# Job Opening – POWERPOINT SPECIALIST **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922 "2013-08-11T04:53:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/21 "2013-08-13T16:28:58Z")
Alas. If it weren’t for the medical requirements, I would pursue this further. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/22 "2013-08-13T16:30:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I must share the Gettysburg Address PowerPoint: [Gettysburg Cemetery Dedication](http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm) That was beautiful. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/23 "2013-08-13T17:00:53Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Second, PowerPoint is required by our clients who we submit PPT slides to with marginal sources for medical/legal and FDA review. Whether we love or hate PowerPoint is not at issue. PowerPoint is the environment; No alternative platforms are allowed. Yeah, that’s often how it is. If you’re ever interested in greatly increasing the efficiency of this production - basically, improving it in every way including reduction in man-hour efforts - ping me. I’ve weaned quite a few clients and companies off a PP addiction. A half-assed solution that works in many cases is to use the better tool to create the slides, and when someone whines that they have to have PP… embed JPGs of the slides in a PP file. I have a macro for that. It really is a thoroughly shitty tool that costs more in productivity and presentation quality than any notion of convenience and compatibility is worth. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/24 "2013-08-13T17:28:47Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > We are not looking for a marketing expert. We are looking for someone with experience laying out approved material and corresponding data, emphasis on data, some of it very deep, marketed to physicians, with complex charts, quickly and accurately. Working knowledge of medical terminology, AMA style, and the ability to appropriately cite sources is a must for the position. Any marketing work will have already been completed by the time the PPT person receives the data, corresponding elements, and instructions. I didn’t say “expert,” but I also wasn’t clear enough: “specialist” is a very general, entry-level title (in my world, anyway). I was suggesting that you look for someone familiar with medical marketing material, not someone who’s going to want to create the material. My point was that – IMO – your ad should target the skills/knowledge that are the most specialized: experience with marketing materials and medical terminology isn’t as easy to get as PowerPoint is to learn (even the advanced capabilities). So focus on that, but make “PowerPoint expert” a requirement. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/25 "2013-08-13T17:29:26Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yeah, that’s often how it is. > > If you’re ever interested in greatly increasing the efficiency of this production - basically, improving it in every way including reduction in man-hour efforts - ping me. I’ve weaned quite a few clients and companies off a PP addiction. A half-assed solution that works in many cases is to use the better tool to create the slides, and when someone whines that they have to have PP… embed JPGs of the slides in a PP file. I have a macro for that. > > It really is a thoroughly shitty tool that costs more in productivity and presentation quality than any notion of convenience and compatibility is worth. I hear ya, but that’s a nonstarter. We’re not weaning Pfizer, Merck, any other client, nor the FDA off of PowerPoint, and neither is anyone else, for the foreseeable future. Believe me. Also, slides have to be editable to be reviewed, so jpegs are right out. Listen, I know there are better tools out there with which to build slides, but that is not my concern. Our clients come to us because of our scientific expertise, our understanding of the data, and our ability to properly interpret and accurately present it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/26 "2013-08-13T18:22:58Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Listen, I know there are better tools out there with which to build slides, but that is not my concern. Our clients come to us because of our scientific expertise, our understanding of the data, and our ability to properly interpret and accurately present it. 'Kay. Much of the business world runs on such rules about tools and tech, and some make sense and some don’t. Unfortunately, the ones that don’t seem to be enforced by the biggest players. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/27 "2013-08-14T07:53:39Z")
> [@L. G. Butts](#): > > Not really interested in the job, good luck to Onaomatopoeia in filling it. > > Anyway, I have to ask - PowerPoint Specialist? This is really a job title? Are there Excel Specialists? My current clients have used Excel for years, but as a publishing tool (to make their documents come out pretty), not as a data-analysis tool. They don’t even know how to use the autofilter. Since I’m not allowed to let them input the data they need into a spreadsheet and then run some cleanup myself, asking them for decisions only when I cannot make them, I’m going to spend several weeks teaching them how to use a tool which these ladies, all of them with degrees higher than mine, think they can use. Hell yeah, there is such a thing as an Excel Specialist. ---
**Author:** ![Synapsis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Synapsis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Synapsis)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/28 "2013-08-14T17:11:43Z")
This is a really interesting opportunity. I am an Australian who is a Presentation Specialist (yes, its a job and if you’re not sure you’re a specialist, you’re not!) I work across a variety of decks, including quick-turnarounds and high-end work. I’ve done some work for Pfizer in London for a year, so I’m familiar with the type of medical presentation that is expected. I’ll get in touch! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/29 "2013-08-14T17:38:30Z")
I look forward to hearing from you. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/30 "2013-08-14T21:39:55Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My current clients have used Excel for years, but as a publishing tool (to make their documents come out pretty)… _…dear kindly jesus…_ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/31 "2013-08-15T04:56:07Z")
My own reaction had more K sounds, but yeah ☹ It took over a month to get them to understand that a programmed form will not let them make spaces bigger or smaller at will. Two of them still don’t grok that field length is a fixed, known quantity and that means they need to chop up some of their walls of text. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922/32 "2013-08-16T03:34:51Z")
> [@L. G. Butts](#): > > Not really interested in the job, good luck to Onaomatopoeia in filling it. > > Anyway, I have to ask - PowerPoint Specialist? This is really a job title? Are there Excel Specialists? I use PowerPoint almost every day and have given presentations to over 300 people, am I a PowerPoint Specialist without knowing it? What does a PowerPoint Specialist make? How do you establish your bona fides as a PowerPoint Specialist? There are actually Excel specialists. They are very advanced Excel users able to create an application in Excel that acts as the front-end to an SQL database. So they are really Excel programmers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/job-opening-powerpoint-specialist/665922.md?page=1)