Over the years I've seen plenty of discussion threads about "how do I get a start in Pharma programming?" This made me wonder, maybe it would be helpful to have a thread where actual Pharma programmers describe how they got their first SAS programming jobs in Pharma.
Perhaps touching on points like:
And of course, feel free to share any tips for people looking for their first Pharma job, whether they are experienced SAS programmers or newbies. I've always heard it's notoriously difficult to get your first Pharma job.
It's about two decades ago that I, a mathematician, transitioned from direct marketing (entry-level position as an analyst, heavily using SAS/Base, also some SAS/STAT) to pharmaceutical research in Germany. The crucial bridging step in between was an intermediate job at a university where I worked on a biostatistical research project (gene technology in agriculture).
With the combined eight (4,5+3,5) years experience in SAS programming I was hired by a medium-sized CRO whose job advertisement ("Biometrician") I found in a national newspaper in 2005. My job title was "Statistician", but I often worked in the Statistical Programmer's role, while the Biostatisticians in those projects were on the sponsors' side (big pharma). I had no pharma-specific training prior to that job, nor any SAS certification. This was before the full advent of CDISC standards (which I had to deal with only several years later, in my first freelance project starting in 2010).
Other possible intermediate steps towards a SAS programmer's position in clinical research may include:
It is sad (for us SAS fans) that the importance of SAS in clinical research appears to be decreasing. So, one should not ignore the other software tools used in "data science" nowadays, such as R.
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