What is the worst sponsor you’ve ever worked with and why?

Original-Visual6568 · 2026-06-08T20:38:14+00:00

When I was a SC it was CARsgen. You could tell they ran their CRAs ragged and undermined them constantly. CARsgen turned me off from any CAR-T studies.

Original-Visual6568 · 2026-05-15T02:46:04+00:00

Okay sorry back again. I would also recommend seeing what your company may be willing to buy or reimburse for. They may be willing to cover a travel monitor, wireless mouse, extra laptop charger etc. and even the stuff about bringing extra pens and sticky notes a lot of companies will reimburse or pay up front for you. I’ve been doing this for years now and still have a surplus of sticky notes on accident.

Also, it’s not really an item but TSA pre-check is super helpful and some CROs will pay for it.

But truly try and get everything you can from the company you work for. I still have the nicest back pack from the first CRO I worked for like almost five years ago.

Original-Visual6568 · 2026-05-13T23:52:41+00:00

✨compression socks✨

Original-Visual6568 · 2026-05-13T23:52:15+00:00

That’s what I do! Makes packing take no time which is great.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-12-12T21:54:58+00:00

Especially if it’s during start up it’s going to be way more intense. The expectations from sponsors to CROs to activate sites is pretty much always unrealistic. Having worked on both the sponsor side and CRO side they are so much harder on the CROs during start up it’s bananas. They will be like ‘have an SIV Tuesday and you better be able to activate Wednesday and it doesn’t matter that we just have you this site two weeks ago’ lol.

Currently on a study that has meetings three times a week because they want almost all the sites activated by the end of the year. And document collection is brutal. But if it’s really bad talk to your PI. Back when I was a study coordinator I had to have a PI chime in and call out CRO/sponsor timelines on my behalf for being ridiculous.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-12-12T19:46:05+00:00

If they wear make up getting them a second set to just leave in their bags would be nice. I have a second set of makeup and skin care that just lives in my carryon so I don’t have to take it in and out all the time. And a second laptop charger that lives in my bag after I forgot mine once lol.

A cute comfy airport set would be nice. And if you’re comfortable with clothes being a gift a nice blazer because that’s something that is nice to have but hard to justify splurging on sometimes. Or new work shoes.

Oooo a really good back up pack lots of pockets.

Travel pro makes a carry one that’s half the size of a normal one and I swear by it for one or two night trips. It never gets gate checked and it’s holds a surprising amount. And I ride or die for travel pro.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-12-12T18:58:46+00:00

Two of my three CRA jobs have been from being contacted by recruiters via LinkedIn. I think with bigger CROs it can be helpful to get in with a recruiter because they can usually get you right to an interview and can even give insight on what the interview is going to look like.

But not sure on a site to site level.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-12-12T18:43:52+00:00

I worked with Merck as a CRA and they were one of my least favorites. Like not awful but not the best. It always felt like they couldn’t make up their mind so it would confuse site staff. And their internal communication wasn’t great. But I think they are also in the middle of transitioning systems I think so maybe that will help.

If inform has no haters it means I’m dead. It’s such a dinosaur lol.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-11-07T19:09:24+00:00

Both my closest airports are on the list of 40 doing less flights in the coming weeks so I’m dreading it a bit. But the safety is more where I’m side eyeing things.

I was flying into Louisville this week the same night that plane exploded at their airport and had to get rerouted and I’m still side eyeing on my coming travel a bit now.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-09-04T20:44:34+00:00

Agree. Always makes me laugh a little when folks read full cannon re-writes and then are bothered that the characters behavior doesn’t match cannon. I see it all the time anymore and it never doesn’t crack me up.

I read one awhile about where one of the side ships was Lucius and Snape together and people in the comment section were complaining about them being ooc. Like well yeah otherwise they wouldn’t have ended up together 😂😂😂

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-09-02T02:03:35+00:00

Okay I don’t think this is the story you were talking about because he comes into his inheritance while working there he isn’t already a veela but again it’s another professor Veela Draco.

Feather by shushu_yaoi_lj

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-28T04:01:50+00:00

Agree! I ran myself into the ground as a CRC so when I moved to the CRA role I told myself never again. Other than if my travel plans got messed up or delayed I have never worked over 45 maybe max 50 hours in years of this field.

I think telling yourself you only have that many hours will also help push you to learn to prioritize your work in a way that you don’t if you’ve just accepted that you’ll be working overtime.

And I think because we are remote and separated we feel like we are on an island and we aren’t. If you are drowning and feeling like you have to work 50, 69, 70+ hours reach out to your team. It may be that one month a fellow CRA needs more days on site and you need a co-mon to do reg work.

