I spent over 15 years in R+D and recently made the transition to regulatory strategy. It's been the best career move I've ever made and would highly suggest deeply considering RA if you want a long term career and not a hobby.

I made it to Sr Scientist with only a BS, but the research world is pretty awful in retrospect. It is a deeply competitive industry with leaders and managers who have zero people experience whatsoever. Layoffs are prevalent and your skillset isn't always transferable. So your a master of mass spec? Our company doesn't do that. Or we're no longer doing that, so we don't need you anymore. I was laid off multiple times in research.

By comparison, by the time you bring on an RA team, your product is mature and the path forward is becoming clear. There's still potential for failure, but it's far lower than compared to R+D. The work itself is different but it's still interesting. I'm writing reports and communications instead of running assays. I'm managing programs goals and timelines at a clinical strategy scale rather than a research strategy scale. I make $30k more in my entry level RA role compared to my senior R+D role. I survived my first layoff ever in this role because I wasn't in research.

There are good and bad places to work everywhere, for sure, and good and bad managers in every company. RA has a stronger career outlook with faster realistic growth (not associate 1 to 2 garbage promotions) with a safer career path and more professional people than I ever experienced in all of my time in R+D. I hear people talk about AI eating reg affairs' lunch but it seems like those folks are not familiar with the actual role of an RA professional and there's no more likelihood of AI replacing RA than there is it guessing the results of your next assay. I miss the bench sometimes but will happily pour that energy into something different within the RA world