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Subject:Re: [Fwd: Re: Is this really a tech writing job?] From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:42:33 -0800
I realize that apparently Pam and I are the only ones on the
list that have seen the actual ad, so let me try this again...
This company is a biotech/pharma startup trying to launch a
product that will have to be FDA approved to be sold. In
an established company in this industry, the submission paper-
work would be researched by internal compliance experts
and written by medical writers. The requirements for the
writers would most likely be a degree in medicine, chemistry
or biology and/or 5+ years of FDA submission writing. But
because they are not an established company, they probably
haven't got the funds to hire FDA experts and experienced
medwriters internally, so their product submission is being
researched and authored by an outside consultant and the
job function of this "tech writer" will likely be to type and format
the consultant's manuscript. Their plan appears to be to hire
someone who lacks the qualifications to be a medwriter but
is willing to do their office dirtywork in return for a chance
to get a foot in the door and learn a position he or she would
otherwise not have a chance of ever getting into. Think about
it: the job is writer *and* admin, and they *still* don't have
enough work to offer more than 20 hrs/week; there's probably
10 people in the entire company.
If I were an unemployed writer in my 20's with only a year of
work on my resume who wanted a shot at breaking into
medwriting, I'd have walked my resume in for this by now.
5-10 years down the line, the person who takes this job and
runs with it will probably be their director of medical writing
(assuming, of course, that they're not out of business by then).
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----
From: <tom -dot- green -at- iwon -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: Is this really a tech writing job?]
>
>
> Just goes to show how much respect some companies have for our, and
admin's, professions. Just lump them together, they're all the same.
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