How to forge a career in clinical research

Being a highly scientific field, all jobs within clinical research require a strong academic background, typically a Bachelor’s Degree. However, due to the variety of jobs in clinical research, there are many different routes to take and accepted degrees include nursing, science, business, medicine and other related disciplines.

With a degree under your belt, you’re likely to have the right experience to join the workforce and start your clinical research career but some degrees will have had less exposure to clinical trials. In this case, it’s advantageous to gain a postgraduate qualification - such as a Masters of PhD - or to find some relevant work experience in academic research, laboratory work or medical sales.

There are other avenues to take which don’t include gaining a qualification. These include starting as a clinical data coordinator or clinical trials administrator and are a good way to show an employer that you’re interested in furthering your career in clinical research.

Here are some of the main roles within clinical research along with the experience and skillset you’ll need to kick-start your career:

Site Activation Lead

There’s a lot of work that goes on even before clinical research can begin and this is where a Site Activation Lead steps in. As a member of a Study Start Up Team, you’ll be involved in site initiation and site operations to ensure that physicians at research sites have everything they need to begin the clinical trial. In this role, you’ll need to be able to work with tight deadlines and have shown experience in a clinical research setting. A Bachelor’s Degree is preferred, however, relevant experience is an alternative option for forging a career as a Study Start Up Associate.

Though these are some of the main job areas within clinical research there are many more career options, including medical writing, biostatistics and drug safety. Clinical research is an extremely diverse job market meaning you have the chance to map out the career that’s right for you and with the market continuing to expand there are no limits to where a clinical research career could take you.

Whether you’re just starting out in your career in clinical research of you’re looking to take the next step we might just have the role for you. At ICON, we have vacancies across Europe, America, South America and Asia and our roles include full-time, part-time and home-based. Browse our clinical research jobs or find out about our digital interviewing process.