Asking for clinical trial experience is just asking for job experience. If you apply for a systems engineering job, the company would want systems engineering experience. It is the same thing. Companies always want to hire people who are familiar with the responsibilities of their job. With clinical trials, it is arguably more important because the financial risks are greater. If malpractice happens, the inevitable lawsuit is tremendous. Of course, if you are the statistician, you are not going to be interacting with the patients that much and wont need as much “clinical experience” as compared to “technical experience”. This is because your job description is different than an investigator’s or assistant’s. The company is really just looking for experience in the role you applied for.