Pros
ICON has very little new clinical trial contracts, so you spend most of your time sitting around doing nothing. Pay is decent, but again, you get paid to do nothing. Days on-site requirement is 8.4 which is nice. However, PSVs are completed via SWAT visits - so good luck getting any extra visits via PSVs because they're immediately taken by other CRAs. Sign-on bonus was nice.
Cons
Man..where to being?? The systems are a JOKE - they're straight out of the 80s. The CTMS does nothing helpful and the trip reports are terrible and buggy. Due to a system-wide bug, you can't search on the main intranet page. Want to find PTO information? Can't search! Good luck manually looking for important information. And yes, get ready to go back using Internet Explorer v 8.0... They "innovate" in the wrong areas. You have the ability to log into the ICON network from any device with Citrix, but yet, they block personal email and Facebook. Like, I can literally log into my confidential work information on ANY computer, but they're worried about Facebook? Get ready to waste a TON of paper as the company does not have electronic signatures. You can never get a hold of HR or IT, you have to submit a ticket in which they get back to you in 2 weeks. IT is outsourced to inexperience people in PI. It took them 2 hours to reinstall printer drivers...insane. $150 hotel maximum rate is laughable. I don't know of anywhere you can stay in a major metro. city for under $150. They recently removed the Principal CRA role, that's one less step in the career ladder for CRAs. Study management is just...hit or miss. I'm shocked at the terrible level of support some CTMs/PMs give their CRAs. There is no "therapeutic" training offered - CTMs tell you to google things if you want to learn more about your specific indication. Overall, the grass is NOT always greener CRAs! Really ask those hard hitting questions before saying "Yes" to moving to ICON!
