How I Transitioned From Clinician to Medical Writer
Like many in medical communications, becoming a medical writer was never my life-long dream. When I was 12 years old, I never enthusiastically said, “I want to be a medical writer when I grow up!” What I did say was that I wanted to be a doctor.
Well, I achieved that dream. I grew up in Northwest Indiana and went to Purdue University for my Bachelor of Science in biology and started medical school in 2007 at Indiana University, my choice school. In fact, it was the only one I interviewed at because I knew it was for me. Before I even started, I met with the dean of the campus I chose, and he promptly called me “bold”. I never considered myself bold before. Well now I know that he was right.
When I graduated medical school in 2011, I started residency for emergency medicine and made the move from the comforts of the familiar Midwest to the unknown of Philadelphia and the actual practice of medicine. And now it’s honesty time. After two years of learning and practicing emergency medicine, I was absolutely miserable. Practicing medicine was much different than I thought it would be. This was a classic case of expectations not meeting reality.
I could probably write a month’s worth of blog posts about my decision to quit medicine. There was so much I wanted to change but couldn’t. There was so much that didn’t sit well in my gut. So, in another bold move in my life, I chose to walk away from my first-choice residency rather than languish in medical practice until I crashed and burned. Most of my colleagues supported me, but I knew that there were whispers that what I was doing was risky. After all, what would I do after walking away from residency? How would I pay back my student loans? Would I leave Philadelphia?
I left my residency post in May 2013 and took the time I needed to make a solid plan for my future. I started researching the available options. This is how I discovered medical writing, and it wasn’t long until I found the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and enrolled in the Medical Writing & Editing Certificate program through the University of Chicago, which allowed me to continue my education and build skills in the time that I was not working.
Since then, I have done a lot of networking and job searching. The latter of which did not go as well as planned. One of the biggest hurdles to me finding a full-time job was geography. We live in Philadelphia, and it seems that many medical communications agencies and pharmaceutical companies are located one to two hours away in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It is honesty time again. I was also being a bit picky with my job hunt.
This is why after about eight months of searching and not finding the job I was looking for, I decided to create my own job and start freelancing. I learned from networking that most freelancers start only after working for at least a couple years, so they have the experience and know the ins and outs of the business. They have connections and experience and everything that the books tell you that you need to start freelancing. I had none of that and knew it was a risk. But sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
Currently, I am freelancing as an apprentice under someone I admire in the industry and have a steady stream of freelance work. Many people have asked me how I did this. The answer is: networking. I cannot stress this enough. The sole reason that I have work is through networking and talking to everyone I could, both online through forums like LinkedIn and in person at AMWA events.
So, three years after graduating medical school and a year and a half after resigning from my residency post, I am fully entrenched in being a medical writer. The road I took to get here was very curvy, but I’m glad I took the scenic route to find, what I believe to be, the right career for me.