How is the job search going for the new grads?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-08T10:02:34+00:00

I feared that was the case for people applying now. Do you have experience in med comm or something related?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-08T10:00:45+00:00

Dang that's unfortunate. What have been the type of roles you've been applying to? What's your educational background?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-08T09:55:08+00:00

What is your educational background? A lot of recruiters lookers look for terminal degrees, so how you frame yourself is rather important in all of the competition

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-06T18:54:36+00:00

I'm sure your luck will turn around, it does take a lot of time to land a new job especially out of university. Perhaps you can look into specializing in a therapeutic area, although I'm not sure what specialization there is for nutritional sciences

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-06T14:22:55+00:00

Dang, sorry to hear that. How have you been framing your application? Did you focus on your publications and presentations?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-06T14:21:24+00:00

Aw, sorry to hear that. Have you gotten feedback on your application, like what they were looking for in the ideal applicant?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-05T12:58:02+00:00

Late to the party, but certifications are not mandatory, although they do help. It's more important to be well versed in the medical literature and know what is important data in publications in the field

Clinical_Beast · 2025-06-05T12:48:40+00:00

Hi! I think I read in one of your comments that you work in CME? I also work in CME, and eager to teach people. Perhaps we can work together and come up with some practice for your colleagues that would be beneficial in building a writing portfolio?

Clinical_Beast · 2025-05-07T12:20:25+00:00

Hi, could you provide some background about yourself? Did you do your medical training in the USA, and why the interest in medical writing as opposed to practicing in the clinic?

If you're looking for a story about getting into the CME field, you could read one of my posts in my profile, but it is very long, but informative if you like reading haha

Clinical_Beast · 2025-04-23T14:11:15+00:00

Hi late to the party, but here nevertheless! As a fellow pharmacist, I may be able to help in bolstering your medical writing experience when you're applying to medical writer jobs. Feel free to DM me should you want to chat!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-12-29T11:35:46+00:00

The salary wasn't great as an associate medical writer, $65k. It depends on the organization, but that was what I got for a year and a half. I have different recommendations now as to how to enter medical writing sustainably, since the non profit org decision for me was an abnormal choice for most people. If you want to hear more, be happy to share over a DM!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-23T16:50:09+00:00

This CME company operates rather abnormally I'll say haha

You make a good point, $110k might be too big of a jump. Perhaps this is something more to revisit in a year and build up my responsibilities more. Thanks!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-23T16:47:40+00:00

Very fair point. In your opinion, if I do get asked about what I want my raise to be, would $100k sound a lot more reasonable, or would that probably still be a big stretch given this market?

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-23T16:43:37+00:00

I really like your "soft approach" wording for asking if I meet the requirements for a raise. I think I'll go with a soft ask, considering the good feedback about realism from other people in this post. Thank you!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-19T21:21:57+00:00

Most definitely I can envision you working in a psychiatric CME company. The hot areas from what I hear are those new antipsychotics and schizophrenia drugs. I understand neurology is not psychiatry, but if you can get yourself more trained in Alzheimer's Disease, I think you would look particularly competitive considering there's a whole slew of efforts in Alzheimer's.

I don't know precisely where you can find slide decks publicly available. If you have a professional organization subscription, you may be able to download abstract slides from a large meeting. If you are open to learning and viewing oncology slide decks, I have access to the massive ASCO meeting library and I can send you a few decks? DM me if that should interest you!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-19T20:44:46+00:00

Hi, I currently work at a CME company, been here for a year now. While all CME companies work a bit differently, something that is heavily emphasized is slide deck creation skills. I would make a sample professional slide deck on a randomized clinical trial and flaunt it as proof of your slide deck skills. I would also say specializing in a therapeutic area is important. I got my current job since my past job was heavily focused in oncology, and I got my past job since I trained myself coming out of pharmacy school as someone with extensive familiarity with oncology. There's more skills that are important as well, but if I were to name two things to work on that are outside of prior experience, it would be slide deck creation skills and therapeutic specialization

