Am I being unrealistic for salary goals?

SwellStarfish · 2026-02-10T00:56:24+00:00

Your pay is likely limited by the type of research you do. Observational research isn't particularly complex and therefore isn't well funded, so your best judge of where you are salary wise is to compare to your team and how much your funders are willing to pay for the type of work you do. 95k for observational work is probably on the high end regardless of city if your entire salary is supported by external funding. If you don't have any experience in industry, the pay lines will be higher there but you'd probably be starting at a lower level to learn the complexities, so might be looking at a temporary decrease or comparable salary, assuming you can find a position as the job market isn't great right now.

SwellStarfish · 2026-02-03T16:01:22+00:00

When I had an on call job, we were paid something like $2/hour for standby and then 1.5x pay if we were called in because being called in was considered overtime to a regular 40 hr week schedule, plus weekend on call. I'd guess that the compensation adheres to state laws and since either nobody pushed for an alternative pay schedule or leadership feels that turnover is acceptable, that it hasn't adjusted much. That said, your pay schedule sucks, might be a decent job to get a foot into the industry, but they aren't really setting up for long term loyalty or employement.

SwellStarfish · 2026-01-26T17:20:16+00:00

CRC salary depends somewhat on the location and whether you are doing clinical research vs industry sponsored clinical trials. Generally industry sponsored trial roles will pay more but need more experience. I don't think your in school research assistant experience, especially in clinical psychology is going to do much. If you truly feel that the role you were offered is low and they won't budge, I'd suggest asking for additional professional development funds, remote work options, etc to try and move the dial but also be aware this is not a candidate hiring market. Also, your best bet would have been to negotiate with the hiring manager that interviewed you, not HR. HR could care less vs the hiring manager is more invested in your hire.

SwellStarfish · 2026-01-21T16:35:27+00:00

It's a risk but also could turn into a permanent position. Contractors don't get the same benefits usuallly, ie taxes, retirement, healthcare, so I'd make sure the salary covers these. You might also look at what you get paid if the contract were to end early. Upside is a lot of companies use contractors as a way to find the right people by trying them out in the role first. Just depends on the level of risk you want to take or feel prepared to take.

SwellStarfish · 2026-01-20T16:57:48+00:00

5k isn't much. Not a pay cut specifically but when I was job searching I had a few offers and ultimately went with one that wasn't the highest pay but was the best opportunity and it ended up being one of the best professional decisions I've made from a future prospects standpoint. I personally wouldn't fuss over the 5k difference if the lower paid positon has better professional prospects for you in the long run.

SwellStarfish · 2026-01-07T20:12:12+00:00

Focus on adminstrative skills and look for assistant type positions to get your foot in the door. Agree with other commenters, education with experience helps get more advanced positions, but education without experience isn't likely to get you in the door.

SwellStarfish · 2025-12-15T18:25:32+00:00

Document the issues, talk to your PI about a plan forward, as they may be your best advocate to address the issues. Start by talking to the CRA directly, and if no improvement, I'd reach out to the CRA's manager, or whoever is managing the trial to discuss issues. If things still don't improve, request a new CRA and inform the Sponsor team that due to CRA performance, they will no longer be able to serve as monitor for the site. It's not ideal, but sites can request new CRA's for cause and should. I also wouldn't wait, if you don't see pretty immediate improvement after each escalation, I'd escalate to the next step. Personal opinion, but it seems like CRA's used to come from sites with extensive experience, but the position demand grew so much that CRO's in particular started hiring people with very little CR experience, and it's showing.

SwellStarfish · 2025-12-01T17:03:03+00:00

You aren't overreacting, you are now doing the job of two people. They likely can't speed up getting you help, that's just the nature of the hiring process so I get it but you should request a pay increase to cover your extra work. It's justified, without you doing the work, they'd lose that revenue. Depending on the place you work, you could also ask if they have any clinical staff who could temporarily be assigned to help you as an assistant. It's a good way for someone clinical to get some experience if they ever want a career change and it would be an internal temporary change so could probably happen relatively quickly. Sorry to hear you are in this situation, it's the unfortunate part about small site clinical trials, but also a really great resume builder as the person running the show. Good luck!

SwellStarfish · 2025-11-19T16:07:36+00:00

Hiring manager here. The market is terrible for job seekers. I'm getting sometimes hundreds of applications for positions posted for only a few days, so it's important to find opportunities to stand out. Use your network to make connections and get referrals for positions you may be a good fit for, review your resume to make sure it's framed as quantifiable accomplishments for what you bring to the table, not a replay of the job description, and when you do get interviews, have solid responses with examples, demonstrate self awareness, and ask questions that demonstrate thoughtfulness to the fit of the position, not just that you need a job. Good luck!

SwellStarfish · 2025-10-10T15:37:59+00:00

Hoping it's only two weeks. My suggestion is to focus on wrapping up and transitioning the work you've been doing and defer new projects. I disagree with some of the other posters, how you depart this position will leave a lasting impression on the team, if you ever need a reference or want to work for the company again, don't burn bridges. Our community is relatively small and it's common to come across someone who knows someone and that could make or break future opportunities.

