Pros
ACM will hire anybody regardless of whether or not they meet the minimum requirements of the job. This place is a great opportunity to learn some basics about the clinical trials industry without any prior experience.
Cons
We are very much a medical diagnostics company that wants to generate extra revenue through central laboratory testing for clinical trials, but have no clue about the design, analysis, requirements, or regulations behind clinical trials. We treat all our specimens as if they were a medical diagnostics sample without any consideration for whether or not the tests we perform meet a higher standard of quality for clinical trials testing. Fragmented company and infrastructure. ACM has laboratories in Rochester NY, York England, and Singapore. The York and Singapore offices are companies that were purchased by ACM and little effort has been made to standardize processes between regions. The Rochester office uses a different LIMS system than the York and Singapore offices which makes managing studies incredibly difficult. Complete lack of training. For the most part expect to be thrown head-first into your job with little to no training. Managers are either unwilling or incapable of training new hires and we have very little documentation on how to use our custom software. Mediocrity is rewarded, and hard work is punished. Every group has their share of poor performers who could easily be fired tomorrow without impacting the company. Unfortunately, we retain and promote the worst of every group because the highest performers have already left or have one foot out the door out of frustration from having to pick up the slack. Workplace bullying is tolerated at all levels. There have been several instances where one employee has harassed or bullied another employee with absolutely no recourse even when brought to the attention of management. In fact, some of the managers have no problems with bullying their subordinates, so there is really nothing you can do if you become a victim.