Employer Insight session: Inizio Medical

Susan Jalicy (SJ): Great. Thanks Kerry. Um, so yeah, so we’ll just, um, introduce ourselves. Um, Matt, do you want to go first or?

Matt McGinley (MM): Um, yeah, I can go first. Um, so hi everyone. My name’s Matt McGinley. I work here at Nian Medical as the talent acquisition lead for the Allegro team. Uh, what that means is I am involved in, um, sort of, uh, selection of candidates for our entry level medical writing and client services programs. So if you apply to a role here at IEO Medical, uh, um, I will be the person that looks at your CV and, and, and does does your screening call. And I’ve got, uh, extensive background of recruiting in pharmaceuticals and medical communications.

SJ: And my name’s Susan. So hi everybody. I’m a scientific team director here at NIO Medical. Um, I’ve worked here for seven and a half years now. Um, but I, I joined the company, um, after doing my PhD in postdocs. So I did a PhD in neuroology at the University of Dundee. Um, after that I did two years, um, postdoc-ing, um, at two different institutes, so a year in Dundee and a year in Aberdeen, um, in diabetes and obesity research. So it was only after that time that I made the transition, um, into the med comms industry.

Um, maybe before we, we start the chat, I can just tell you really quickly kind of what an EO medical, who we are and what we, what we kind of do, in case some of you are like me who had no idea what Medcoms, uh, was when I was in academia. Um, but an EO medical, we, we three world, um, leading medcoms agencies. Um, what, what that kind of means, what, what, what we mean by medcoms agency. We, we work with, um, pharmaceutical companies, right, from sort of the big, sort of top to smaller biotech companies. And essentially what we do is help them to effectively communicate, you know, their scientific and medical information. So that would be through things like publication materials, slide decks, patient materials, a whole host of different things. But basically we help them sort of take their science medical information around their products or treatments and communicate them to different audiences. So that’s what I do now in my role, um, here. So that was just a bit of an introduction.

MM: Yeah, that I’d say as well that, you know, um, roles within med comms are really well suited to people who have undertaken advanced academic study because the sort of work we do, it just goes hand in hand. So for a lot of people who get to the end of their academic journey and think, okay, what else can I do with the skills that I’ve got? This is, this is one route that people can go down. Um, but, and on that topic, Susan, um, so you, you have, um, been on that journey going from, uh, you know, a, a career in academia to moving into medcom. So, um, why, why don’t you talk a bit about that transition and how that came about?

SJ: Yeah, absolutely. I, I love talking about this, Matt, because you know, I’m sure my journey or sort of story was very similar to maybe, or hopefully will resonate with a lot of you guys on the call. Um, you know, I kind of did my PhD because I got to the end of my undergraduate science studies and I wasn’t really sure what else to do. And most of my, um, peers went on to do sort of medicine. And so it was kind of, it felt like for me at that stage, which was a long time ago now, that, that those were kind of the only two options. So I did my PhD. Um, while it was a, a great experience, it was a tough experience, it was challenging. I’m sure many of you can, can relate to sort of the, the cycles of failed experiments and, and, and sort of long, long nights of, of trying desperately to get some meaningful data. After my PhD, um, I was kind of in, in that, that same position I was at the end of my undergrad studies, but I felt like that path had just narrowed a little bit where I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I wanted to do a postdoc, but it felt like that was the next logical step. Um, so I went on to do my postdoc, um, positions and, and kind of, I continued on that path where thinking I wasn’t totally sure it was the career for me, but I felt like I was getting further and further down that path and wasn’t really sure what else I could do. So I thought, okay, it, my options are a fellowship. Um, so I’ve kind of sought out a more competitive postdoc, was trying to learn new techniques and, and doing all those things.

Now obviously this is just my experience, but I kind of, that, that continual cycle of sort of the, you know, doing the experiments, not always getting the, the kind of results we want. And that sort of, so that, that kind of correlation between hard work not, and reward not always being there was something that I kind of struggled with that, that, you know, might just be me. Um, so I started to realize that it wasn’t really reflective of sort of my postdocs and PhDs, but it was just kind of my feeling and in academia. So I knew that I wanted to do something different, but by the end of that kind of almost  years in academia, uh, it was really, it was a really scary realization because I kind of thought, well, what can I do next? And it felt like maybe my skillset was quite niche. Um, and, and so it was kind of quite a scary realization. Um, so I was applying to lots of different jobs that didn’t even need my science background, which was a little bit demotivating after all the hard work.

