hey guys ECR G here back with another episode today I've got a video slash
audio about the daily grind of being a CRA we've got a lot of people that watch
this channel that are interested in becoming CRA s clinical research
associate and I wanted just because I am one and have been for a while now just
kind of want to talk about what is the day-to-day life what is the daily grind
especially on the road of being a CRA people just hear about all the great
stuff and you know and overall it's probably one of my favorite jobs I've
ever had and one of the best jobs I've ever had
and I would go toe-to-toe with anyone saying it's one of the best jobs that
you can possibly get especially if you love to travel so you guys know about
the constant travel requirements you know the sixty-five to seventy-five
percent of your time spent traveling I mean spent on the road and those are
real numbers and just so you guys know as a sudden aside if you're watching on
YouTube I've got some footage of my last trip to Canada this was a fairly recent
trip I don't know when this is going to be posted but fairly recent trip I've
got food in the background I've got footage of my hotel room stayed at the
Doubletree so you know I've got the cookies there got some amazing food
there and you know maybe I'll talk about it as we go through this but you know
that's just one of the big perks of being a CRA staying in four and
five-star hotels every night eating five-star food while you're on the road
you know when I'm on the road I eat food that I never would buy never ever ever
would buy my personal life you know I never ever ever spent a hundred dollars
in a day seventy-five dollars in a day you know whatever it may be for the city
hundred twenty five dollars in a day in on food I never never ever ever ever
have done that unless it's a special occasion like my birthday or something
or taking my family out I'll take my whole family out for a hundred dollars
but never ever ever do I spend that much money
seventy-five 125 whatever it is for that city on myself in one day see
get to eat incredible food as a CRA you know I have some bone marrow here in
Canada you know I only do that on very very special occasions you know steak
you even do topless I never go to tapas in my in my real life but on the road if
you have that much money to spend you can get you know this appetizer salad
soup sandwich you know I want to try this or I want to try that and this and
that and this so it's awesome also you can kind of like take your friends out
to eat also that's awesome mmm it's awesome awesome awesome so a lot of big
perks like that also the travel but the travel is a grind because you have work
to do you have deliverables your main deliverables are getting your report and
on time so you got your expense reports which are basically a list of your
expenditures on the visit so you've got to submit that and that's got to get
approved and then you've got your report they call it a trip report usually based
on what was done on site actually and you've got to submit that and that's a
big deliverable that's probably the CRA is main deliverable that's one of the
things that they care about most is getting your reports in on time your
written reports and those can take anywhere from a couple of hours to like
five six hours depending on the detail required for that visit so you've got to
do all this and you've got to juggle all this while being on the road so if you
can imagine if you're in house you're most likely used to working on a couple
of screens a few screens but if you're on the road you only have that one
screen you only have that laptop screen which is small so it's very hard to do
work on that thing so but that's what you got to do when you're on the road so
that just adds to the grind you know not to mention you've got to
travel sometimes on the weekend Sunday you know if you go into a cool place
let's say just say you're going to New York City around July 4th you can extend
it so you can fly up Friday maybe hang out with some friends or even just get a
hotel room yourself for those couple days if you just want to spend your life
forth in the city just kind of catching a vibe
that's awesome but you've got to work around it and you know that just goes to
show how much of a grind actually being a CRA is because it's a lot of work as
is and you don't necessarily have the best tool to do it multiple screens so
you've got to kind of do it on the road not to mention you're tired sometimes
your flights are in the morning sometimes your flights are at night
you're getting in late at night so you know you're gonna wake up tired the next
day maybe maybe you don't sleep well in hotels or maybe the bed wasn't
comfortable or you know something like that maybe you're got you've gotten sick
from the food so there's there's a lot of things going into the daily grind of
being a CRA that you've got to kind of manage so we'll do of course we'll do
video topics on how to manage this how to you know stay healthy that's
something that I'm really interested in is how people are staying healthy while
on the road so I'm gonna talk I'm gonna bring in some of my colleagues here some
of my friends that also see arrays and we're gonna discuss how to stay healthy
on the road things to pack for your suitcase luggage all that good stuff
got a lot of things coming for you but only if you're interested so comment
down below if you're interested in those type of topics some of those CRA related
topics that you know you might find interesting so here if you're watching
on YouTube here's the gym I go to the gym almost every day while I'm on site
that is that's something I do immediately right after I get back from
the site and then I'll usually figure out the dinner situation or if I'm gonna
be working or whatever that situation is but the gym is a must
my thing is I've got at least 20 to 30 minutes every day I got to hit the gym
it's it's just that important here's the bone marrow and with oxtail on the side
it's amazing there's a salad I usually always get a salad too and then of
course you can get alcohol too if you're at dinner so that's always good hotels
are always good I mean but you know for someone who's not a CRA you're like how
could how could a hotel ever be tiring you know you're staying at the W you're
staying at a awesome Hilton you're staying at a Marriott Downtown in these
cities how could you ever get tired of that
and you know it just goes to show that it is possible you know sometimes you
just get homesick sometimes you're like dang if I could just be in one place for
some time but you know that's the job then you got to start it over again you
got to go back out on Sunday so I've got to be honest while I've been a CRA I
have really really enjoyed my weekend it's absolutely doing nothing I'm not
going to no bars during the weekends I'm not you know doing all this I'm not
going out and going crazy the weekends for me is the time to relax maybe do a
little bit of work but it's time for me to relax get in the zone and get ready
for that Monday because most likely I'm flying out to go somewhere so that's
just the daily grind guys just want to let you guys know it's not all sometimes
Sun shines and rainbows with being a CRA there is a grind involved and you've got
to kind of work it so got any questions comment down below as always subscribe
to the podcast subscribe to the YouTube channel email us Ali clinical group at
GMO comm if you'd like any resume review action if you'd like any interview prep
any interview prep you're trying to be a CRA you want to make sure that you have
good experience that your resume is up tight and that your interview skills are
great because this profession is getting more and more competitive so email me
elite clinical group at gmail.com alright guys take care