How to become a freelance writer?

Okay, my last post was written 4 months ago. As usual, my wrong. Working as a full-time health writer is definitely more hectic than the life of a freelance medical writer. :)

I still take in freelance writing projects occasionally, but it's not a necessity anymore for me to make a living. Of course, it's always good to have double income, right?

If you think you have the flair and skills for writing, and have been aspired to become a writer yourself (not necessarily in the fields of health and medicine), BUT you just lack the opportunity or training to really become one, perhaps you can take your first step by being a freelance writer.

How to become a freelance writer if you don't know of anyone who works in publishing company? Well, nowadays you have internet, you can actually search for writing jobs online!

Many online freelance writing jobs are simple writing tasks, such as writing a movie review for a blog, proofreading simple documents or writing a short opinion about a skincare product. As long as you can write decent articles with correct grammar and spelling, you can make money writing articles, from being a website content writer to press release writer.

The main advantage of such online writing jobs is that you are able to work on it from home on a part-time or full-time basis. Of course, you may also find it cool to tell people that you actually make money from writing online. ;)

To find yourself online freelance writing jobs with topics you're interested in, you may check out this website RealWritingJobs.com. I have no experience using their service, but I think it's worth checking out.

Happy freelancing! :)

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If you need help in career planning

If you ask me how did I find my new job or how fast I got an interview from the company, well, I found it on an online job search website and submitted my application through the website as well.

I did that on a Friday night, and received a call on Monday morning to invite me for the job interview. Interviewed on the next day, and was offered the job on the spot.

It's partly the wonders of internet, where job search and applications have been made so much more convenient for job seekers. Of course, it also depends on your experience and skills, and whether the type of job you're looking for is in demand.

If you're currently considering of a career change, but don't know what's the best way to do it, did you know that you can get career advice from expert career coaches through the internet too?

Today's job market is very competitive; looking for a job can be very challenging and time consuming, even if you have the expertise required. So it's always good to have somebody to point you to the right direction so that you won't be drown out by other competing job seekers.

Today, if you need some guidance to assist you in your career advancement plan, there are online career coaches available to teach you all the necessary steps and strategies to land a better job faster. You can even make use of online resume writing software to generate professionally written resume, or attend online career planning workshop. That's so cool, right? :)

I call that the Power of the World Wide Web!

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Resigned from full-time freelancing, back to work

After working from home on a freelance basis for more than a year, I've now gone back to a full-time job. Reasons: Enough time spent at home, not enough money to sustain the lifestyle I like. Haha!

This post is to update my blog readers about what I'm doing now. I currently work as a health writer in a company that mainly serves as a secretariat for local NGOs that are related to nutrition, paediatric health and parenting.

The company set up, system and operation are very different from the medical communications company I previously worked in. The target audience of my writings now are mainly general public and parents. Therefore my writing style has to change from now onwards. :) But my years spent in medical writing (and multitasking on project management) are not wasted; my previous working experience will certainly help me a lot in this new job.

Working as a health writer - this may be something that I can write more about in the future. So, just drop by from time to time to see if I have anything to share. I won't be posting on a regular basis though. Not sure if I will be still in the mood to blog after spending 8 hours of brain squeezing and keyboard typing in the office. ;)

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Considering project management training?

Do you need to go through a formal project management training or PMP Exam to be a project manager in a medical communications company? Well, myself and several project managers I know didn't go through any formal education or training to be able to work as a project manager in this industry. It's all 'get your hands dirty' kind of job, and learn through experience. ;)

Of course, it will be helpful to know a little bit about this credential offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) known as the Project Management Professional or PMP Certification. Who knows one day you might venture into a new area of career that requires such qualification.

PMP certified project managers are employed by government, commercial and other organizations with the purpose to improve the success rate of their projects. It can be in any areas of knowledge, and it involves applying a set of standardized project management principles as contained in PMI's PMBOK Guide. Having this credential will help project managers to find job more easily. Self-employed project managers may be able to sell their service to customers more convincingly if they are certified by PMI.

If you already have 5 years experience working as a project manager, would like to consider taking the PMP exam but are too tied up with busy daily schedule, then you may want to look at the possibility of a self-learning course. You can visit http://www.project-management-prepcast.com for more information.

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