internship process! I must have done at least something right! While I didn't make the first cut, I was still on their list and something opened up for me. I was very excited! While this meant two new jobs, I could flex my schedule to accommodate them as they were ultimate goal and I was willing to sacrifice my personal time to make it happen.

After the Holi-daze

2010-01-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Well well. It was a really busy month, but only mildly so on the job front. I observe that many more senior opportunities in the CRA world have been posted in the last month or two, but I've only seen one for an entry level position. Of course this budding of job postings for senior level positions eventually bodes well for people like me looking for a entry-level job.

The most exciting thing to happen was that in mid-December UCSC Extension posted a request for applications to it's revived internship program. YEA! I put a lot of hours in on my application letter and lined up two great referrals to write a letter each for me. Finally got it all together and submitted. Now its wait and see who they select. Yet overall it's very exciting and I think my potential is good. I did very well at the school and with a very high GPA. My recommendation letters were fantastic and I wrote a great application letter. I am feeling really good about my prospects here.

One of the things I have been doing in my job search is to ask my network of people if they have any internships at their company or could they refer me to their HR person so that I might inquire directly. Had a couple of good contacts that way too! I sent in my resume' and cover letter to two HR people after that.

Things are still plodding along at the entry level job searches but this new-year I am optimistic that persistence will generate a job in the next few months. Keep at it!

Ask, Ask, Ask

2009-11-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a little bit since the last post and several things have popped up since then.

Concurrent with this career search I have to keep my current businesses rolling and progressing. That's been cutting into my time quite a bit. Got to keep the marketing programs up and now it's into the holiday projects. It's good to be busy and be able to grow my business in this economy!

Mainly I was chatting with a couple of my clients and independently they reccomended the same clinical researcher at a local hospital! I will be contacting him shortly and utilizing both contacts as references to him.

One of my very earliest (over a year ago!) network contacts sent me a couple of emails saying that their contact should be calling me shortly for an initial screen. This will be my first and it's very exciting!!! Of course I am going over my resources and practicing for a phone interview. I have researched the company's web site and made some notes. At least I will know the name of the HR person when she calls ;-) Seems like their primary areas of interest are in line with mine, so that's a big plus.

While things are very tight in the job market, my network is still working hard to help me out. How great is that?!

2009-10-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Whoa! It's been a while so let me catch up a little.

I've done a couple more informational interviews and as always met some really good people. One was a lady working for a company that provides evidence based health care tracks to hospitals and doctors. Actually my wife met her on an airplane flight and she talked me up to the lady. I chatted with her today on the phone and she was really friendly and nice. How cool is that? People do want to help and she was willing to take time out of her personal day to chat with me and do some follow up for me!

I've been posting to the web sites some more. Thought I had been logged into Stanford but turns out I hadn't been before. Posted to several jobs there.

One of my clients is in a clinical trial right now. So I asked her to send me the contact info for the principle investigator and now I will follow up and contact the PI directly.

All sorts of potential out there!

2009-09-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

I finally connected with one of my interviewees today after we had missed each other several times. I was a little apprehensive in that I always want to make a good impression and we had failed to connect previously. However once we started chatting it was clear that my apprehensions were groundless. She made me feel very comfortable and was really an enthusiastic person. It made me smile and we laughed a lot. As always I learned some more about the industry and made another great contact.

So I think my take-home message today is that contacting these people in the industry has always been a good event and very positive. It encourages me even more to get a job in clinical trials.

2009-09-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

This last week I started some informational interviews with people in the industry. I did some of these in August and am doing some more now. The most recent three have been just as informative as the ones earlier this summer. Everyone has some little bit and sometime a lot to say about their process getting into the clinical trials field and their path through it. Each has been helpful.

My first interview reinforced several companies to check out. Then she said to make sure my grammar and writing were in good form. I felt my close to the conversation was a little rough. So I emailed her back later and asked! She said that it wasn't uncomfortable for her at all. So just goes to show that what we perceive in ourselves may not be what others perceive. However I am perfectionist and I wrote out a simple close that I am now utilizing at each time. This makes me feel very comfortable that I am polite when I finish up the interview.

The next interview was not as chatty, but he asked me about why I was getting into the field. He was really interested. Then he directed his remarks around what I had told him. Later he emailed me several references and things to check out.

The last interview was via email. Not my preferred choice but she didn't have time to spend on the phone. She confirmed that it is harder to get started in the field without any direct experience but she was able to with an entry level job. Then after one year of experience she had much more opportunity to become a CRA directly.

All of these great people were generous and helpful. I learned something from each of them.

Multiple copies

2009-09-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

I realized over the weekend that I had multiple copies of my resume' and cover letter in 3 different places. This was creating havoc for me and when I'd thought I'd made a correction it obviously was not corrected everywhere. So I've deleted the extra copies and left the originals on a flash-drive. I do have a back-up saved, but I won't be using that location for regular access to the files. I spent some time cleaning up the online postings.

I also started making more contacts with people in the industry via a referral list one of my instructors started for me. I already know a variety of people in the industry and these additional contacts just help me to get a better picture of what's going on and introducing myself to even more people. I received several good tips for doing this. Mainly to ask general questions to become informed and then to ask for more referrals. Finally to tell the interviewee "Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you." After all, I asked for their time and help.

