so you have finally finally finally made it to your first day of being a CRA what
exactly happened on the first day of being a CRA find out
after this intro hey guys it's easy RG here back with another episode today
I've got a special one I am going to break down for you what you can expect
for your first day being a CRA so finally you probably put in about two
years about two and a half two maybe even three years of working the clinical
research industry maybe as a study coordinator maybe as a clinical trial
assistant maybe as a project coordinator or a project specialist heck maybe even
an in-house CRA and you have finally finally finally gotten to your dream
position of being a CRA a clinical research associate so what can you
finally expect on your first day there's got to be some amazing stuff going on
right maybe you're going about to book your first trip to that five-star hotel
maybe you're about to sign up for all these reward points all these reward
miles that you're about to get who knows what you might be up to who knows where
you might be next week you could be in Los Angeles California
you could be in South Beach in Miami or something who knows but surely something
super exciting has got to be happening on your first day so I'm gonna tell you
some things that you can be sure to expect on your first day of being a CRA
before we get into that I will let you guys know that we have our resume review
program going on if you are interested in taking your resume to the next level
and finally actually getting to be a CRA if you haven't already or you're just
looking to level up in the clinical research industry by any means maybe
you're at the site level you want to get to the CRO level maybe you're at the CEO
level you want to get to the big pharma level we got you
email us elite clinical group at gmail.com for any inquiries you may have
if you're looking for some one-on-one coaching some customized coaching how
you can get yourself to the next level hi you can even get into the clinical
research industry email us there also so surely what could you possibly expect on
your first day of being a CRA well I can guarantee you the first one of the first
things you're gonna do is you're gonna have an orientation they've got to have
an orientation for you you're brand new to a company they're going to bring you
into the company the right way so they're gonna set you up with a computer
they're going to introduce you to your HR people the people that helped recruit
you into the company they're gonna give you they're gonna orient you they're
gonna let you know hey you can go to this website you're gonna have they're
gonna help you fill out your payroll information your direct deposit they can
help you fill out your tax information you're gonna help you talk about
benefits they're gonna help you pick which benefits you want and which
benefits you can select so all that good stuff and that could be pretty good
stuff especially if your company's got some good benefits especially as a CRA
you know if they're paying for your internet if they are reimbursing you for
a TSA PreCheck if they are going to be you know all these good things that
could happen all these other payments you know they're gonna talk to you about
all these other perks for being a CRA so they're gonna orient you to the company
and then orient you to the position that's the first thing that's gonna
happen the second thing you know orientation can be a little boring and
when I taste you can go on a little bit of long each company may do it
differently it could be anywhere from you know a day to maybe even a week just
depends but shortly after orientation is done you know we've got to be going on a
5 out of 5 star resort to Miami or something like that we've got to be
we've got to be staying at the Waldorf Astoria in New York next right no the
next thing they're gonna have us do is read SOPs oh my gosh have I read so many
SOPs in my life H position with each position you move into clinical research
you're gonna have a few days of reading SOPs standard operating procedures for
those of you guys who are not as familiar but these are going to be
talking about all the policies all the corporate policies you may have
and then if they're even giving you studies yet by this point even your
studies are gonna have SOPs to go along with it so those are boring those are
only just reading occasionally they may have some videos to go along with it but
typically it's just a PDF of some SOPs so there it is
that's what's second so shortly by now we've we've spent either a few hours or
many days reading SOPs we've had our orientation surely ec RG we've got to be
going to South Beach by now well not quite next you're probably going to be
meeting with your colleagues and your manager they're gonna introduce you to
your colleagues and manager so they're gonna introduce you to the other C
arrays in the area maybe some are in the office
definitely the clinical trial leads are gonna be more office based potentially
whether you meet them in person or you meet them over the phone or over Skype
or over WebEx or whatever you're using they're gonna introduce you to your team
they've introduced you to your colleagues
they may even assign you a buddy if you're more entry-level if you're new to
being a CRA they're probably gonna assign you a mentor of some sort so
they're definitely going to make the introduction to you and you can be sure
that's gonna happen definitely on the first day and then here's another thing
that I added because finally finally we've got to be going to South Beach by
now like surely if I'm not at South Beach yeah well I'll know I'm not making
a reservation for my South Beach hotel yet I'm about to be I'm about to be
pissed ECR jiyul I CRA is not the best career because I'm not a South Beach by
the end of the first day but I'm gonna throw you guys a bone here you are gonna
review the travel policy you are likely to review the travel policy and now this
is fun because the travel policy you actually can see if you're gonna be
having per diem so you get to see how much that is I've seen anywhere from 55
dollars up to a hundred dollars maybe even hundred twenty-five dollars for
high cost cities so paying on the city I thought that means is if you're staying
in San Francisco you're gonna have a little bit more
to spend because things are a little bit more expensive there than if you are in
Louisville Kentucky for example which I don't think there's actually some
surprisingly you know cities that are just kind of normal that are high-cost
I believe Raleigh Durham is considered a high-cost city to which have you ever
been there before is not that expensive but you know and quite frankly the
amount of money they give you like let's be honest you could you could spend a
hundred dollars in San Francisco pretty easily like I don't think I don't think
you need to be trying that hard to do that I mean I think I think you still
have to try kinda hard to to do that you could eat on a hundred dollars pretty
much anywhere in the USA it's not like you couldn't do that but they did they
definitely do like to offer you a little bit more wiggle room but what else is on
the travel policy this is gonna be things like things like preferred
Airlines with a like American Airlines Southwest Delta United whatever it is
they got preferred for partnerships with hotel chains usually Hilton Marriott
just to name a few then also they're gonna talk about the
credit card that you can use are they gonna make you get a corporate card
you're gonna be able to use your own definitely recommend using your own if
you have the opportunity to and if you've got the cash flow to do it that's
another thing we did a video on why cash can help you get promoted or why it's
always good to have cash on hand this is one of those reasons I didn't talk about
in the video but you've got to be able to front your expenses on your credit
card if you're gonna be using your credit card and this is a way you can
triple or quadruple literally quadruple the amount of points you can get an
amount of perks you can get if you're able to use your own credit card and
accrue those personal points as well as the airline points as well as the hotel
points you get a lot more if you're able to use your own credit card
so you definitely want to make sure you have cash on hand when you're being a
CRA so all that thing all those things go into the travel policy and those are
all things you're going to go over on your first day so just to recap we're
gonna have a company orientation maybe maybe a study orientation but that's a
little early next we're gonna go over SOPs these are the standard operating
segars of how you do things at the company once again these are also on
your study but it may be a little early for your first day another thing you're
going to talk about is you're gonna meet your colleagues and manager they're
gonna go over how things operate they're gonna go over you know acclimate you to
the position even more they're gonna maybe even assign you a mentor the last
thing you're going to talk about potentially is the travel policy you're
definitely talked about this during the first few days because this is important
to your life as a CRA this is something you're going to be doing a lot of
they're gonna be talking to you about expense reports about per diem then
we're talking to you about airlines and hotels that you are affiliated with and
can use to get to where you need to go so those are things you can be for sure
they're gonna talk to you about the first day so if you have any questions
comment down below if you've got any more things that you think they will
talk to you about or I'm missing I'm sure I'm missing a few things but these
are just some big highlights i remember for my first day as a CRA and i didn't
want to throw you guys a bone especially with the travel policy because i know a
lot of you guys were thinking you're gonna be on south beach already you know
three become 3 p.m. on your first day you better be in South Beach right
alright guys go ahead subscribe hit the bell take
care