Secrets of a CRA Recruiter craresources

When your candidate pool is too large, you are at risk of missing the highest-quality candidates.
I was speaking to an HR manager at a mid-sized CRO and she was in tears. Her operations team desperately needed CRAs for an upcoming project, but for each position she posted, she received over one hundred applicants.
She couldn't get through all of the resumes, much less determine which candidates should progress to the interview.
This begs the question, how do you effectively fine-tune a large candidate pool so that you are able to only focus on the best and the brightest?  In the narration of an article that provides a table and checklist to help you sort through hundreds of job applications quickly, one of our beloved team members provides some hiring hacks.

Last week someone reached out to me with a simple question: Do you place Contract CRAs?  This was definitely not the best LinkedIn connection request message to send me.
Why? If this potential candidate had spent even a brief amount of time on my profile, he would have known that placing CRAs is a specialty of mine. My partner and I built a business that specializes in it. We have a team dedicated to source and place the top CRAs in North America. So asking if I place Contract CRAs means he hadn’t done his homework. It also shows that he was being generic…and if I can say it…a bit lazy.
He made one of the top errors that many make on LinkedIn: Failing to use a LinkedIn connection request to enter into real conversations with real people.  While our firm certainly agrees that networking on LinkedIn is critical, it is important that you do it the right way.
This topic made it to our Roundtable discussion! We discuss everything from what should and shouldn’t be included on your LinkedIn profile to how to build an outstanding network that will bring job offers right to your door.
Oh…and the answer to the “best LinkedIn connection request message” question? A genuine and personal one.

This past week I had an individual contact me through LinkedIn asking to be considered for some of our open Clinical Research Associate positions. His foundations were terrific but he met none of the qualifications of our industry CRA positions.
The rub...he didn't understand that he was extremely underqualified.
Are our Clinical Research Associate candidates confused?
His inquiry made me wonder - is there confusion when it comes to the role of a CRA? We often see sites and academic institutions call their patient-facing research coordinators Clinical Research Associates. In addition, we are seeing Sponsors and CROs move further away from using the CRA title, using terms like Clinical Site Managers, Site Relationship and Excellence Partners, and Clinical Site Ambassadors.
Maybe it is time to help better define roles within our industry - starting with that of an Industry CRA. Our team held a round table to discuss the topic as well as provide some valuable insight for those of you who are seeking a CRA role. We hope this is helpful and want to hear your thoughts!

You have heard us say it before – Competent CRAs are great public speakers! But being an effective public speaker isn’t magical. We have addressed overcoming the fear of public speaking and why you should seek public speaking opportunities. Now we dig into how to engage your audience.
We sat down with one of our favorite people, Elizabeth Weeks-Rowe to discuss this very important topic. Elizabeth has been in this industry for over twenty years and is a highly respected and sought-after speaker on industry topics. With such a passion for speaking, Elizabeth is well-positioned to share outstanding tips and tricks that will surely help you successfully engage any audience.
We hope you enjoy it!

Many job seekers take the flawed approach of focusing on the formatting of their resume instead of their resume content.  While we certainly don't want to go on record stating that resume formatting isn't important, the content is the point.
What content should I include on my resume?
There always seems to be confusion about what to include. This podcast is all about the do's and don'ts as it relates to ensuring your resume content is optimized.
We dig into important topics such as how to protect yourself from ageism, what to include when you are early in your career and are light on work experience, simple errors you can avoid, how to leverage keywords and phrases to make you stand out, and much more.
For additional content on this topic, check out our blog posts on resume tips.

Applying for multiple jobs at the same company may seem like a smart approach. And maybe in certain circumstances it does make sense to apply for more than one position at any single company.
However, you have to be very careful in how you go about it.  One of my favorite colleagues has narrated one of our exceptionally popular blog posts on this topic. Stay tuned as she describes how submitting multiple applications to the same company may negatively impact your candidacy.