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We get it. You’ve been working for so long to get your Masters/PhD degree. You may even be a post-doc and has many publications under your belt. You wonder if it’s worth your while to drop everything to start over in industry or you should continue on the path of trying to clime the steep academic career ladder.
One of our trainees, Dr. Asel Biktasova – a Yale post-doctoral researcher, replied, “One year ago, I was somewhere in between. I was trying to understand what I would like to do in my professional life.” Then I just looked back at my years in academia and just trying to figure out why I wanted to stay there and why I didn’t want to stay there.
The biggest challenge in academia is job/future uncertainty. Job security doesn’t depend on how successful or hardworking you are in general, because it’s all dependent on funding that your boss or your lab has available to support your position. It doesn’t really matter if you publish a paper in Nature or Science. Unfortunately, it doesn’t guarantee your contract for the following year. This is very sad, but it’s the reality in academia, and this was one of my main considerations. I’m really happy I made this transition.
I would like to add that when I started the industry job through Clueo Clinical’s CRA Industry-Bridging Program (CRA-IBPTM), I didn’t have any previous experience in clinical research. I was incredibly surprised how much the knowledge and skills I learned from this program helped me to transition smoothly and quickly into the new field. It’s quite a busy and chaotic environment in (clinical research) industry and you must learn very quickly, so when you have already solid knowledge and technical skills in the field, which are acquired through the industry-bridging program, everything will go smoothly”.
One of our trainers, Archana Gaikwad – with 10+ years of industry experience and a PhD, said, “In terms of career progression in academia, to get to the next level, you had to wait for someone to retire or change jobs.” The industry is not like that. If you have good skills and experience over time, you are going to be in higher demand by different industries and companies.
Our founder, Dr. Sue Nguyen – with 15+ years of R&D, clinical trial operations, industry experience and a PhD post-doc, said “This is a common dilemma faced by many academics. One of our IBP graduates, for example, spent three years trying to transition from academia to industry without success before she found us. She completed the CRA-IBPTM and found an industry job through us within 6 months from start to finish. And within the first 12 months working in the industry, she received 2 promotions. Imagine if she had started her industry career 3 years ago, she would be a clinical project manager or even higher level by now. The sky is the limit in the clinical research industry and promotion is relatively predictable and straight forward if you are a capable individual.”
In academia, you think “all I need to do is to publish the next article or I need to do the next thing or maybe I will try it on my own” and – yes – you can absolutely try (to transition) on your own. I even encourage you to do so first because until you try, you don’t know whether you can make it on your own or not. We are here for you if you need our help and support.
There’s no point for us to tell people to enrol into the program if they are not committed to finish it. This is because it’s bad for you and for us.
What we want to see is people getting an industry job as quickly as possible and to not sit on the fence. Don’t do what many academics do by sitting on the fence for years. You’re wasting your career progression in the industry by the minute. Career progression in the industry is simple, logical and fast, especially for a CRA.
Once you’ve entered the industry, you gain experience for a couple of years and then you can transition to anywhere and become anything you want. Companies would headhunt you instead of you hunting them. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?
Does it happen in academia? Maybe, if you are super-star, otherwise, no. That’s the only thing that I want to highlight to you: don’t limit yourself if you already know in your heart that this is what you want. Just do it!
Another important aspect is the financial reward. In industry, there is a pay standard. That’s how we negotiated a better contract for our trainees. When you start, you are inexperienced and if you don’t know what the pay standards are, it is so hard and intimidating for you to be facing a hiring manager and negotiate. You could easily lose $15K to $20K on the table per annum if you don’t have the right support around you. We provide that support to all our trainees through our signature industry-bridging programs (IBP).”
Dr. Sara Chiaretti
Sara is a Business Development Manager at Clueo Clinical. She’s a driven and enthusiastic clinical researcher with 14 years of experience across industry and academia both in Italy and Australia.
She holds a PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in Oncology and Experimental Medicine and has worked in different therapeutic areas such as oncology, haematology and metabolic disease. She loves to interact with people, share ideas and establish partnerships and collaboration to help translating ideas into new business opportunities.
