Clinical Research Specialist Overview

There are certain skills that many clinical research specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed leadership skills, critical-thinking skills and communication skills.

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a clinical research specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.0% of clinical research specialists included clinical trials, while 8.5% of resumes included procedures, and 5.7% of resumes included study protocol. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the clinical research specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most clinical research specialists actually find jobs in the health care and education industries.

If you're interested in becoming a clinical research specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.6% of clinical research specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 38.6% of clinical research specialists have master's degrees. Even though most clinical research specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a clinical research specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a clinical research specialist, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on clinical research specialist resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a clinical research specialist. In fact, many clinical research specialist jobs require experience in a role such as clinical research coordinator. Meanwhile, many clinical research specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as research assistant or clinical research associate.