Lilly: "I were referred to me as person who specializes in pharmaceutical based informatics and wanted to reach out to me."

At "What, Me Worry? Lilly Fined Over Zyprexa, Should Be Fined For eRecruitment Inanity As Well?", I wrote about a very bizarre eRecruiting message I received from Eli Lilly:

In just about the most bizarre and inane recruiting email I think I've ever received, this unsolicited gem came in to my professional email account. This is at least the second time I received this identical message in the past few weeks.

It began with "Dear MD." Click on the above link to see that solicitation.

I didn't think it could get much worse than that.

I was wrong.

This just in, exactly as received (emphases mine):

From: Hank Gehron
Sent: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 7:45 am
Subject: Your Help Is Requested for a Eli Lilly Career Opportunity! (Discovery Informatics Director at Indianapolis)

I am a member of the Staffing Team at Eli Lilly. I were referred to me as person who specializes in pharmaceutical based informatics. I wanted to reach out to me, to see if you maybe able to recommend anyone that could qualify for the below position.

[Perhaps I should recommend my grade school English teacher to go over this solicitation with a big red marking pencil? - ed.]

For more than 130 years, Eli Lilly and Company has been dedicated to meeting the health care needs of people in the United States and around the world. We address these needs primarily by developing innovative medicines-investing a higher percentage of our sales in research and development than any other major pharmaceutical company. If you are interested in being considered for employment with a "Best in Class" Pharmaceutical company, please review the following opportunity.

Please feel free to call me with any questions; or perhaps you may know of someone that could qualify.

Your consideration is most appreciated.

Hank Gehron, MBA, SPHR
Lilly Talent Acquisition Team / RightThing Recruiting Process Outsourcing
work. 610-263-3030 Ext. 4450, Country Code 001
blackberry. 610-836-1856
hank.gehron@rightthinginc.com

Then there are the "requirements":

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
M.S. or Ph.D. in Biology, Chemistry, or related Computational sciences
Minimum of 8-10 years experience in biotech or pharma industry
Minimum of 3-5 years managing/leading Informatics teams
Strong understanding of genomic, proteomic, expression, and imaging platforms.
Experience in the specifications, design, development, and deployment of bioinformatics, chemo-informatics, and translational informatics tools and analysis to support research portfolio.

Note no call for formal medical or medical informatics training, as this position is not really "Discovery Informatics" (which would encompass medical informatics), it is primarily bioinformatics or "gene stuff." I commented on that field at "Has Bioinformatics Hit a Hard Wall of Stagnation?" here.

I will not comment further, only asking a simple question:

Is this a company you would want to work for or that inspires confidence in its ability to produce safe medicines?

What? Me worry about talking good with grammar?

-- SS