> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://nestorzumaya.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The edges of the work will blend
- URL: https://nestorzumaya.ghost.io/the-edges-of-the-work-will-blend/
- Published: 2026-10-01T12:02:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T12:13:18.000Z
- Author: Néstor Zumaya

I’m increasingly being asked by Operations Managers at Medical Communication companies to review text from the clinical standpoint. I keep being surprised by these requests, because I thought that my background as a doctor made it clear to them that that’s what I had always done. It didn't, and it has taken several 1:1 calls to explain this.

Five years ago, I was mainly working in medical translations, and most of the requests involved clinical judgment to solve a translation successfully. The requests came in and I was free to do the work the best I could from the beginning. My favorite part was finding the sections that required me to go to my old textbooks to look at an illustration or an explanation of a procedure.

But the job started to change, and I remember the first request that I got to write a book chapter for an independent author, while also producing a translation to go with it. Then came the requests to upload website translations to the CMS. I was lucky to have experience in both: my career started in medical textbooks and as a content writer for various websites, so these allowed me to mix my skills very nicely. Now, I’m also being asked to judge educational content for its translatability and to advise on strategy for global use. 

> “The edges of the role will blur into the roles around it.” - Mike Cannon-Brookes

I listened to an [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkPZBVuxhsU&ref=nestorzumaya.ghost.io) with the CEO of Atlassian, a software company, and he explained how roles are blending together, and that helped me put words to what I’ve been experiencing and seeing in medical communications.

Sometimes, I wish the job had stayed the same as it was five years ago. The most exciting part about writing and translating is what happens before getting the final result: the research, the questions, the feeling of being stuck and then cracking the code to move forward, just like a puzzle. I miss that.

Through the rapid changes that AI is bringing upon our jobs, I remain convinced that skills, not deliverables, are what we will need to focus on. Although it's difficult, I have been asking clients about their real day-to-day problems, not what type of documents they need, but the reasons behind that need. I’m trying to understand their blockers and why they are trying to solve them with their new workflows. I used to categorize my clients by type of deliverable. Now, most of them fall somewhere in the spectrum of needing me in an advisory role.

These days, whenever I work on projects that still carry the old labels, I make a point of sharing my thought process during delivery. That has started some conversations with clients that were unaware of the behind-the-scenes.

Some clients are still interested in just transactions, but I’m interested in deeper roles.

So, today, I rarely call myself a writer or a translator. Sometimes it’s convenient, but I try to tell people that I work in medical communications with an emphasis in medical education and its global implementation with cultural sensitivity. 

What's the last thing a client asked you to do that wasn't part of the job?