And actually it was a friend of mine then kind of told me about Medcoms, which I had never heard of, had had no idea. After they told me about it, I started to read a bit more. And, and like Matt said, I actually realized that it was this industry that was crying out for people like us that really needed all those skills that I’d worked so hard to get in, in academia that I felt were, were, were really niche, actually we’re gonna be really relevant. So after my friend told me about it, I started looking for jobs. So I actually saw a job advert on the Indeed website. Um, I also, when I realized it was a career for me, I started actually just looking up med comms agencies and going directly onto their websites. Um, so I applied through, um, indeed and, and, and, and applied for a job that way and, and entered as an associate medical writer. If I was looking for jobs now, I would definitely use LinkedIn more. I just used Indeed and went directly to company websites. But, um, yeah, that’s kind of, and so joined as an associate medical writer, which is an entry-level position. And now in the sort of seven years I’ve, I’ve worked my way up to scientific team director and yeah, haven’t looked back, um, once since, since joining.

MM: Brilliant. And yeah, that, that point about LinkedIn is really an important one. ’cause essentially LinkedIn is essentially a job site with a social media layer on top of it. Um, uh, the social media layer is, it can be really helpful because if you are interested in any career, but obviously we’re talking about me medical writing and medcoms, it’s very easy to reach out to people who are doing the job right now. And most, most people will be responsive if you go to someone and say, can you tell me a bit about what you do? And, um, and, uh, and, and, and what it’s like to, to work in Mecoms. People will generally respond, people like talking about themselves. So, you know, take advantage of that.

SJ: Um, yeah, and, And I think that’s, that’s a great point, Matt, because like I say, it was only talking to someone I’d met through academia, like a postdoc at another institute that I kind of caught up with them kind of randomly that they told me about Medcoms. Now if I hadn’t had that, that interaction, I might not have ever really, or come across the industry. So that kind of build in networks, which is again, something that’s great about academia that we do, but if you, even if you don’t have that, using that on LinkedIn, like you say, reaching out to people that do the role and everyone’s always happy to talk about it. So it’s a good way to learn about different career paths for sure.

MM: Yeah, and I’m always impressed if I’m interviewing someone and they say, oh, I’ve spoken to, you know, such and such a person at your company. It’s like, oh, right, you really do want this, you really do care. You’ve made the effort, makes a difference when, when you are interviewing for competitive jobs, which ones with us, you know, frankly, um, are a bit. Um, so Susan, why don’t you, uh, sort of talk a bit about what the, what the role involves on a day-to-day basis? ’cause I think, you know, certainly when I screen candidates, when I talk to candidates, the perception is maybe a bit different from the reality. So maybe it’d be good to hear a bit more about what, what the role actually involves.

SJ: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, like I say, I, yeah, I had no, no idea. So my, I definitely had, yeah, def the, the reality differed from the sort of preconceptions. Um, like I said at the start, we work with mainly pharmaceutical, uh, companies. They’re, they’re sort of our clients and we take their, their data, their medical information, um, and, and communicate that for them, right? So we work on the whole life cycle of a drug and we’ll basically be responsible for sort of developing materials, so to, to communicate that information. So that might be through publications, so congress abstracts, posters, actually writing clinical manuscripts and submitting these to journals on the be on behalf of their clients. So taking their data and doing that. We also develop things like slide decks and patient materials, educational materials, websites. So, so we develop a whole host of different, um, content basically on, on behalf of the, the client. That’s what we kind of do on a, on a larger scale day to day.

So I’m on the medical writing side. Um, we work as part of large teams, so it’s really collaborative. Um, and a typical day sort of involves, you know, lots of meetings with your team, meetings with our clients where we discuss the status of projects, discuss new projects, discuss their strategy for their, you know, product or their, their device, whatever that might be. Um, and then a large part of it is then actually spent researching. So reading about the therapy area, reading about the drug that we are maybe supporting our client with, um, and then actually developing the content and the materials. So write it, writing an abstract, writing a poster.

And I think that was something that I didn’t really understand, right? ’cause in academia we draft our own abstracts and posters, but, um, it’s very different when you’re working with pharmaceutical companies. So they’ll provide us with their data and, and we’ll work with them on their sort of strategy, and then we, we actually develop the, the content for them. So that’s a little bit more into sort of the, the day to day. I mean, I hope, I hope just ’cause of time, I’m kind of doing that quite top line, but if there is any more questions about specifics, love to answer those, um, at the end.

But I guess in terms of the sort of preconceptions versus kind of reality piece, Matt, I mean, when I had no idea what the industry was, but once I did start to learn about it, I kind of thought, well, I’ll just be writing manuscripts all day, or, you know, just writing papers, um, is what I maybe thought it would be. Like, I di it is so different. So what I would say is, is the med comms industry is really fast paced. Every day is different. So we work across loads of different projects, lots of different therapy areas. And so actually I did not expect to be working on some of the materials I work on. So I, I actually, for me, in, in my medical writing career, um, I didn’t do a lot of publications, which I actually work on a lot of creative content. Um, so video animations do a lot of meetings where we’ll work with our clients to go to conferences and, and help them showcase their data. So videos, banners, a lot of, a lot more creative materials than I thought I would work on, and that it’s actually not all.

