Most contracts coordinators would say that no two days are the same. Every day, people in this line of work are faced with new challenges.
Donna Fernandez does some contract coordination work for a school district. She works in their grants department. "A typical workday -- what's that?" she says. "I really don't have a typical day, which is one thing I really like about doing grants. There's rarely a chance to get bored."
Fernandez says she spends a lot of her time in meetings and answering the phone. She also writes proposals, although she often does so at night because there isn't time during the day. But she says it's the variety that she likes best. She also gets satisfaction in knowing that the grants are going to people who deserve them.
Fernandez works with contracts as part of her many other duties. But other jobs may revolve entirely around contracts. That's the case with Velvet Hunter, a technical consultant with the government.
Hunter says she spends about 75 percent of her time writing contracts. The other 25 percent is spent reviewing contracts.
"The contracts I review for the State of Tennessee deal with those who are providing professional services," explains Hunter.
She says she's really enjoying the work and the variety that comes along with it.
"Before I started here, I thought there was a contract template that I could just follow," says Hunter. But she quickly discovered that each contract is different, even when it's for the same service.
"So much depends on the situation," says Hunter. "A lot of judgment is needed -- you've got to be analytical."
Hunter adds that people considering this type of work also need to be picky, detail-oriented and extremely organized. "You can't be a big picture person," says Hunter, because many projects are long term. In other words, you have to work on each contract one step at a time and be prepared to redo work when the contract doesn't meet someone's expectations.
"Government contracts require multiple signatures and it's usually a long process," says Hunter.
Other people in these positions may tell a different story. Dave Bowen is a program manager for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). He is one of two team leaders in the scholarships division and oversees six program officers and four program assistants.
"The largest program we deal with is our postgraduate scholarships and fellowships program, where we receive about 3,000 applications each year and award about 1,500 scholarships and 200 postdoctoral fellowships," explains Bowen.
"My role is to make sure that all of the team's duties are carried out as effectively and efficiently as possible." He says that means wearing several different hats, including one for coach, mentor, arbitrator, editor and human resources consultant.
Although he admits the most challenging aspect of his job is juggling his time, it's also what he finds appealing about it. "I like my job because it is challenging," says Bowen.
Working in a job like Bowen's requires some particular skills. He says you should be able to work in a team, have good analytical and communication skills and be able to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
But tight deadlines aren't a factor in every contracts coordinator's job. Both Bowen and Fernandez must deal with them, but they're generally not a factor in Hunter's job.
Nor are they in Kathy Dunstan's job. Dunstan is the contracts coordinator at a hospital. Dunstan says short deadlines aren't usually a factor. Like Hunter, her projects are more long term and take between several weeks and several months to complete.
"I do specific negotiations of clinical trial agreements that involve real live patients," explains Dunstan. She works closely with the drug companies as well as the research doctors and tries to put together contracts that will suit both parties.
"I tailor the specific mandates of the contracts," says Dunstan. She adds that most often, drug companies propose a contract to the doctor, which she'll go through, carefully analyzing what works and what doesn't.
"I do a lot of analysis and looking at language," says Dunstan. "I need to know what difference a word might make or how a particular phrase can change the meaning of something."
She says having analytical skills is extremely important if you want to be successful in this line of work. Good communication skills are also important. "I deal with drug companies and doctors every day, either over the phone, by e-mail or fax, whatever it takes," says Dunstan. She adds that being assertive, being able to negotiate and being able to propose solutions are also good skills to have.
Working as a contracts coordinator can be demanding, but it's almost always interesting. Many of the skills that are involved can be transferred between industries, so you can choose a job in the field that interests you.