Pros
As a well-established medical center, Cedars has a vast and impressive research enterprise infrastructure in place. For clinical research professionals seeking to gain valuable experience working within the academic site, Cedars offers opportunities for learning and development. The attraction of pharma studies to Cedars allows for diverse exposure to a broad range of study types as well as study designs. The faculty investigators at Cedars can be passionate about clinical research and are generally supportive of research endeavors. Additionally, Cedars has many opportunities through their Organization and Development program. For proactive employees, you can take advantage of many development courses that can be taken for free. These are valuable tools to add to your skill set and help advance your career. Working at Cedars-Sinai will definitely help establish a solid network that can help propel your career forward in the future.
Cons
Unfortunately, after being at Cedars for almost 10 years, I have noticed that mid-level management in place to provide leadership to clinical research staff do not possess the background necessary to be an effective resource for staff. Mid-level management usually have never ascended the career path as a study coordinator or held any progressive role in clinical research. Mid-level management usually come into their roles due to the politics of faculty members. The people at this level are rewarded for not rocking the boat and for keeping things status-quo. As a result, high quality employees become frustrated with mid-level management's inability to 1) relate to the work that the clinical research staff is doing 2) protect and provide effective leadership for clinical research staff from investigators or other ancillary departments and 3) fail to understand how the value of the staff should be rewarded with career advancement to help retain top talent. Instead, mid-level management will always keep senior management's best interest in mind and make decisions that harm the staff working the hardest. At whatever level you are brought in at Cedars, you will have a hard time advancing in terms of salary. Once you are brought in at a level, that will forever be your benchmark as you advance in higher roles. Even if your worth is closer to a mid-point in a salary range, you will always be given the lowest of that scale because you've advanced from a lower salary title scale. Their compensation practices for internal talent is outdated and has resulted in countless top talent being lost. Also, because mid-level management does not possess the skills necessary to manage clinical research staff and/or a clinical research portfolio, the management of sponsored research funds can be irresponsible. Budgeting for clinical trials is underestimated, which results in department-wide deficits. In other departments where budgets are done correctly, excess funds may sometimes be used to cover the department's operational deficits. Either way, the clinical research staff working the hardest to deliver top quality studies are not protected financially. The end result is mid-level management always cutting corners at the bottom to cover the interests of those at the top. Lastly, Human Resources does a poor job at investigating staff concerns of documented and fact-based reports of bullying, harassment, and retaliation. HR sides with middle-management and goes as far as reprimand employees on how they should be behaving towards middle-management. HR will prefer to hold the door open for top talent leaving than to rock the boat with thorough investigations for middle-management. HR will also be involved in advising management of unverified concerns regarding internal transfers for promotional opportunities which has resulted in talent being "black listed" for openings in the hospital.