While, while, you know, my title was medical writer, I wasn’t writing all day. There’s a lot of, you know, speaking to clients. So one of my favourite part of the job is getting to speak to the healthcare professionals and the researchers that are experts in the field and getting, getting to talk to them about, you know, their, their drugs or the, the treatment landscape of a particular therapy area so that we can then communicate it. So that was definitely a big difference and, and I thought I’d miss research. I thought I’d miss doing the science, but actually I am still, I still feel fully like I’m, I’m using my scientific background and, and kind of doing science. It’s just in a different way. And for me, actually in this role, I kind of feel closer to helping patients than I maybe did when I was spending those long hours on the confocal microscope or, or whatever it was.

MM: Yeah. And there there are some, some nice perks aren’t there as well. Like, there’s the international travel aspect, which I know for a lot of people that they, they might not assume as part of the role, but I, I know, I know you’ve been to some, some quite, um, interesting exotic locations, haven’t you?

SJ: Yeah, yeah. My first year, as I say, I thought it would just be right in manuscripts, but actually I do a lot of meetings work, so yeah, I’ve got to go to lots of conferences. So, you know, in my first year here, I went to sort of the me, American Diabetes Association conference, a DA, so I was in Orlando, I was in Sao Paolo, then European Congresses. So yeah, got to do a lot of travel, which again, yeah, it was not a part of the job that I thought I’d get to do. So yeah, a lot of exciting things that I didn’t .

MM: Yeah. Didn’t, didn’t realize would, would be part of the role. Yeah, and I think one thing that’s really coming across from, from your description of the role is just how busy it is. And this is one thing that, yeah, I, I try and try and communicate to candidates during the recruitment process, but, um, it’s a job that definitely keeps you on your toes. Um, and, and it is probably one of the main challenges I think, I mean, I’m not a medical writer myself, but I spend a lot of time working, working with writers. But maybe you could talk a bit about that, Susan. ’cause I mean, obviously there’s, it’s all good to talk about the positives about the role, but we can’t shy away from the fact that any career in this area is gonna come with some challenges that are maybe a bit different from what, uh, one encounters in academia.

SJ: Yeah, absolutely. So I think, like you say, the, the, the key one is that the, the fast-paced nature of the industry, it is really, you know, it, it’s, it’s dynamic, it’s change. It changed as our priorities change quickly. Um, so we’ll work across lots of different projects. We have to juggle lots of different priorities. So there are, there are definitely challenges. And I would say that is probably one of the key ones is just that, um, yeah, juggling lots of different projects, sometimes tight deadlines, fast paced, but I think there are lots of the skills from academia that set us up well, for, for some of the, some of the challenges.

Another challenge is, is kind of, um, that, that some people, um, find when they join the industry is, is that adapting to a new industry, right? So, and we’ll talk about how all our skills set us up for success in this industry, but it is still brand new, right? So actually being open to learn that we might to keep learning. So yes, we have, you know, all the scientific and, and research knowledge, but Medcoms is a whole new industry, a whole different beast. And I think being open to that, you get a lot, a lot of feedback internally from clients and being open to that, being receptive to that. But that can be a challenge at first, right? There’s, there’s, there’s a lot to learn. Um, but if you’re open to that, um, then, you know, then it is, you’ll, you’ll be successful in, in, in the industry. But I think that is also something that can be challenging at first.

MM: Mm-hmm. Sure. Well, let, staying on the topic of skills, I mean, for you, Susan, from your experience, what, what, what skills from your academic career have been the most helpful, making that, that sort of transition?

SJ: Yeah, so like, like I say, I think there, there, many of you might feel like me, that actually you feel like your skills might be quite niche for say, research. Um, but there are so many transferrable skills that are great for lots of roles, but specifically for med comms, some of the ones that stand out for me, Matt, I guess would be obviously a passion for science and a passion to want to advance research and, and care for, for patients.

Um, but writing skills obviously is a key one. And even if when I was in my PhD and postdoc, I wouldn’t have maybe said I was the, the best writer, which is kind of crazy now that I’ve, I’ve got a, a writing career, but that’s because I would’ve said, I don’t do lots of writing. But actually every day we’re, we’re writing, right? You know, writing up our lab boot grant applications, writing our actual thesis, maybe presentations for lab meetings, congress, abstract. So lots of skills from writing that can carry forward.