Finally I realize that I am making many typing errors due to an old wore-out keyboard. Time for a new one. And just to be sure, I am getting some new reading glasses this week. Got to have good tools to do a great job!

2009-09-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend I ran into a great opportunity to network at a party. Of course people ask what you do at these events. The guest of honor just happened to work in the industry and when the host introduced me she mentioned that I was looking in her field. Well that got us chatting and the guest of honor asked me for my resume' and cover letter. How gracious was that? I sent her my info the next day via the hostess. So you never know what will pop up.

I'll have my personal business cards soon. I created them on Vista-Print and ordered them up over the weekend. Probably see them delivered next week. While something is better than nothing (usually), some thought went into my process. I have designed many business cards (and other marketing materials) previously, but I always like to get a least one other opinion before I commit. We all have differing thoughts about marketing material and this card represents me in a small nutshell, so it needs to be potent. I got some honest feedback and I adjusted a couple of things - and left a couple of other items the way they were because I really liked them that way.

Today started out with a thorough update of my Linked-in profile. I imported my resume' and had to edit the page quite a bit. I wasn't sure about putting dates on all my old job and education posts. There seems to be some back and forth about putting age identifying information out there. I still haven't decided, and so it's on Linked-in but not on the resume' I will submit to job postings and print out. When I looked at resume's to hire contract people, I didn't want to know - so that I would limit any unconscious bias I might have.

I wrapped it up with applying for a couple more positions online. Each submission took time to compose a specific cover letter for. One asked for 3 references to be included with the initial submission. These were chosen specifically from a previously composed list for the position. BTW, I asked my reference people for their permission first and compiled a listing to choose from later, as appropriate.

03 September 2009

2009-09-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today I spent 5 hours polishing my resume and cover letter some more. It seems like a never ending process. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so it's a little frustration to not be 'done-done' with something. However there comes a time to just launch. I did.

My strategy with job postings is to at least get a foot in the door. So an admin job is okay by me. Of course I would prefer the CRAssistant or CRC position directly.

Over the last year I have signed up with some job search engines and at particular company sites while I was going to school. Today I went to PAIRE and Biospace and updated things. I applied to some administrative assistant positions at PAIRE and had to modify each cover letter to the position. It felt good to get things officially rolling. I have started a spread sheet to track which sites and job postings I am applying to. Already it seems a little blurry and I like to keep things straight so I don't waste time down the road. Keeping track of logins and passwords will be necessary to. I change things up regularly.

Today I did a quick job at these two sites just to have some progress, but I will go back tomorrow and get into serious detail with the search agents. For instance the Abbott Labs site has an incredible number of locations. There are a lot of options for the search agent. I intend to create several agents so that when I get a notification I will have a good idea where and what it's about.

One of my instructors gave me a list of people to contact and keep my little network growing. I'll dig into that list soon, but I will get all my current sites updated and logged in. Then it's on to growing my network.

In my existing network I emailed people in the industry (and a couple outside) my new resume' and cover letter. It's a great feeling when people volunteer to help out with such a major project. No guarantees of course, but the support feels great!

I already have a small library of cover letters, but they need to be updated now. That's for tomorrow.

02 September 2009

2009-09-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

Extraordinary massage therapist inspired by clinical research field….breaks through certificate program…earning “A” s and NOW..WHAT?

Owning and operating a successful massage therapy clinic has it’s challenges, and learning to navigate the field and job hunt in the clinical research field is definitely a new challenge.

Rather than enter the job search and “resume black hole” this blog is a learning avenue for us all! I'll post what I've learned and implemented, and then we'll see how it's turning out.

Here's some background:

For the last 1o years I have been a practicing massage therapist running my own clinic, and some time before that I was a software engineer. As I chat with my clients, I get to know a little about them and their work. Several of them are in clinical trials management or new medical product development. These initial discussions not only encouraged me, but I became very excited to enter the field. In August of 2008 I decided to enter the certificate program.

So the first thing I did was to research the field some more by chatting up and interviewing people in it to see if it was a good fit for me. I decided it fit my talents, skills, desires, and my drive to excel. From that starting point I let everyone know what I was up to!

Next I enrolled in a program to get a credential in my intended field of clinical trials. I excelled- receiving A's with only one A-. After all this is to be my new career and I want to stand out when it comes to looking at my qualifications.

For the last year at school I have continued to talk-up my expectations and be very excited about this new opportunity I have created. I really see it that way. Even in these times there are always possibilities. Now people are excited for me and are actively helping me find a job. This part really helps generate a positive feed-back loop for all of us!

A class project of mine was to interview four people somewhere in clinical trials or research and get some details about their path. What I found out is that they didn't start in the area initially. Every time they wanted to advance they took some form of continuing education. They changed their positions about every 4 years into something new. They are looking for a dynamic future in or out of the field.

One other help I have had early this year is that my wife landed a great job. Neither of us have been in a formal corporate environment for some time and it was very educational to see her process being hired by a major national company. Seems there is a lot of new verbiage for me to learn! But its all the same in the end. Employers are looking to maximize (aka "Leverage") their skill pool. It's a big risk with a new hire and I want them to feel like they won the triple crown when they ask me join the team!