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Panic about internships

I'm a Biomed student, I have previously been interviewed by MSD for a clinical trial co-ordinator and a clinical research associate and I was successful in all 4 rounds, only to be told that I was 'a strong candidate but the position was oversubscribed so your application was unsuccessful', in the final round. So now, I am stumped. I have no idea what I want to do this summer. Usually students will find internships at the end of their second year and I am here stuck with nothing. All the internships I was interested in were cancelled due to COVID-19. If I were to not be successful in gaining a research placement, and not have anything to do this summer, would I be disadvantaged greatly? Also, if you can, could you please list any internships or websites you may have come across? That would be a huge help as I have been looking for months, searching endlessly without any hope in sight. Thank you.
Original post by Marshmallows1
I'm a Biomed student, I have previously been interviewed by MSD for a clinical trial co-ordinator and a clinical research associate and I was successful in all 4 rounds, only to be told that I was 'a strong candidate but the position was oversubscribed so your application was unsuccessful', in the final round. So now, I am stumped. I have no idea what I want to do this summer. Usually students will find internships at the end of their second year and I am here stuck with nothing. All the internships I was interested in were cancelled due to COVID-19. If I were to not be successful in gaining a research placement, and not have anything to do this summer, would I be disadvantaged greatly? Also, if you can, could you please list any internships or websites you may have come across? That would be a huge help as I have been looking for months, searching endlessly without any hope in sight. Thank you.


Both of the roles you interviewed for are expected to be substantial full time jobs rather than summer placements. Generally as a new graduate you would not be a strong candidate for those roles and should not expect to be placed. Clinical research is a highly competitive field and is always incredibly oversubscribed. Entry level roles are rarely offered, and one local to me at a small company had over 1200 applicants for a single CRA role. Most had relevant experience and something like 50% of them had masters degrees and 20% had PhDs, just to give you an idea of the quantity and calibre of candidates.

I would suggest that you need to consider what it is you actually want to do - if you have an interest in clinical research as a job after graduating, then trying to get some experience in any form of areas related to the clinical research process would be useful. This could include labs, pharma companies etc. many of whom have actual internship programmes. These are also very competitive so you would generally expect to apply to several and potentially get offered one place.

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