I have noticed a tremendous variety and depth of knowledge on this board, from electricians to linguists. I thought it would be interesting to start a thread inviting everyone to share an area they consider themselves to be knowledgeable about, be it professionally or hobby. In short- what’s your thing? Further, an opportunity to mention if there’s something you think people should know about “your thing.”
By way of example:
I have been in pharmaceutical development for over 20 years. While “D” is always grouped with “R&D” I don’t suspect that people understand the difference (in pharmaceuticals; other industries may be different). Development doesn’t really invent a new treatment, but takes it from idea, proof of concept, and animal studies and makes it into a product that can be marketed and sold. So we’re mostly looking at how can we make it stable over the long term, how can we get it into a formulation that is practical and tolerable to the subjects, what is the appropriate container and delivery method, etc. In my experience (though this is not universal) the Clinical team, responsible for running the trials, is part of Development and I have often worked closely with that team to support their needs. I wish people had a better understanding of the process by which a drug comes to market, especially when I see a common plot device in television whereby the pharma companies make money on clinical trials. We don’t- we spend obscenely on them (with the hopes of making that back in commercial sales, of course).
A plot device in an episode of Elementary I saw recently revolved around how a patient was getting the money to pay for treatment she was getting in a trial, and that is so wrong on so many levels, it just infuriated me because I know there will be plenty of people who think that’s how it works. They even peppered the dialogue with real terms, which made the misinformation even worse. Hint guys: terminally ill subjects are not given experimental phase 1 drugs.
My personal area of expertise is in parenteral (injectable) manufacturing. Parenterals by their nature are among the highest risk products because they bypass all the body’s defenses. Our processes and controls are pretty amazing, in terms of our ability to keep the product clean and safe. So I am the person who finds an appropriate facility to manufacture the product, I arrange for the audits and inspections, work with Legal to develop the contracts, oversee the technology transfer and site qualification, and ultimately oversee the routine production. I currently oversee manufacturing at about 15 facilities in 5 countries.
It’s been a good career, and at times I am immensely proud of the work I do, and at other times I’m so bored I wonder if I should quit and get a job at Home Depot.
I work for a fire alarm and safety equipment company. I have been installing, maintaining, servicing and repairing cutting edge fire alarm systems for 37 years. about a third of the guys working in this field, for any company in the local area, started out working under me.
My current project is a very large data center owned by a client that insists upon confidentiality. My crew spends our days testing the fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems for proper operation.
I am an expert in the processing and administration of logistical technical documentation (operating manuals and the like) for US Navy submarines. There’s probably a few dozen people in the US with my level of expertise on this (admittedly incredibly specialized) field.
I’m also an expert in the history and background of the world of George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”, a much more common field of expertise, and much, much less useful.
Behavioral neuroscience, medical devices and implants manufacturing and logistics, IT (databases, ERP systems, radio frequency devices, systems interfaces and hardware interfaces to heavy machinery).
There’s probably no single person in my state that has a better understanding and knowledge of the policies/procedures/capabilities of the NCIC-National Crime Information Center and our associated state system.
Actually there may be one. At MOST two but it’s not likely.
I’m an embedded software engineer. I did kernels and device drivers for cell phones for over a decade, then a brief stint in marine electronics.
Most of my career I’ve also served as the interface to the electrical, mechanical, and factory teams. I’ve been a senior engineer on products that have sold more to 10 million units. To be fair, I’m sure they would have done ok with someone else doing the work…but it had to be done, and I did it.
If you hit the ground, in terrible physical distress, I can most likely keep you alive until we get to a medical facility. Of course providing you have enough actual parts left to sustain life.
somehow this seems to be a …most appropriate… username/post combo
Myself errm, well, I dunno, I tend to get bored with a job after a few years and leave to do something totally different. I’ve been a mechanic, worked as a microbial remediation specialist and department supervisor in the area of structural disaster recovery (I dried and cleaned your flooded/burned crawlspace, attic etc.) but I know that my knowledge and skills in that area are now obsolete. Currently I am a mover, I can come into your house, pack your stuff, load it on a truck, drive (depending on the size of the truck) and deliver your stuff back to you. You get 4 courtesy boxes unpacked for free (unpack costs extra)and I don’t put things away for you in cabinets closets and so forth. Packing and loading doesn’t seem like much of a skill, but I’ve ceased to be surprised at peoples amazement that all their stuff fits in such a small amount of space in the truck.
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call myself an expert (because I want to avoid the wrath of Drs. Dunning and Kruger). But I’m reasonably good at computer forensics, investigations, and incident response. These days I manage security incidents at a really big company that provides IT services to other really big companies. I occasionally speak at conferences on the topic of information security and investigations, and I’ve made a few contributions to the field through my blog. I’ll be teaching a graduate level course in information security management at UM-St. Louis in the spring. I’m not one of the leading lights in my field or anything, but I’m not a dilettante either.
Well, as I’ve said before my username is my profession. I’m pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. I don’t specialize either, I’m a Jill of all trades in the bakery field.
I babysit a datacenter…so I’m REAL good at reading the internet and watching cartoons…every now and then I have to reboot something…but sometimes there is new installs or decomms to be done. Not very challenging, but also no stress.
Agriculture. Specifically irrigation ag. I grew up on a farm, and for most of my adult life have been a working farmer and/or employed in agribusiness. Spent some time in horticultural research (viticulture). Also spent some time in forestry, where a lot of crossover skills apply.
