In April I conducted a very brief non-scientific survey to get a sense
of where  research administrators came from professionally and how they
got there. A number of you responded, 32 in fact, and I summarized the
information for use in a presentation at the Northeast section of SRA in
May.  Several respondents asked that I let you know my results.  So,
after catching up on a variety of deadline motivated projects I am here
to tell you what happened. In case you start adding up my numbers, not
all respondents answered all questions.

1) Had you heard of Research Administration as a profession : Y 6, N 20

2) a - Educational background           Assoc.  Degree          2

Bachelor's  "               11

Master's     "               13

PhD                                 6

 b - Field of study                                 Scientific
5

Administrative/mgmt  16

Other                                10

 c -  Certified Research Administrator
5
 (This information was volunteered but seemed relevant for
this group after     seeing some of the recent discussions)

3)Were you working in a research setting?   Y  7, or on an
administrative track?  Y  24.

4  )Entry level position  in research administration:

director                                            5

grants mgr/admin coord           11

clerical                                              7

student                                              4

princ. investigator                          2

other:   info spec                            1

grants writer                      1

project mgr                       1

5)Narrative responses were received for the question on what aspect of
your prior experience was most valuable. As can be expected, everyone
was able to incorporate their prior work skills into their current
position and recommended them as well for others. In any case, they were
all different  and no conclusions could be drawn.

I want to thank all of you who contributed. It was a real surprise to me
that so few respondents came from science backgrounds. I thought that
there would be a lot of lab techs like me who found out about the field
in the course of their day-to-day responsibilities for ordering, MSDSes,
training (human subjects,safety, animal subjects) etc as I did. Or that
I would find a lot of PhDs tired of the suspense of soft money salaries.
I certainly want to congratulate you on finding the profession and
expressing in some cases so eloquently your love for research
administration. I have never looked back and it seems that I am not
alone. Again, thank you.