Pros
If you are a healthy single individual in your mid-20s, and come straight from academia, you will gain good experience as a CRA and will work hard for your first salary. My salary was not much different from my stipend. You can accrue credits and miles for traveling, enjoy free salads and soft drinks in Admiral Clubs, reimburse internet bills, or even use the company iPhone and ThinkPad. You can also leave abroad and still work for Medpace, but there is no transfer for CRAs, so you need to re-apply. Non-compete will limit your next CRA career options in other CROs in US, but you can apply to biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Most CRAs do not stay here for too long, since the experience has its price. Entry level CRA is paid $50-59k for 2 years, then you will get $60-70k, and after 4 years, you will get $80-90k. Travel bonus will bring up to $25k only if you have 8-9 site visit days every month for 12 months (about 100 credits). Still, 30% will be deducted for tax. Most CRAs do not travel regionally and you will spend 2-3 extra days each week on traveling. Medpace will deduct extra credits from your bonus for any deficiencies, including late report submissions, not signed-off SOPs, or not reported phishing emails. New requirements were implemented in 2018 just before the pay day. If you need to use maternity or paternity leave, you lose your travel bonus regardless of accrued credits. Most CRA also get about 5% of annual merit each year. I paid $300 each month for health insurance and I still didn’t have 100% coverage. If you add your spouse, you pay $700 and for family $1100. Cheaper and less comprehensive options are available, but as a CRA you should use some caution. Dental insurance is basic and covers fillings and prophylaxis, but for roots, crowns, and implants you end up paying thousands out of pocket. My CRAM used the spouse’s health and dental coverage, which shows the actual value of this coverage. CRA training was very good and I was assigned to several studies almost immediately thereafter. I traveled a lot, but my salary and rank did not change for 2 years. CRAMs make ranks of their employees and recommend promotions, but final decisions are made by the director of ClinOps. Most CRAs in my study teams had about 2 years of experience and there was just a handful of colleagues with 3-4 years of experience. I haven’t met any CRA who came to Medpace from other CRO. Plan your career carefully and focus on the positive aspects of this job. Beware of opportunities and limitations, and learn from people. I met many good people in Medpace.
Cons
Many CTMs don't have any clinical experience and their knowledge and experience is limited to postdoctoral, instructor, or non-tenure adjunct positions. CTMs have less rigorous training then CRAs and most CRAs with PhD degree and 2 years of monitoring experience are more qualified and knowledgeable than most Medpace CTMs. Medpace is focused on start-ups and small or medium size biotech companies. Those clients are very challenging, engaged, and abusive towards CRAs and CTMs. CRAM are trying to protect their CRAs from unqualified CTMs and aggressive sponsors. Still. CRAs are always underprivileged. Line CRAMs don’t have much power to help their employees with career advancement and their role is limited to checking metrics, interviewing new candidates, and firing low performers. CRAMs need to evaluate each CRA in the field every year and, in addition, 20% of all CRAs is audited by Medpace QA annually. This is how company ensured the quality and discipline among young and inexperienced CRAs. I cannot tell you much about the future or directions of this company. Prestigious phase 3 oncology trails are far from the reach. CEO and directors invest money into their air lines and new hotel. Criteria for promotions are more rigorous than ever before. Travel bonus is harder to get. The base salary remains below industry standard on every position. CRAs who want to have children need to face the meaningful loss of their income, and the company does not offer any benefits for their families. The CRA retention is rather low and the non-compete agreement seems to be the only way to stop you from leaving. HR announced that they are interviewing over 10 000 candidates each year, which only weakened the morale among current CRAs
