My top 10 realizations you need to accept before taking a Clinical Research Associate position.
You have just finished your bachelor's and MSc and Ph.D. in life sciences and you’re looking for a job. You’re thinking of applying for a CRA position. Perhaps you have already a friend who is a CRA. You see him traveling, working for a pharmaceutical company, looking stressed and you feel he is doing an important job. Perhaps you are already attracted by an add and want to try this out. How bad can it be day-in-day-out in? Of course, your friend can describe the tasks and activities that you will need to perform. Certainly, you can do this work for 3–6 months but after that period you will face some realizations that will drain all your enthusiasm. If you are not willing to accept them as normal, deal with them, and work despite them, do not apply.
1. You will have 2 bosses.
Pharmaceutical companies outsource, i.e. assign support and management of clinical site to external companies and not post this job opening as an internal position. This trend is global and continuously growing in the last years. The reasons are object of another discussion. However, this the route cause for having two frontiers to keep peace with.
Boss #1 is the company that will be paying your salary, the company you ask for a raise, bonus, etc.