Is validation boring?

Question

Is validation boring? and what possiblities do I have to advance?
What would a normal work day be like?
What industry is validation considered?
What type of degree, undergrad and grad do you need?
Basically, I have a lot of questions. The more specific the better.

Thank you.

....Validation dealing with reports, for example, validation packets.

Answer 1

I worked in the validation department of a medical device company for a while. A great deal of what the validation engineer I worked for did was statistics. She had to prove with 99 and six 9's confidence that the automatic controls and the human QA would actually catch any mistakes or damaged devices (primarily syringes) before they ever reached a customer.

It seemed to me that she spent a lot of time with statistics programs on the computers and devising test runs with damaged samples going through the assembly line over and over again.

I thought it seemed mind-numbingly boring - but I wasn't the one doing it.

Answer 2

When you say validation. I think of "quality assurance (QA)", "validation and verification" and "test engineer"
(I assume you are not talking about semiconductor device validation.)

All are basically the same. In an ideal world the QA wing of an R&D department would have zero value-added (as everything the engineers made would be perfect).

Obviously, this is not the case, hence test engineers will often comprise around 10+% of the staff of the R&D department.

Anyways:

1) boring... I sure think so. And tedious too.
2) advancement... test engineer -> QA manager -> ??? Companies that deal with FDA need all sorts of compliance documentation. So you can get up to VP level job at some companies.
3) As a test engineer you will be a) making/reading test plans b) executing test plans (or scrounging for the equipment you need to execute the test plan) and c) arguing with engineers about what is and isn't a bug. Plus you have to sit in on a lot of meetings.
4) Anything that needs FDA approval is a good bet they need validation engineers.
5) Apparently no degree required. I have seen validation "engineers" run from high school up to masters. I knew one lady with a BS in chemistry but she because a software test engineer because it paid better than chemistry tech. job.

Answer 3

I am a verification engineer in electronic and my job is not boring at all !
Digital/analog circuit are so complex that it might easily take 1 month to design and 2 year to verify it works in all possible scenarios
Verification techniques tend to be more sophisticated.
If you wish to go this path you shouldconsider a BS or MS in electronic
Obviously if you think of the guy on the test floor who just pushes buttons this is a different story..

Answer 4

Yes!!