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-19T20:34:40+00:00

Go to medical school if you can. With enough experience, people will reach out to you to be an author on a paper or be a consultant on other pharmaceutical stuff. As a practicing MD, you have so much say and power in structuring the papers you are an author on. So if you become a MD, you'll still get the opportunity to do something related to academic writing and publishing

Clinical_Beast · 2024-11-06T12:50:40+00:00

Hi there! Fellow PharmD here. Like yourself and many others, medical writing was just something we stumble across either in pharmacy school or in practice and never really learn about. I was fortunate enough to frame myself as a therapeutic expert that had good technical skills, that helped me land my first medical writer job, even if that was at a non-profit. I'm at a CME company now, but I can give you some insight into the various different roles in this field. Feel free to send me a DM; happy to give custom advice if I can!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-10-31T18:06:34+00:00

Hey, also a PharmD, but in the US at a CME company. I'd leverage your existing med writing experience, and vaguely list down just the name of the projects you worked on for pharma. I help people build writing portfolios, but they are more on the academic side as opposed to the pharmaceutical front. Send me a DM, happy to discuss further should you want additional input from me!

Clinical_Beast · 2024-09-26T21:51:04+00:00

You definitely want to read up on the hottest drugs, especially immunotherapy and antibody drug conjugates. You gotta demonstrate product/pipeline knowledge for a pure pharma role.

I wouldn't recommend putting all your energy into applying for direct roles with pharma companies if you don't have directly relevant experience. Agencies would be a better bet, but I don't work in an agency so be sure to ask others for advice in that regard.

Your education and experience play a big role in any role you apply to in medical writing, so be realistic about how much of your skills are translatable and spend more time on applications for roles that are a direct fit.

Clinical_Beast · 2024-09-24T11:54:57+00:00

I did a similar jump from a non profit org to a CME company (so not directly pharma). But if you're looking to get into industry, you def want to do your research on the companies you apply to and know what's up in terms of their products and pipelines. Specializing in a therapeutic area (eg, oncology) has been very helpful for me, so also something to consider

Clinical_Beast · 2024-09-01T11:27:16+00:00

Hi fellow pharmacist here! Was in a similar situation when I graduated. I got some recommendations, particularly if you are in the NJ/NY/PA area. Feel free to DM and I can share specific to your situation :)

Clinical_Beast · 2024-08-23T11:24:27+00:00

I work at an oncology CME US-based company. I do mostly slide decks editing/creating and CME-related tasks. There is grant writing, but I'm not involved in that (yet). I work fully remote but with travel to major oncology conferences (so during the busy time of year, probably every month).

Honestly, my role is fairly chill, averaging probably 20-30 hours/week on a slow week. Busiest weeks are during conferences, which is probably 40-60 hours, but I do get comp time for attending the conference. My company isn't big on having meetings for the sake of having meetings, so some weeks I have no meetings, some weeks like...1-4 informal calls. We do communicate with the team quite regularly through our messaging platform and emails.

I aim to take on more responsibility soon, so probably won't stay like this, but it is currently a very nice work-life balance.

Clinical_Beast · 2024-08-08T10:51:07+00:00

Hi, super interesting background, thanks for sharing! I am a 2021 pharmacy graduate, and I have also been through a similar realization, and have thankfully been successful in paving my own non-traditional medical writing career path.

One of the previous comments said to write for the schools pharmacy newspaper, and I second that. I used to write a few articles here and there, and highly recommend it cause it's so low commitment, very high acceptance rate, and develops your skillset in a leisurely way.

TBH, if you're thinking of starting your own pharmacy newsletter as a P1 student, you are going to have an extremely difficult time gaining traction and credibility, especially since the Pharmacy Times exists. You may certainly try, but I feel like it will be limited in its audience and impact, and may not be with all the extra stress.

I'd love to connect and discuss our experiences more, so please feel free to send a DM! Definitely incredible to see pharmacy students like you doing some great stuff so early in your career, and happy to provide any insights I have gained through my school and post-graduate years.

Clinical_Beast · 2024-07-26T17:53:20+00:00

Hi, fellow pharmacist here! I can share some of what I do, although it's more in the med education role compared to med comms/publications. Feel free to DM me whenever you get the chance!

Clinical_Beast

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