clinical research coordinator

postdoctoral fellow

technologist

senior clinical research coordinator

research scientist

Medical College of Wisconsin

The highlights of the job are interacting with internationally known experts in the medical field and learning unique skills that can be passed on to future physicians and surgeons.  You have a chance to meet scientists and medical staff from all over the world and learn about new cultures and philosophies.  The support staff are hard working and for the most part, team workers.   Most problems arise at the administrative / management levels - which can be summed up as putting business concerns (profits) over patient care needs.  This creates frustration, tension and moral dilemmas that slowly erodes your ethical center.  Some refer to that as losing your youthful naivete / idealism, which is surely part of the maturation process.  But, at the same time, idealism should be an inherent part of a educational process that purports to be on the cutting edge of medicine and thus encouraged to all extents with the goal of finding new answers to old questions as well as developing new questions, new methods, new instruments.  

The less-than-optimal employment conditions are  that you are expected to work greater than scheduled time with no compensation.  It is typical to work 10 to 12 hour days in order to complete patient care duties because of staffing issues. There is no such thing as job security as this is an "at-will" employer and it is not atypical to lose your position to nepotism or favoritism.  The learning potential is high, however, the collegiate interactions are not considered "productive"  because they are not "billable".  Cutting corners for certification / licensing seems to be acceptable as long as you can get away with it. Basically, the requirement  is to do the minimal to stay in compliance and don't look to be the best (for example, when I started in the 1980s our mission was to be the best in the country in what we did, now it is to be as good as everyone else).   I have watched the evolution of MCW culture over thirty years as an employee and can write that while there were extraordinary people, projects and accomplishments met and achieved, the personal (and yes, personnel) costs were heavy.  I truly regret that I spent the majority of my career working for MCW.  It may be a good place to get basic experience and then move on, but I do not recommend this place for long-term career growth.

In sum, the word "college" is a misnomer in the current setting of MCW's practices.  A more appropriate name should be Medical Corporation of Wisconsin (which is ironic as they do call themselves the "corporation" in  in-house correspondence).

Worked here just under 2 years, but worked with people that were here between 4-15 years. Review info provided from personal experience, and commonly verified stories of other coworkers with more time spent in Public Safety.


-The application requires a degree and multiple years of experience in security/public safety/police in order to be considered; these skills are NOT needed for the actual job. 95% of the job, since COVID started, is unlocking doors, going to potentially infected/contaminated areas to tape off for cleaning, and enforcement of COVID rules.
-No upward mobility or room for advancement, besides a 'PSO II' position which results in a different badge number and the most miniscule of raises. All supervisors are relatively young, so no chance of a retirement opening up a slot any time soon (also supervisor positions require bachelors degree and even more job experience)
-Raises are good to start, but tail off drastically after just a few years. Starting wage of new employees continues to rise, but existing employees do not get raises to match the new starting pay.
-Lower level supervisors (LTs) are good people and do what they can to try and help you advance or stay interested, but the AD has a tendency toward severe micromanagement. AD also does not address concerns or issues that arise directly, rather an email or text to a supervisor and have the supervisor address the issue.
-Even though there is no room for legitimate promotion, it is nearly impossible to be fired from this job. If you somehow manage to do enough to fulfill the laundry list of requirements to be fired, it will take weeks, if not months, to finally be let go. You can still not know where you are or what the building is called after 3 months, and it will take more time to fire you.
-Worked with some great people who have/had great personalities. 100% best aspect of the job. But even the best people I worked with lost any and all spirit or fire they possessed. The daily monotony of this "job" wore people down to the point you almost forget how to actually work.
-Side note, flu shot and COVID shot are mandatory, and masks are *still* mandatory, even outside. COVID restrictions are unchanged here since March 2020.

If you are looking to collect a check for no effort, apply RIGHT NOW (lot of openings from people quitting en masse) 
If you want to work or are looking for a fulfilling job, steer way clear. . .
Hope this helps.

