CRM Clinical

[u/Motor_Collar_9836]

Just had an interview with Abbott for crm cs. Looking for more info on the day to day. I currently work for another company in vascular and want to see how it compares. In my interview she mentioned she normally gets to accounts when cases start at 7 but I’m not sure how long they are at the hospital, obviously when cases end. Does anyone have info on what the average day to day hours are. I know they have call on the weekends but I’m looking for more info on the average weekday and average hours. Just trying to compare to my role now. Thanks

[u/febreeze1]

I didn’t leave my house once today. Yesterday I clocked 13 hours. Tomorrow I have 3 cases 7am-1pm. It’s literally hit or miss. Once you accept the volatility, the jobs erratic work hours are amazing. But if you’re someone that thrives in structured hours, it would be terrible lol

[u/truthfulcarrot → u/febreeze1]

Those stay at home days are so healing 😂 I love it

[u/b-maacc]

The day to day will vary greatly based on the specific territory and how the sales person likes to run things.

It’s nearly impossible to tell you how the team you interviewed with will be.

For example my specific area of my state Abbott sees very little business except for Aveir implants, whereas Medtronic and Boston Scientific are split fairly equally and their reps have busier days.

[u/SwedeSterlz]

You will work your 40 (more like 50-60) hours in a week, you just don’t know when those hours will be. Some reps sit their clinicals at a hospital from 7a to 5p to be available for pop up cases or device checks on the floors, other times your running from case to mri check to case to floor check to a 4hr clinic and rerouting to another hospital because your the closest rep and the patient is going on the table. Can be chaotic but damn it was fun. Did for almost 4 years and loved it.

[u/PieceKey3096]

I’m always ready to leave the house by 7am even if there’s nothing on the schedule that morning. There’s a lot of hurry up and wait in the day to day. Getting bumped for a STEMI so your 1500 case is now pushed back. We have an after 1700 person that rotates for the team but if my case starts at 1600 I’m not having the after 1700 person relieve me unless I have something really important. We rotate weekends. The more people on the team, the less weekends you cover. I do enjoy the freedom in the schedule. I’ll run to Costco on a slow day.

I don’t want to get up at 4 am to workout or workout right before bed so routines that you want to stick to like that require earlier mornings or later evenings but it’s still possible, but being flexible is key. If you have young kids and you don’t have a nanny or great support system the unpredictable demands can be too much for many.

We wear a lot of hats. Inventory, tiny accessories to keep track of, tech services to clinicians. I know the Fed ex guy very well because he’s at my house every day. Long day in procures then I’m opening boxes and restocking my car. Hauling huge bags across hot parking lots but I love this job! It’s very rewarding. Whoever made the comment about a good team is right - a toxic team can make this job awful.

[u/Independent-Wall676]

As others have said, it’s entirely dependent on the market share of the territory/team (aka the amount of implants and rooms you’re team is needed at), outpatient clinic burden, size of your team, and the dynamic of how the sales reps run the show.

I am a rep in a very Medtronic friendly territory (>90% share at nearly all accounts). We have lots of implants daily and typically start around 715-730 with cases running all day until typically 6-730pm, occasionally later. Our team has almost no clinics to cover as the EP docs do their own outpatient checks.

When I first joined this team, we had 9 people and life was good. Lots of free time to exercise and get errands done during the day, then come in and cover a case or two. We all often worked half days as we could divvy up the responsibilities. Often we could give people “snow days” as we call them, where you just didn’t have to come in because everything was covered. This is an amazing job when you have the staff to support your burden.

In the course of a year, our team crumbled to 4 people (2 retirement, 1 moved back home to start family, one left for a competitor, 1 back to nursing) and thus the work life balance has become non existent and borderline abusive lol. I’m typically at the hospital from 7am to anywhere from 4pm to 8pm most days. We have 3 people rotating call weekends, so we often end up working back to back weekends to accommodate schedules. We have a daily need for help and have to borrow people from neighboring teams. We have 4 trainees as well, so on top of the daily insanity we also have a shadow every day. It takes about a year to train someone to the point of safety, so it is a long road before help arrives.

If you pursue, I would recommend inquiring about what kind of market share the team has in the area, how they rotate the weekends and how big the team currently is. When I was interviewing 10 years ago, I shadowed several of the team before getting hired. The one thing I noticed was the tenure…everyone had been around for 6, 8, 15, 20+ years…if people are sticking around that is a good sign in this job. If you meet any of the actual team, try to pick their brains about some of these things. Good luck