It is a thrill and a privilege to participate on the development of new treatments that will help patients around the world.I mostly write trial-specific docs (eg protocols and CSRs), Investigator brochures, documents for regulatory submissions, and interactions with authorities, among other things. I started doing a bit of everything, but decided to specialise in regulatory writing for pharma, which was by far my favourite field.After learning more about the job, I knew this was what I wanted to do in the long run. I started writing professionally during my MSc in clinical development as part of a job placement program, after briefly experimenting with other roles.With lab research becoming increasingly competitive and not offering a lot of stability, my Uni would promote other careers, such as medical writing, data analysis and management, clinical research support roles, reg affairs, sales and so on. Thanks for creating this thread :) this job has people from all sorts of backgrounds and it is nice for newcomers to see that there is no single formula to get your foot in the door! But if I had stayed on the agency side for all these years, I would be in senior management someplace. Freelance has short-term benefits - you can make more money and you have more flexibility. What I would have done differently - I probably would have stayed on the agency side from the beginning rather than freelancing. Sometimes I don't really feel like writing yet another slide deck. Part of my job now is managing junior writers, which is one of the better parts of my job. I enjoy the job on a good day, but am honestly a bit burned out by this point. I'm now at an agency that does promotional medical communications. Over the years I did a mix of all types of medical writing - CME, promo med ed, patient ed, publications, PR, university websites, and others. But as someone who now hires medical writers, the same general process could still work. The field is a lot different today than it was back then (mid 90s) - PhD medical writers were not really as typical as they are now. I went back and forth between freelancing and agency life a few times, have now been in-house for about 5 years mainly due to the soaring cost of health insurance. I sent them my CV, cover letter, and a couple of writing samples, they had me do a couple of projects on a freelance basis, and then they offered me a job. I knew absolutely nothing about the job and had never even heard of pharma writing as a job path. I was in the library one day flipping through the job listings in "Science" and saw an ad for a medical communications company looking to hire a medical writer. I was a disgruntled assistant professor in a neuroscience department. The hardest part in the beginning was my lack of self confidence, but now I feel much more aware of my strengths and what I can improve on (I hate using the word 'weakness'!)įeel free to message me for a friendly chat :) And I would definitely have joined a group like this on Reddit and other social media platforms to learn from others and get their support. If I could start again, I would reach out to more potential clients directly on LinkedIn. Yes I enjoy what I do! I would love to create more social media content rather than long pieces of writing, but they take just as much effort! I've really grown into my role and I have created a great relationship with the agency I work at. This includes blogs, product pages, FAQs, landing pages, and social media like YouTube. I am more of a creative medical writer, and I write in plain English mostly for content pieces on the internet. So I am a medical copywriter, and work to create promotional pieces. I write for the public, and I write for brands. So I had to get used to working from home and learning how to write for clients - first by freelancing and then getting hired by an agency. I was a pharmacist in a community setting (in a shop!), but then COVID happened so I went part time, and then we moved abroad where I couldn't do my usual job. I really wanted to make a difference in the world. I found out about medical writing by accident! I was actually really just into writing educational health resources for patients and people online that were helpful and valuable pieces of knowledge that can affect their life. If you could start again, what would you do differently?ġ.What kind of medical writing do you do?.What were you doing before you became a medical writer?.How did you find out about medical writing?. I'd love to hear your story on how and why you became a medical writer.
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