This was the worst job I have ever had. I worked in pre arrival scheduling working over the phone in a call center environment. The job itself is okay except it is repetitive work that can be a bit stressful with no opportunity for advancement. They expect you to be almost robotic with required scripting that no patients want or have time to hear. When things slow down you can get 15 or 20 minutes between calls and you are expected to look at your keyboard and do nothing until you get another call. No internet, magazine, cell phone or communicating with eachother during down time.  Managers are horrible. They will micro manage you until you go crazy.  They never show appreciation or acknowledge good employees unless you are one of their very few favorites. They do not take suggestions or concerns from the employees that actually do the job that they are constantly criticizing. You will often be criticized through emailed screen shots to show what you did wrong or that you punched in 1 minute late demanding an explanation no matter the weather. They pick and choose who tardiness can be excused for no matter the situation or frequency. Management and leads believe they are the most frequent knowledge of how things should be done at all times even when doctors and clinics are constantly changing protocols but not communicating those changes. The turn over rate is extremely high. Employees are just another number and get replaced with ease. You will be monitored as if you are a child. You are expected to put up a sign that states exactly what you are doing if you have to get up from your desk for anything such as  going to the bathroom, walking to the printer that is 2 feet away, your short 10 minute break or the fax machine. I have been asked multiple times to sit back down for needing to use the restroom since 1 other person was away from their desk. (Mind you its a call center with plenty of other availability.) Much of the nursing staff you have to communicate with almost daily are extremely rude and try to belittle you. They ignore patients phone calls and messages even when they have urgent concerns. I would never recommend this department to anyone who doesn't want to get paid to be treated like a child.

I currently work in Appointment Services and assist Medical College and Froedtert with scheduling patients for primary care and OB/GYN specialty.  The job requires you to be available to answer phones at least 90 percent of the time but they also require that you do other tasks such as answer email requests, referrals, and follow up on various patient requests.  This is a very high volume call center but I am used to it being that I had previously worked for a retail corporate office, but the way management treats there employees is horrible. If you leave your desk to use the bathroom you have to put up a sign that says "im in the bathroom"....if you are on break another sign....if you are away from your desk to fax something to the hospital another sign....on top of all that you are not guaranteed a break only a 30 minute lunch.  For the Christmas party one of the manager's made soup and brought in cake...yes that was considered our Christmas party beyond cheap.  I have worked for  small company's and some large but this is a College and a Hospital.  They don't want you speaking with each other at all verbally and prefer that you IM each other if you need to converse in regard to business matters.  Also they would rather you use there phones for personal calls instead of cell phones....so basically they want to monitor and record all of your conversations even the personal ones.  In the short time I have worked for this company I have witnessed at least 3 employee's quit per week.  It was such a large turn over in the last year that HR came in to evaluate what it would take to keep the employees happy.  They had meetings with all of the employees separate from management to have a free discussion and I think the person taking notes was so overwhelmed and shocked she apologized afterward.  I think this place has some changes to make if they plan on keeping quality employees, starting with Management.

I’ve been here over a decade and have appreciated the many opportunities offered through MCW. Pres Raymond leads by example. He is trusted, reliable, transparent, innovative. MCW is a force for good in Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin. 
Many great people work here and have been here for decades. We stay because the work is powerful and the development for our personal and professional needs exists. 
However: Job growth is a challenge in my department, with some leaders encouraging people to leave versus celebrating and utilizing a person’s full capabilities and expertise. A few archaic HR policies prevent good people from being appropriately titled and paid, but a newer HR leader will hopefully shake this up. 

I am lucky to have a good team in my division and I enjoy the work I do. I’ve had opportunities to move departments and missions but choose to stay where I am. Tuition reimbursement benefit helped me get another degree and consider an additional certificate. Health and wellness benefits are amazing. I can actually enjoy several vacations a year with my family and the work culture is to actually USE our vacation time. 


I have a variety of tasks which keeps the job interesting. The part I do not like about my position is the absence of advancement opportunities. I want to improve, learn more skills and move ahead but I feel quite stagnant in my role. I learned quite a bit about DNA testing and became familiar with laboratory equipment. Through this position I became proficient with different computer programs and since I am very meticulous, found that keeping accurate and confidential secure patient records in order was gratifying. Management was fine except, as previously stated, I would prefer to have opportunities for advancement which were not offered. I have wonderful co-workers and get along extremely well with everyone I encounter. One of my tasks is calibrating lab equipment and I have to constantly ask each lab employee when they will be utilizing the equipment and for how long and then hopefully I can accomplish my tasks when the machines are free. Because there are quite a few employees who utilize the equipment most of the day, it is difficult to schedule a few hours to complete my tasks. My favorite part of the job is the monthly billing and keeping accurate records of all patient testing that is done in the lab and being able to locate a file immediately when needed.

