Clinical Trial Specialist Review

My role mainly involves working with electronic documents to maintain or close out clinical studies, and communicating with local study leads around the globe to achieve specific study related outcomes that help drive the clinical study forward. I have arranged global events for our principle investigators and global study leaders, conducted quality checks on a wide variety of studies, and facilitated communication with vendors and outsourced companies.

In this role I constantly needed to direct my time and energy to the most time pressing activities, while still maintaining my commitment to longer projects. I work on multiple different clinical studies at once, with a varying degree of responsibility, so learning to manage these different projects at once has really boosted my organisational capabilities. Also, having to be in constant communication with colleagues around the globe in conflicting time zones and arranging events for these people (both virtual and in-person) has helped to refine my attention to detail and organisational skills even further.

Oh yes, more so than I was expecting! Some examples include being the sole person responsible for quality checking all of the documents provided for clinical studies that we acquired when taking over a different, smaller company. I have been the sole AZ representative liaising with our event planning company to arrange global, in-person meetings for our local and global study staff. I have also been the sole person responsible for closing and archiving multiple clinical trials. Smaller examples include being in charge of your own time and calendar, reaching out to other colleagues and networking, and working on multiple projects at once with varying degrees of responsibility.

At the beginning of the placement, I was assigned a mentor to shadow and learn from and who worked with me on one of my projects where I had a lot more responsibility, but was always a great resource for any questions I had on any other projects. My mentor happened to be based in Sweden, so I was also given a "buddy" in my location to act as another mentor and provide guidance and support. Aside from these more official support sources, all of my colleagues in general are always happy to lend a hand, answer any questions and provide guidance when I need it. All of this support is contingent on me asking for it, which provides a high level of autonomy and I don't feel like someone is constantly micromanaging me so I can learn and try things in my own way. But I know I always have multiple people I can go to for support. AZ also has a vast number of technical resources for this exact purpose. There are help desks where you can speak to process experts, many websites and documents that instruct you on almost every process and project activity you can come across, which also encouraged my independent learning too.

I am really really impressed with the company culture. You really get the sense that the company is focused on looking after it's employees to create the best possible work environment and outcomes for our patients and clinical trials. There are so many activities all the time to help bring people together such as socials, lunches, various presentations from experts in a huge range of fields, creative competitions like pumpkin carving, pancake making, Easter egg painting etc. The company itself also advocates a lot for mental health and neurodiversity. There are multiple groups dedicated to these areas, as well as many resources for employees to help with their mental health or challenges in the workplace.

I really enjoyed my placement! I felt like I was an actual member of the team, doing meaningful work and with actual responsibilities. It was challenging, and a bit scary at times but those times were my biggest opportunities for learning and development. Ultimately, the reason I enjoyed the placement was because I genuinely learned about real world applications for what I'm learning in university and about myself, and who I could be. At the end of the day, it is a full time job and everyone hates work sometimes, but overall it was a great experience and I'm very grateful I did it.

Yes

First of all, be confident. You are applying for a reason, you think you would do great on this placement, and even if you don't think you would be good that means you think you can learn and develop a lot from this opportunity! Do research on the company, their current projects, their global and local initiatives, the awards they've won, the conferences/congresses they attend, etc. These are how AZ demonstrates their 5 values, and that is what they will want you to demonstrate in your application and interview. Lastly, remember that it is as important for them to see if you will be a good fit for their team as it is for you to see if AZ is a good fit for you. You can both only do that if you really be yourself and show who you are in your application process.