It’s 2017, and I’m standing outside of a restaurant accepting the role of Client Excellence (CE) CSA with 4G Clinical. I am giddy with excitement. And then I was asked about my jacket size, fulfilling my wildest swag dreams.
Fifteen years prior, my career changed dramatically. After being laid off from my IT manager position, my partner and I agreed I would be a stay-at-home parent. For ten years, I focused on our two boys while supporting my partner's career and taking various temp jobs at a call-center, a bicycle mechanic, and sales positions.
As fulfilling as stay-at-home parenting was, I found myself also throwing a pity party as my IT career ended.
4G Clinical would change all of that for my family.
I had served in client support positions a number of times in my career. 4G was inviting, though initially intimidating given the talent of everyone in their fields. It took a while for me to feel as though I belonged.
Throughout this journey, the team supported me, constructively pointing out mistakes, celebrating accomplishments, and offering practical improvements. Here, I was able to share examples from my past client support and IT experiences. The excitement I felt was pretty different from any other organization I had worked for. As I learned more about the studies I was supporting, the weight of helping the end users came sharply into focus. Someone was sitting in a clinic somewhere holding new hope for a different result in their medical journey. I was in a pipeline of meaningful effort to influence that journey’s destination.
During one call, an end user asked a particularly interesting question. No one on the team had heard it before, so the team dove into training materials and test systems. I helped clarify and update the team, experiencing a level of productive camaraderie I hadn’t felt since college finals.
While performing my client excellence duties, a new friend I had met at 4G mentioned that a potential IT position might be opening. It was a faint rumor, but I took notice.
The position soon opened. After speaking with my manager and the hiring manager, it was clear my IT career hadn’t ended after all. It had only been hibernating.
Moving back to the IT department meant that I would be one more step removed from the company’s core mission surrounding trials. I had to consider this fact carefully. I shared this concern with my partner and folks at work.
It was pointed out that resolving IT issues would free up others—Devs, client-facing roles, accounting, executives—to concentrate on their core talents. I felt the tinge of intimidation again, and this time I knew what lay on the other side. I researched, asked questions, and was honored as I helped our talented staff across the planet. With 4G Clinical’s success, the IT position grew into a team where I couldn’t wait to use the same teamwork energy with my fellows on the technology team that I felt in Client Excellence.
I was excited to start using the phrase “I get to go work!” often.
My career at 4G Clinical for the last eight years has been fulfilling in a way that is hard to describe without sounding like a recruitment pitch. Both of those little boys my partner and I raised have since graduated from college. At the end of the day, I get to work with talented folks. Our work is a trusted tool for sponsors developing therapies across healthcare segments.
Not long ago, an executive ended an all-company call with a poignant reminder of our mission. They read aloud the names of conditions our work aims to impact, getting treatment to those who need it faster than industry norms. It felt like a closing prayer; we sat in silence, thinking of individuals in clinics with renewed hope, acquaintances, and lost family members who might have benefited from these studies. We listened with renewed hope as our own conditions were read.
We took a moment to absorb these thoughts… then we got back to work.