Is anyone here a clinical research coordinator at a med school like in psychiatry or in other fields of research. I see that the starting salary is pretty decent, but do not know if it's worth it to make it a career or the career growth of these postions without obtaining a Ph.D. Thoughts?
Clinical Research Coordinator as a Career?
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Like anything else, it is OK to cruise underneath someones wing. You just have to be sure it is the largest, most stable and fattest wing aloft.
Research coordinators are living from one project to the next, and not all of the studies meet expectations for recruitment. Most industry sponsors pay by the subject, other grants are very feast and famine. The only way to dampen out the bumps is to overbook and work like mad between dry spells. Being a coordinator can be rewarding, but dont expect to work for the same investigator forever. PIs sometimes have to use coordinators like a carpenter uses nails, it is just part of the business.
The nice thing about doing research and being a clinician is that you can support yourself by seeing patients between projects if something doesnt work out. Other types of researchers have it much harder in terms of pressure.
Research coordinators are living from one project to the next, and not all of the studies meet expectations for recruitment. Most industry sponsors pay by the subject, other grants are very feast and famine. The only way to dampen out the bumps is to overbook and work like mad between dry spells. Being a coordinator can be rewarding, but dont expect to work for the same investigator forever. PIs sometimes have to use coordinators like a carpenter uses nails, it is just part of the business.
The nice thing about doing research and being a clinician is that you can support yourself by seeing patients between projects if something doesnt work out. Other types of researchers have it much harder in terms of pressure.
OMG. I am a recruiter and research assistant (I work full time but i'm quitting soon to go to graduate school) and I work with a many different research coordinators at a MAJOR university's psychiatry department. I would NEVER, ever want to do that for my career. The pay is not good ( I know people working for 15 years making 40K). You are always somebodies gopher (go for this, go for that). You have absolutely no authority when it comes to the professors and PIs running the studies. You live from grant to grant like the poster above me pointed out, with little job security. It's terrible, and having worked closely with about 6 different coordinators over the last 2 years I would say definitely go for your PhD. None of the coordinators I know love their jobs. Some have their masters and some only have their BAs. To me it would be the definition of an unsatisfied life.
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I completely agree with the post above me. I work in the psychiatry department at an ivy league university. We do work on a topic that is very in-demand right now but our department is shrinking because we're having trouble getting grants. 3 of our CRCs are leaving this year to go to grad school, and none of them are being replaced by someone new. On top of that, one CRC who's been there for 5 years, has a masters, and is probably the hardest working CRC in our center is being forced out because the grant that was funding him is running out. I DO NOT recommend this, unless you have a spouse with a very reliable and well-paying job, and don't mind working very hard on monotonous tasks with little recognition. It's been a great 2 years, but I am more than ready to move on to grad school.
Have you worked as a research coordinator before? What about this career are you attracted to?
I cannot imagine many people wanting to do this long term. I am doing the RA thing for one year before grad school and work pretty closely with our research coordinator /do many research coordinator tasks. The job is pretty monotonous, consistently calling subjects, asking the same questions over and over again. You don't get to do the interesting work that PIs get to do.
The pay is not that great either, given that you are getting paid from grants. There is very little upward mobility (unless you go to grad school).
I cannot imagine many people wanting to do this long term. I am doing the RA thing for one year before grad school and work pretty closely with our research coordinator /do many research coordinator tasks. The job is pretty monotonous, consistently calling subjects, asking the same questions over and over again. You don't get to do the interesting work that PIs get to do.
The pay is not that great either, given that you are getting paid from grants. There is very little upward mobility (unless you go to grad school).
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I agree with the others--there's very little stability and no upward mobility and the pay is hardly great. It's a great "gap job" for 2-3 years before grad school, but I honestly can't see it being viable as a long-term career.
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I have been a Research Assistant (various titles) for the past several years now and in different universities (had to move because of my wife's job). I would agree with the above sentiments, especially that it should be considered a "rite of passage." Extremely low pay, so I can see why it is temporary. However, if you are fortunate to work under a great team that values your opinion, you can get more involved with research proposal stages and offer secondary analyses of the data.
As a follow-up to this question, does anyone know about Research Coordinator-type of positions in the VA? Has anyone been in such positions??
As a follow-up to this question, does anyone know about Research Coordinator-type of positions in the VA? Has anyone been in such positions??
Yes.I haven't been a one but I do know a few clinical research coordinators for the dept. of psychiatry at a huge VA city. They do all sorts of studies. A good friend of mine is currently working on some PTSD clinical trials. Why?