A typical day at work is sitting in a cubicle with no views, and talking on the phone all day to patients, working a referral worklist, and flipping a sign to go to the bathroom, meetings, breaks, photocoping, at a doctor's appointment or on vacation.  You will be micromanaged all day long, and get emails and screenshots of all your mistakes, late punches, and that you are not following the polices.  There is no positive feedback to what you are doing right.  ZERO!  All phone conversations are recorded and if you say something wrong or inaccurate or didn't say something you should have or were not staying on the "script" or you were too personable and chatty with a patient - they email the conversation and will knit pick it apart.  Any changes in the way they do things comes thru emails and can be either vague and or very redundant.  Protocols are not updated immediately and some departments change the protocols so much that they aren't even keeping up with the changes they are making -making scheduling patients with MDs and RN teams difficult.  Some departments don't even answer their phones and patient's get mad having to leave voice messages!  This places sounds like a wonderful place to work, and maybe other departments it is - but the department I worked in absolutely turns off people by the mirco management of duties, and their policies... I worked there several months and saw way too many people quit/walk off the job or be fired due to the things mentioned above.

In general, I learned a lot in this position. It challenged me to go outside my comfort zone frequently to gain new knowledge and skills; however, I was hired on with an explanation that my salary was non-negotiable due to being grant funded, and I would only be working on projects related to that grant, and consistently told I was unable to get a raise until we got more grant funding. 2 years in I was working on quality-related projects, and projects unrelated to my supposed “grant” funded position. Management is very resistant to giving employees flexibility and independence to work from home or have flex positions, but this is handled differently depending on department. Managers don’t always know how to handle these changes, and in my experience actually worsened the team’s culture. The company itself, and my department, push the idea of “being a family” which lead to toxic behaviors and culture. Management did not actually feel supportive to employees and implement feedback when it was given. The vacation and sick time is separate (no PTO), and holidays are paid, which was great. There were times I had to fight to be able to take time off when my manager wanted to micromanage my earned time off. Management is aware pay is too low, and frequently referenced the poor pay that we had, but never did anything to actually impact and improve our pay. 

Regular work requires lot of reading and education, learning new techniques and conducting edge cutting medical research. Even standard procedures have to be carried on with diligence and require constant adjustments, trouble shooting, independent thinking and flexibility. Management is there to provide funding and support for the research efforts. Your research results and data should be presented in order to earn you support from the management. Management depends on NIH for funding, and school tuition. The funding was very unpredictable lately. Even the best rated research (top 1%) may lose the financial support due to the bad economy impact. My co-workers are the most helpful and supportive. Interaction with co-workers is the highlight of my day. The most frustrating part of the job is unstable financial support and communication with NIH and other sponsors. They hardly understand the importance of the medical research. Even NIH experts sometimes hinder the research progress with unreasonable requirements. Combining clinical work, teaching and research does not leave you much time to look for the financial support and sponsors.

Starting with managements, the building is full of negative energy, manager and supervisors very unprofessional, they don't care about their employee's and there is no job security if you ever had a real job where the company cares about their employee's (you would understand). They don't tell you in your interview that you will not get time off for 7 months regardless what's going on in your life. They are very immature leaders and nik pick by listening to your calls, they will never say anything positive. Training is very poor quality and team Lead is very unprofessional, spend more time gossiping and sharing personal information than training. You get (2) ten minutes breaks, you are not allowed to use your cell phones in the building. Lunch is 30 minutes, no ice or water machine nor microwave in your work area, your break and lunch will be used up going down stairs to get water and waiting to use microwave. You are not allowed to be one minute late regardless of the weather but they will ask that you stay late to help out with referrals. The computers are dysfunctional and they will not try to help you get it corrected, everyday you will be calling the help desk and get the run around. Trust me when I say there is definitely misery love in the building and more so in the leadership.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinical research coordinator 6 salaries reported	$57,114 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 3 salaries reported	$55,151 per year
Technologist 4 salaries reported	$41,750 per year
Senior clinical research coordinator 7 salaries reported	$67,071 per year
Research scientist 4 salaries reported	$74,625 per year

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