Sarah White, medical writer, Nitrogen
After finishing her neuroscience degree at the University of Bristol, Sarah White was sure of one thing 鈥� lab work wasn鈥檛 for her. 鈥淎ll that pipetting for hours, I couldn鈥檛 stand it,鈥� she says. While scouring a careers website, a medical writer job caught her eye and she never looked back. 鈥淭he job is great because it is the closest you will get to carrying on studying without actually carrying on. You can work on quite a few accounts and the science is always changing.鈥�
Sarah now works at Nitrogen, a London agency providing healthcare communications, where she writes adverts for pharmaceutical companies. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 advertise drugs to patients but you can to doctors,鈥� she notes. 鈥淚 work on adverts and other promotional materials. You spend a lot of time in meetings and brainstorms trying to come up with creative ideas.鈥�
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The job isn鈥檛 always that creative, though. Some companies want help producing scientific papers, so you have to work with the researchers to write up their data for publication.
Whether you work on promotional materials or on more technical literature, you need to be able to take complex scientific ideas and break them down clearly and concisely. Although you don鈥檛 need any writing qualifications, most candidates will be expected to take a writing test if they are shortlisted for the job. 鈥淭hey give you a scientific paper and make you write a 400-word abstract. They are looking to see whether you can understand it and then communicate it in a way that is clear, meaningful and concise,鈥� says Sarah. Attention to detail is a must, especially on the non-commercial side: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pedantic business and typos just look sloppy.鈥�
If you like the sound of medical writing but don鈥檛 know which angle you would prefer, it is worth getting some work experience. Many of the larger agencies take people on for the summer and give them the chance to try both the promotional and technical sides. 鈥淨uite a few of the people we take on for work experience get jobs afterwards,鈥� Sarah says.
Once you land a job, be prepared to get thrown in at the deep end and to have to take criticism on the chin. 鈥淚t is important to remember it is the work that is being appraised, not you as a person,鈥� says Sarah. 鈥淎nd ultimately, you need to make mistakes to learn. You will become a better writer because of them.鈥