#3: But I don't have any writing experience!

Neither did I have any relevant writing experience when I first started out as a medical writer. But think carefully, you may not be as “inexperienced” as you think.

Say me, for example. I was on the verge of completing my thesis for my post-grad study when I saw a job classified looking for an editor, preferably someone with a pharmacy or pharmacology degree. I should say that I was just trying my luck. I didn’t fit into any of their requirements. But no harm trying I reckoned, since I studied biochemistry and have basic knowledge of pharmacology. I got an interview from the company, but of course they didn’t hire me for the post (I was so not the person for that position). Instead, they employed me to be a medical writer for their communications division. Only after that I was introduced to the world of medical writing.

But I have never written for living, so I have zero experience, right? Isn’t this a bit risky for the company to hire me? True, I didn’t really have any work related experience in this field, but I had written thesis for my undergrad course, and was WRITING for my thesis then. I also co-published a clinical paper in one of the local medical journals. I made presentation slide kit for an intervarsity conference. Those are considered as writing experience, though for a smaller and different category of audience.

I consider myself lucky as the company was planning to set up their local communications division editorial team, and somehow they were willing to take the risk of hiring someone with zero experience. Well, every experienced writer (in fact in any occupation) was once inexperienced, right? The point is - if you have written any thing, let it be a thesis, an article published in the newspaper or magazine, or a newsletter you wrote for your church, your diary, your blogs, etc, consider all of those your writing experience.

Whether your writing style and skill match what the company is looking for, they will find out by giving you a writing test. If the company hires you, then you can learn and pick up the necessary knowledge and skill as you work, most likely with guidance from other skilled writers. Such companies also usually provide training for their writers through in-house workshops or seminars conducted by experts.

So, if you have the relevant science degree, if you think you can write reasonably well (i.e. grammatically correct and easy to read), and want to make a living through writing, why not give medical writing a shot?

Of course, some medical writers do not merely write. Most of the time, they are also involved in managing projects. I’ll touch on this in the next article.