groups » Training and Career Development » Making a career change to Industry?
My question is primarily for the Industry panel but everyone, who have some insight, please feel free to respond. Currently, I work as research nurse in the clinical area, I wonder how much of the skills would be transferable should I consider a career in the industry route? Also, when making that transition, what would be generally the ideal first position to apply for considering my background? Also, what are the usual benefits of the job? I've heard that some of the industry posts allow intra-company transfers to other countries (i.e. for work migration), how true is this? Thank you very much for your time and input.
(N.B. I am a paediatric research nurse managing about 8-12 studies in different phases of research delivery and my usual job description is project management from start to finish, not a lot of involvement yet with the protocol development phase but will work on it as I take on my MRes in Clinical Practice)
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Elizabeth Allen - Regional Faculty Lead
15 Aug 2014
In my experience there is good scope for making the move from clinical research nurse to a clinical research department of a pharmaceutical company or contract research organisation (as a clinical research assistant or associate [CRA] perhaps). It can be quite competitive to get that break so it is important for you to highlight transferable skills on your application (e.g. knowledge of GCP and ethical issues, understanding how protocols are structured and why, and the practical side of implementing a trial at the site such as ensuring quality of data collected through source data verification for instance etc.). Yes, also in my experience there are good options for travel - for work-related meetings but also potentially job transfers (perhaps from an affiliate local office to ahead office for instance). Other benefits include a quite extensive career path into management (project or business-related). Good luck!
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