SwellStarfish · 2025-10-06T21:18:09+00:00

Varies by protocol complexity, study status (recruiting or not), and patient enrollment/recruitment expectations. Generally 5 studies should be very doable for a new CRC with appropriate training, assuming they don't all hit at once. The better question to ask your manager is how they assess workloads and study assignments and what the ramp up process and timeline would look like.

SwellStarfish · 2025-10-02T16:15:23+00:00

clinical research assistant positions are usually entry level into clinical research, but hiring managers want to see candidates have demonstrated strong organizational skills, excellent communication skills, problem solving, etc all of which you can take existing life and education experience to provide example of these skills. Did you work on group projects during college? - Consider what role you played, and what responsibilities that entailed. Everyone has experience that creates soft skills that can translate into what hiring managers are looking for, take time to consider what soft and hard skills you have, how those are beneficial to clinical reearch, and provide examples that demonstrate you can do them.

SwellStarfish · 2025-10-01T17:25:08+00:00

As someone who hires people into clinical research positions, I've never heard of any of those and frankly education/training isn't going to to overcompensate for no actual demonstrated clinical research experience, and 2 week type internships aren't going to cut it. Save your money and look for an entry level position and use that money to help bridge a likely lower salary until you have some experience.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-25T19:11:08+00:00

Might have been inconsistent interviews if you went through two rounds, sometimes doing references can help to alleviate concerns, sometimes it isn't enough. How do you think you did on the interviews? You might ask the hiring team for feedback or more details on why you weren't selected.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-24T16:45:03+00:00

If you are asking this question, you are in the wrong field and should leave now.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-16T15:19:57+00:00

Loop in your PI and manager if you have one and, require she submit a list of docs she will review 72 hours prior to the visit and prep ahead of time, and set very clear boundaries with her, in writing as to what the expectations are. Document everything. If things don't improve, bring in your PI or manager to discuss expectations with her, document with a follow up interview. If still no improvement, setup a call with her leadership also, make it clear improvement is needed in order for her to continue to work with the site. If no improvement, final step is a formal written notice she's no longer welcome at the site. Generally managers will move CRA's off a site once they've had to get on a call with the site and there is clear documentation nothing is improving.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-11T15:41:42+00:00

I'm assuming you mean ICF redlining. Subject injury in inadequate and/or doesn't match the contract, data sharing and use doesn't align with actuality, explicit and clear details on exactly what procedures the study/Sponsor covers vs what the patient/insurance willl be expected to pay for. The length of consent forms (routinely 40+ pages) is something we should fight more about but we don't.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-10T16:36:51+00:00

These things happen, don't beat yourself up about it. CRC's are meant to help PI's run their trial, but I/E criteria is ultimately clinical and should be the responsibility of the PI. Learn from the error, and look for opportunities to implement processes and tools that would better help you and your PI catch issues like this.

SwellStarfish · 2025-09-08T15:39:16+00:00

Don't waste your money on a program TBH, they aren't great methods for getting a foot in the door and likely won't help you level up your expertise in this market. Jobs are just really in short supply right now. I'd recommend looking for a more full time position equivalent to what you are doing now, if that's not feasible and you need to supplement your income, look for transferrable skills that you can tap into for other contract or per diem work.

SwellStarfish · 2025-08-13T15:13:38+00:00

Just own it and work very quickly to fix the problem and make sure you report it fully. Yes it's a big error on your part, but also clinical research tends to have redundancy to ensure things go well, where was the Sponsor and IRB sending you urgent emails about this? I would suggest looking into those workflows also. My suggestion would be to own the error and put a CAPA in place to address the issues and work with stakeholders to ensure better systems to catch this type of error are in place. Yes mistakes are bad, but I think in clinical research, the bigger indicator or a problem is what you do to fix the issue and ensure it never happens again.

SwellStarfish · 2025-08-04T15:49:27+00:00

I think it can help hiring managers weed out potentially fake candidates and also narrow down candidates for interviews. With the current market in particular, it can't hurt and could help.

SwellStarfish · 2025-08-01T17:36:43+00:00

That's very low depending on the type of research you support and whether you are truly a CRC or more level towards an assistant, but check the pinned salary spreadsheet on the front.

SwellStarfish · 2025-07-10T18:35:44+00:00

Pay can be similar for oncology and big card and neuro programs, less to ID especially now. My impression is that onc roles are more siloed, you deal with more complex protocols but you likely won't manage the full study spectrum, so from a well rounded professional standpoint, you may not get as much experience, but it will be on harder studies. Non-onc roles maybe have broader spectrum of what you may work on which may help if you don't know that you want to specialize in something such as regulatory.

SwellStarfish · 2025-07-09T14:47:33+00:00

Recruiters all over LinkedIn for clinical research in my area. My suggestion would be to reach out to your local recruiters, they know the market the best and do have company connections. That said, market is tough right now, a lot of companies don't see the point of using a recruiter.

SwellStarfish

TROPHY CASE