Pharm.D. Seeks Entry Level Medical Writing Position
May 28, 2011 12:13 AM Subscribe
How can I get started in medical writing?
I recently earned my Pharm.D., and have become unhappy with the work and the working conditions in a pharmacy. Although I worked part time in a community pharmacy throughout school, earning my degree and carrying out similar roles led me to consider other options.
While earning my degree, I completed a rotation at a medical communications company that publishes a trade magazine for pharmacists. At that company, I wrote a continuing education article for on gout. Finding that I enjoyed this project immensely, I started looking for a job in medical writing.
In what was perhaps an impetuous move, I left my position as a pharmacy intern at a retail pharmacy to search for jobs more intensively.
What should I do now? Should I join the AMWA? Will the training at medicalwritingtraining.com help me?
Should I attempt to author a column in my local newspaper?
How long can I expect to wait before finding something? Most of the jobs require a minimum of two years of experience.
More about me: I am located in New Jersey, near a train station that goes directly to New York.
Thank you for your help.
I recently earned my Pharm.D., and have become unhappy with the work and the working conditions in a pharmacy. Although I worked part time in a community pharmacy throughout school, earning my degree and carrying out similar roles led me to consider other options.
While earning my degree, I completed a rotation at a medical communications company that publishes a trade magazine for pharmacists. At that company, I wrote a continuing education article for on gout. Finding that I enjoyed this project immensely, I started looking for a job in medical writing.
In what was perhaps an impetuous move, I left my position as a pharmacy intern at a retail pharmacy to search for jobs more intensively.
What should I do now? Should I join the AMWA? Will the training at medicalwritingtraining.com help me?
Should I attempt to author a column in my local newspaper?
How long can I expect to wait before finding something? Most of the jobs require a minimum of two years of experience.
More about me: I am located in New Jersey, near a train station that goes directly to New York.
Thank you for your help.
Pity you left the internship because that would have been relevant to your resume for writing and industry experience.
* Look at the AMWA -- American Medical Writers Association and start researching your future field of endeavor including expected skill sets, tools and background knowledge;
* AFTER doing your research, you will want to come in contact with people already in the industry to do further research on whether this is the field for you and how you go about getting skills, tools and building a portfolio;
* Look at your local educational institutions to see if there are relevant courses such as, medical writing, available for you to take. You will have determined these are relevant courses from your initial rounds of research;
* While doing all this, you should be networking like crazy so you can find fellow travelers that you can learn from and also reach out to the larger community. This will include LinkedIn, the local writers chapter of AMWA, freelancers, etc.;
* Build a portfolio of relavent material including, writing pieces in the appropriate genres and modalities so you have something to show a recruiter or interviewer;
* Carefully draft your CV and cover letter after you decide which firms you want to apply to factoring things such as, travel, corporate culture and experience exposure
You want to do all this research to give you the best options and possibilities. Recruiters will find you regardless if you do this, but you will be in a better leveraging position if you have a better sense of of the field.
I am sure other folks will chime in with even more detail.
You have a distinct advantage already having a Pharma degree which places you in a better position than many others who do not have pharma, science or research background.
posted by jadepearl at 5:08 AM on May 28, 2011
* Look at the AMWA -- American Medical Writers Association and start researching your future field of endeavor including expected skill sets, tools and background knowledge;
* AFTER doing your research, you will want to come in contact with people already in the industry to do further research on whether this is the field for you and how you go about getting skills, tools and building a portfolio;
* Look at your local educational institutions to see if there are relevant courses such as, medical writing, available for you to take. You will have determined these are relevant courses from your initial rounds of research;
* While doing all this, you should be networking like crazy so you can find fellow travelers that you can learn from and also reach out to the larger community. This will include LinkedIn, the local writers chapter of AMWA, freelancers, etc.;
* Build a portfolio of relavent material including, writing pieces in the appropriate genres and modalities so you have something to show a recruiter or interviewer;
* Carefully draft your CV and cover letter after you decide which firms you want to apply to factoring things such as, travel, corporate culture and experience exposure
You want to do all this research to give you the best options and possibilities. Recruiters will find you regardless if you do this, but you will be in a better leveraging position if you have a better sense of of the field.
I am sure other folks will chime in with even more detail.
You have a distinct advantage already having a Pharma degree which places you in a better position than many others who do not have pharma, science or research background.
posted by jadepearl at 5:08 AM on May 28, 2011
Would you ever consider working in research? I work in academic (ie not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry) medical research. We not only write papers, we design studies, collect data or secure data from another source, analyze the data and interpret the results. Writing a paper is the icing on the cake. Having a Pharm D would position you nicely to enter this field.
posted by lulu68 at 7:47 AM on May 28, 2011
posted by lulu68 at 7:47 AM on May 28, 2011
Fellow pharmacist here from academia. Don't forget to ask your previous professors if they have any connections. Your professors will likely have to publish their research and other review articles as a part of their jobs. See if you can co-author a review article with one of the ones you got along well with (for free) just to build up your publication record and portfolio. Once you've proven that you're a capable writer with actual samples, you'll have a better chance of getting a paid gig.
Good luck to you. Feel free to memail me if you want more specifics about my job situation and publications.
posted by watch out for turtles at 7:52 AM on May 28, 2011
Good luck to you. Feel free to memail me if you want more specifics about my job situation and publications.
posted by watch out for turtles at 7:52 AM on May 28, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Check out quite a few things that this poster asked just a day ago (Previously)
I am a medical writer (freelance) and started by working fulltime in 2 companies, so ...just work with me, you are in really good shape. I've run across a lot of PharmDs at companies and as freelancers.
Actually, with a PharmD,you are in pretty good shape; I got into a medical writing ~4.5 years ago with a PhD and there are quite a few places that want you to have the grad degree and as long as you do well their writing test,you can get hired.
There are a couple things you can do depending on your preference:
* Try to get projects on a freelance basis (especially if you already ahve the gout CME samples), I can point to a few companies that would work with you off the bat for small proejcts, although they don't pay a lot. This may be time consuming and it sounds like you have the background to get hired right now,so you may want to put yourt ime into looking for a job instead.
* Create a CV, cover letter, and send it to all the companies in NJ and NYC, depedning on how far you want to travel. See the previously question above. I also know two companies that would hire people with your background --everyone they hired also did not have experience but had a graduate degree. Do see the previously question -- that person did a pretty good job with her CV and the things the companies look for.
* Consider working with a recruiter if you want them to quickly liine up interviews and writing tests. There are 2 that I had a good experience with and woudl recommend (because at least one of them did get me a job in a matter of weeks....)
* Put some of your expereince onto a linkedin profile (you did write CME), your degree, and the title should reflect you are looking for med writing. The recruiters will find you. Trust me.
I don't think you will need to wait that long, although the work goes up and down at different times of the year. So for example, OCt, Nov, Dec work is crazy in all those companies and beyond a doubt you would get hired then. Right now it depends on the company.
I made a tiny baby blog because a few years ago I asked questions just like you and I couldn't find resources. I have a few posts for people looking to into meded, although other parts of the blog are fluff.
Do memeail me, seriously, if you want recs for companies, recruiters, etc. Don't worry about the 2 year thing, MOST companies who want an intro level person in my experience will say they want 2 years. I can think of several that either gave me a job, offered me a job, or interviewed me ...and like you, I didn't have much experience.
Oh yeah, one of my early askme questions is "how to get into med/science writing". Can't find it now -- but I think I pointed to it in the previously
posted by Wolfster at 4:50 AM on May 28, 2011 [3 favorites]