Great people but horrible work/life balance
Pros
The people at ICON are fabulous. The line managers and study managers have been CRAs before, so they are able to fully support you to the best of their abilities. The health insurance is insanely good. One of the reasons I stayed as long as I did was for the health insurance. You start off with 15 days vacation.
Cons
As a CRA you are traveling 80-90%. It's expected you link your travel, so you may hit three to four cities in one week. With there being only three big airlines now, you are usually connecting which adds to a very long day. A typical work week is 55-70 hours. There is a 10 day on site per month requirement. Travel time is not taken into account. Their vacation plan is generous, but because of the heavy workload, you are 'punished' for taking time off. The amount of work that piles up (because there is no one to cover for you) adds so much extra time, it's almost not worth it. Work/life balance as a CRA is HORRIBLE. Errands, dr appointments, socializing, etc have to be done on the weekends. Managers are sympathetic and help as much as they can, but ultimately their hands are tied by Senior Management. It's a shame I had to rate the company two starts. It used to be a wonderful company to work for. As ICON has grown in size, CRAs have been reduced to workhorses.
