May 2009

How did I break into Medical Communications?

I enjoy talking with scientists, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and medial and graduate students about Medical Communications as a viable – and lucrative – alternative career in science and medicine. In fact I give talks on the subject to medical and graduate student association: Almost without fail I hear,

“Wow I had no idea that this industry existed. How do I get into Medical Communications?”

Here’s how it happened for me:

I was born for this job!

When people asked how I got into this field, I start by telling them that my father has a PhD in pharmacology and my mother has a PhD in linguistics – I was born for this job!

I grew up surrounded by my father’s colleagues talking about peer-review, program project grants, and publish-or-perish as well as my mother’s colleagues discussing the proper use of ‘who’ and ‘whom,’ the origins of words, and when to use the present pluperfect. However, I didn’t realize the connection between science and communication until well into my second post-doc.

After receiving my BA in Kinesiology with a minor in Biology, I started graduate school with the glum realization that in 5 to 7 years, with my PhD, I would most likely have few options:

Bench science – like my dad

Pharma science – like many of my dad’s colleagues

Teaching – like my mom.

After 4.5 productive years (another blog entry), I landed competitive post-doc that I thought was going to be great! I wrote and won an AHA post-doc grant and traveled to national meetings, but I wasn’t happy. Same was true in my next post-doc – still not happy. 

Then, I was attending an ENDO meeting in Washington, DC, and I was sitting next to a woman who had her business card on the desk. I glanced over and saw that her title was “Senior Manager of Medical Writers” – or something like that – for a major pharmaceutical company.

This is Where it all Began

At the break I introduced myself and asked what is medical communications. She very politely described the general differences between regulatory, scientific/medical, and marketing/promotional writing within her company (another blog entry). I knew that I was not into IND, NDA, and other FDA-type writing, and I’m not much of a salesman, but peer-reviewed scientific writing sounded perfect!

I did a great deal of research on medical writing, trying to understand who, besides pharmaceutical companies, hires medical writers, and what kind of salary I could make (another blog entry). Unfortunately, I didn’t know any other professional medical writers and there was not a web site like this to help guide me – it was trial and error – and BOY did I err (another blog post).

To make a long blog short, I messed up several early interviews – learning something new each time – before I finally got it right. With the help of recruiters (another blog entry), I finally had 3 good offers to choose from.

Day 1 to the Present

I started as a medical writer for a medium-sized communications agency (fewer than 100 people) and felt quickly at home in my new environment. I learned the ins-and-outs of writing within an agency for a pharmaceutical client and the strict rules that guide commercial publications (another blog post). I was very happy.

After 3 years I was promoted to a medical director. I managed an associate medical director, 3 writers, a project manager, and a project coordinator. Still happy.

After a total of 5 years on the agency side, I got the opportunity to see what it is like on the other side. I accepted a position within a major pharmaceutical company and am still very happy with my career in medical publications.

You Can Too!

Keep checking back to this blog. I will be posting a lot of valuable information about how you, too, can break into medical communications!