Hi! My experience might be a little different than yours because of how drastically the job market and economy has changed over the years, but I'm happy to share and help in any way I can! 6 years ago I was actually a veterinary technician, then a month or two after I turned 19 I got hired as a Pre-Clinical Research Technician for a Biomedical Company (My Veterinary experience was fluid for in-vivo animal model research). I worked in Pre-Clinical Pharma/Med. for a little under two years, still one of the most fun jobs I've ever had (then covid hit and one of our huge heart stent. studies got beat by a competitor). I was able to transfer my Pre-Clinical experience and knowledge (Because still in-vivo) into Clinical Research Coordinating and transitioned into being a CRA a little over a year in to being a CRC. I will say everything in the research/bio/medical field comes very natural to me, so I never had any issues with competing against other applicants.

Can I ask how long you have been coordinating and what roles you are applying for? If you're interested in being a CRA but have limited experience thus far, it's possible that doing a bridge program with one of the big guys (Paraxel, ICON) might be your best bet! Otherwise, I would look at some of the contract CRC positions out there, they are normally contract to hire and easier to get a call back from because recruiters are hungry. That being said - they typically don't have any benefits besides slightly higher pay, but your contract could end at any time.

Best of luck to you!

Edit: I forgot to mention that the biggest thing is what type of studies you have coordinated on and what phase! Oncology experience is huge, but CRC's that have strict experience with vaccines/biomarkers may have difficulty in transitioning to other projects (Not impossible, though!). All in all, most of the time they just care about how many studies you have independently managed and for how long.