die_kluge said:
PCat - what exactly does a sleep specialist *do* all day long, anyway?
And how does one get into that line of work. What kind of degree do you have?
I'd like to say that I nap all day, but it just isn't true - darn it.
At the moment I'm writing - a lot. I have
a seminar series starting next month, so I'm preparing the presentation and hand-out materials for it. I'm also marketing, responding to inquiries, and other boring stuff.
Mind you, I'm much more of a scheduling and alertness expert than I am a sleep specialist. I know how to keep people awake and safe while working, but there's still a lot about sleep that a MD would know and I wouldn't.
When I'm actually consulting, I'm typically on site at the client's location; that may be a power plant, a paper mill, an iron foundry, or a factory that makes plexiglass... anywhere that runs night shifts. I've seen some interesting places. While there, I'm usually interviewing employees or management, explaining practical shift schedules to folks working shiftwork, or teaching people how to thrive while on night shifts. If I'm in the middle of helping a company pick a new shift pattern, I am probably doing a lot to get the employees involved.
I travel a lot for this; I may fly across the country, go to a meeting for four hours, and fly back the next day. I try to avoid those, though.
To do this you have to have good people skills (upper mgmt down to hourly employees), good presentation skills, the ability to teach, and the ability to solve logical puzzles (shift design). My background isn't medical, it's business. After going back for a MBA, I learned most of this on the job over the course of eight years while I worked for one of the largest businesses in the industry. Now that I'm out on my own, things are a lot more exciting.