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I started out as a Research Assistant for a Medical School, and was promoted to Research Coordinator last year. I would absolutely never do this as a career....EVER. The PI's love me and think I do a fantastic job, but I loathe coming into work most days. I think the research experience was integral in me getting accepted into a PhD program (I will be starting in the Fall), but honestly as soon as I got the call for the acceptance I was ready to leave. You'll definitely be a gopher half the time, and dealing with multiple PI's and their suggestions that NEVER help, but they wouldn't know that because they don't have to deal with actual participants YOU DO!! I am fond of my PI but it's rather taxing and I'm ready to go back to school ASAP!
YES couldn't have said it better myself lol
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So is there not really a path for a data analyst working in a social science research center?
And how will you treat your coordinators different once you have your own projects?
And how will you treat your coordinators different once you have your own projects?
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I was a CRC/Data Manager in my job. The needs for data managers tend to be project-based, in my experience. Then there are frequently biostatisticians on the team or who work as consults at the hospital. I'm not sure if I saw anyone who was a "data analyst" as part of a long-term career job. I'm not sure if that's entirely true, though, or if that was specific just to the hospital I worked at.
I am a PhD and I am so tired of doing basic research and planning to get into clinical research. I am shocked to see this thread. People are so negative about this career path. I did some research on internet, but my impression is that this is not a bad path. After all you are not doing as clinical research assistant or coordinator the whole life. There are some space for promotion, like CRA(clinical research associate) then to manager etc. I heard the pay for CRA in pharm industry is not so bad. it is all about experience, 5 years experienced CRA can earn 80thousand a year.
I am desperately trying to find a clinical research assistant job. my plan is to work as clinical research assistant for two years then try to get certificate for CRA from the SoCRA, then maybe I can move on to industry. Anyone who can recommend or provide some information about clinical research assistant job will be appreciated.
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I'm so surprised by the negativity in this thread! I am a research coordinator (not a certified CRC or however it works, I just have a BA) at a major hospital psychiatry department and most of the time I like my job. I have a lot of responsibility for a recent grad and most of the PIs I work with treat me well (usually). I like working with the patients. I also think I am quite well paid for having only a psych BA. Would I do this forever? I don't want to, but I don't think it would be THAT bad. I'll be moving on in another year but I'm happy I got this job.
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Yes, but the title of this thread is "clinical research coordinator as a career." The key statement in your response is that you will be moving on. So it is not your career either. It sounds like it is temporary for you, too. We should not delude others.
Clinical research coordinator positions are based on grant funding generally. Unless you are an excellent worker, your job will come to an end. And that is not job security. So you could bounce around from grant to grant hoping your PI will support you, but it's pretty stressful if you want to make a career out of it. I had this very position for more than 8 years (!), worked my way up to a senior clinical research project manager (whoo hoo!) and was offered $54K to continue (back in 2000, but I decided to complete my master's program and applications to doctoral programs because I loathed being the underdog and go-to-girl for administrative stuff. I wanted my PI's job and hopefully, I'll have it someday or something close to it (because she's an incredible mentor & an internationally renowned researcher and those are big shoes to fill; my other long-term PI was a surgeon so I'm not interested in his shoes, only walking beside him again one day).
A major factor because I was so good at my job (smug, aren't I?) was that I moved to different grants every few years to support my salary, and ran 3 or 4 concurrent studies that could fund me and our research team. But I've worked 30-hours straight (no lie - w/o sleep) submitting grants with my team and that's no way to make a living. It's not always like that, but can be for major academic medical centers, especially when your PI is dedicated and wants to make sure she/he can keep her/his *awesome* team going.
It's not so much negativity as it is reality. Clinical researcher coordinators are semi-permanent jobs and everyone from the PIs to most employees knows that. The major benefit is the publishing and presentation experience you can get out of a good, strong team. I have many publications and presentations (more than 25 prior to graduate school) all from two major research groups. That's an exception because I worked for some major publication-grinders, meaning they always had preliminary, final and archival data to analyze and report on from any of their numerous concurrent studies. And most importantly, my PIs' and their data had solid integrity so the experience was invaluable because I learned the ropes from the best…but in my career, the job was temporary (as others have said).
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You are overqualified with that PhD, my friend. Don't sell yourself short. Find yourself a position where you can be coinvestigator, at the very least. Once I got my first masters, I was able to become co-investigator on some studies.
To quote Bill (Shakespeare): "What's in a name?" We shouldn't care about titles, but we do. I'm sure you know to just check out your job description, salary offered, and human resource pay grade. Repeated lateral moves (because you were hired at the top of a pay grade tier) is no way to grow. Make sure there's room for you to be compensated for your expertise, Dr, Yetze.