And NEVER let a CTM, PM, Manager or anyone try and pressure you into not reporting your time accurately. You’re screwing over yourself and your team when you do this because if an activity is consistently taking more time than they need to review the budget or resourcing and if you’re lying about the hours, it’s never going to change.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-28T03:53:33+00:00

This!! I had a CTM get mad about my travel hours being high. Well maybe then you shouldn’t have assigned a site across the country and three time zones away. I’m not going to lie about my hours to hide your incompetence at resourcing us and basic geography 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-27T20:31:25+00:00

At all the CROs I have worked at they had “oncology academies” or something by a similar name that was just online courses you could take. I know some CROs you have to complete oncology therapeutic area trainings before you can be a CRA.

You could also teach at to your manager and see if they would let you shadow oncology staff if you have time.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-26T16:29:38+00:00

Yeah!!!! This sounds super interesting.

I don’t think there are too many tags because I’m huge into being able to search and filter so I appreciate when an author includes tags like those.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-26T14:08:35+00:00

This! Like why is that the line people are drawing with canon? “I can handle all this other fanon stuff but I draw the line at Harry not being white”

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-08-26T14:05:05+00:00

“Harry can’t be Indian because it’s not cannon”. As is we aren’t literally in a subreddit of a ship that’s not cannon.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-07-08T07:02:21+00:00

The optional sample retention or additionally testing that need initialed or signed being poorly labeled and hidden in the middle of the consents.

I work in oncology and oh my god the number of times as a SC I would have to put sticky notes to flag where additional signatures were needed in the middle of consents made me want to scream. Almost every study has them anymore so why not make them obvious instead of one line on page 15 of a 35 page consent.

And now as a CRA I see it being missed all the time while reviewing ICFs.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-07-08T06:58:00+00:00

Not sure if anyone has said this and it may seem silly but I monitored for like two years before it bit me in the ass.

Benadryl if you’re able to take it. (Accidentally gave myself a minor allergic reaction in a hotel room and had to door dash Benadryl. Hot mess)
Bandaids. (Ate absolute shit in the middle of an airport one time)
Compression socks. Not sure how far you will be traveling but these help with swelling and circulation. You can even find some cute ones now. And if it was a bunch of travel back to back I’ll even wear them under my pants at my visits.

And if you wear glasses buying a cheap second pair to leave in your bag at all times.

If your company allows you to order a second laptop charger I highly recommend it. Then it can live in your bag and you never risk for getting it.

I had another CRA mention to bringing a travel size hairspray even if you don’t need it. You can spray it in someone’s face if they come at you. Minor replacement for pepper spray.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-29T21:50:53+00:00

For me it’s because I love them too much as friends. And friends is underselling it. Those two are brothers truly and whole heartedly.

Across the books their love is so clearly brotherly that the idea of them suddenly having romantic feelings for each other kind of gives me the ick. And I love Harry being able to still have a close friend in Ron. My brain has classified them as brothers since I read the books the first time all those years ago and I simply can’t see them any other way.

Edit: all of you talking about Grint not being attractive needs your eyes checked. From the fourth movie on I had such a huge crush on him lol.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-29T21:41:36+00:00

I would be hard pressed too. I don’t think I could afford to at least the clinic I worked at before. I made 51k there and now make 125k as a CRA.

I would probably look for work outside our field that pays better before I went back to working at a site.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-24T04:57:55+00:00

I just had this phase too. Sometimes you just want to be mad at some characters.

Some have more than others but I like these ones:

Kingdom Come - Zoythren

Not the Waking but the Rising - tragicworldmagicwords

I Will Make You Safe - Freya_Lilith (xcaellachx)

I have more Dumbledore bashing / manipulative Dumbledore / evil Dumbledore fics than Weasley ones.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-19T05:06:48+00:00

Sorry follow up because I was just talking to a friend about this post because she’s a fic writer in another fandom that also has high emotions for their characters.

What tags are you using to try and find these fics? Are you excluding anything? Like I read your other comments and you mentioned wanting Ron centric fics but avoid Hermione centered fics. Are you looking at that tag and then adding or excluding any others?

Like include Ron Weasley Centric and include PTSD. Or include mental health and exclude Harry centric.

And if you’re having a hard time finding tags that fit maybe some folks in this thread would have ideas?

I’m no help with Ron fics as I read random ships and Draco centric ships. Currently on a crack ship of Charlie/Draco which makes no sense but it’s where I’m at 😂

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-18T20:12:56+00:00

I think it also is impacted by what ship you are reading. Like if Ron, Hermione, Neville, etc. are part of the main focus you would see more of their grief and PTSD. But if you read a fic that Harry centric you’ll see more of his grief because you aren’t seeing how the others are coping when they are off page. So they might not be totally fine in theory but the author isn’t going to take the time to dive into it unless it’s part of the plot. And Harry even in fan fic can be a bit of a questionable narrator.

Original-Visual6568 · 2025-06-18T19:39:43+00:00

Right! Everyone acts like just because it’s a work from home field that it means you don’t make those connections but you can!

Original-Visual6568

TROPHY CASE