But then aside from those, I guess two of the ones really that stand out for me are problem solving, um, and resilience. So in academia, you know, we have to troubleshoot a lot. Things don’t always work. Um, and we’re having to constantly problem solve. We have to do that every day in Medcoms for our clients, right? We have to think of new ways to do things, think of ways to, to basically address whatever they, our client’s challenge is. And then the resilience piece, I don’t think anything sets you up better than academia than, you know, being able to overcome challenges that bouncing back when maybe, you know, things hypothesis aren’t going to pla or, you know, panning out as we thought they would, or experiments are failing. I think that ability to keep going and overcome those be resilient, I think provides such a strong foundation for, for any job. But, but really for, for med comms. So I think there are, and, and those are just a few of mine, but there are so many skills that I think are, are translatable.

And I guess, Matt, you can probably speak better to that of what specifically what skills I guess we are kind of looking for and how, how postdocs and, and, and post-grads can showcase them. ’cause I think that was something I worried about. You know, what, what, how do I showcase these skills? What’s relevant for non-academic jobs?

MM: Yeah, exactly. And I think what one are the main, so if we start the start of the recruitment process, the start of the recruitment process is putting a CV out there into the world and, um, at base level, an academic CV is gonna look quite different from a commercial cv. So, um, when, when we are reviewing cvs, we are generally looking for something that’s maybe two to three pages plus publications at, at the end. Um, uh, rather than say something that’s gonna really, really sort of extensively list out every single part of your academic career, we’re mostly looking top line. Um, uh, that’s because sort of we are with a role in a Medcoms agency, um, employees like us, we are not so much focused on the specific scientific knowledge you’ve gained already. We’re more interested in your ability to assimilate scientific knowledge quickly and effectively in med comms. You’ll move between therapeutic areas quite, um, you know, with some regularities. Susan, I mean that just quickly, how many therapy areas have you worked across in your time in Medcoms?

SJ: Yeah, I’d say over 10 for sure. Yeah.

MM: Yeah, yeah. And so what what we’re really focused on is, is can you, are you someone who can come in and assimilate information quickly and effectively move between different, different therapy areas? So it is great that obviously if you study to, to, to a high level, you’ve got this in-depth experience in very specific areas. We are, we are looking at a bigger range of skills than that. Um, so, um, so yeah, a starting point, your CV should, should reflect the role you’re applying to.

Um, now, you know, with medical writing, obviously we want to see what skills you’ve got that are relevant to that. So writing experience you’ve gained during your, during your academic career, anything you’ve, you’ve, you’ve done on the side.

And then highlight skills, like, you know, things like time management prioritisation, so the things that, that Susan’s been talking about throughout our conversation. Um, and, and during your interview as well to, to make sure you’ve got answers to those sorts of questions. If you’re applying for a writing role, you should be prepared to talk about your writing experience and, and talk about, um, uh, um, how you deal with, with, um, uh, with tight deadlines, for example.

Um, those, those are the, the transferable skills and the ones that you should aim to focus on if you apply to one of these roles or you interview for one of them as well.

SJ: And I think a key thing, isn’t it Matt, is that exactly what you just said there about how the experiences you might have, how they might, um, how they relate to the role, right? Yeah. We, we are, or at least here at in Inizio, right? We, we, we, with our entry level roles, it’s, we don’t expect people to come in. So I had no experience of the med comms industry. You get training on how, how to do the role. Mm-hmm. And so it doesn’t matter if you haven’t got medical writing experience, but what, you know, like I said, you know, presentations at lab meetings or whatever that might be, what, what do you have that relates to the role? And I think it’s, it’s showcasing that, isn’t it?

MM: Yeah, exactly. I mean, for any job you apply to be medical writing or listening different, if you look at the job spec for the role you’ve applied to the job site will specify the key skills, uh, for that role. Um, and you can al also look up, you know, similar job specs on LinkedIn or online, pick out those key skills, um, uh, for the role. And that’s, that’s what, that’s what we’re looking for. Um, it’s, it is, it’s, it is sort of that simple, really.

SJ: And I guess like, you know, like you say, so sounds simple, Matt. Yeah. But how, how, how, I guess then you, you kind of touched upon the fact that the job market is competitive. Mm-hmm. Yeah. How, I guess, could you speak a bit more about what we look for, like what the ideal candidate looks for versus an academic job and how people can maybe do what you’ve just said, but stand out?

MM: Yeah. Um, so in, in terms of the ideal candidate, um, there’ll be someone who demonstrates to us that they’ve really thought about, um, about this, this role, the role they’re applying to. Um, they don’t need to have experience, but, but just have good motivations for why they want to go in it, and a de and, and a decent understanding of, of what the role is. They’ve done their research. It really helps if we can tell that you, that you’ve thought about this and, and, and that you want to do it.

Um, now during the recruitment process, there’ll be writing tests, um, as for medical writing roles. And so, um, you know, it’s gonna be a really good idea to just make sure your writing skills are honed. I mean, writing is one of those skills where you get better at it, the more you do it. So if you’re someone who, you know, keeps a blog, does journaling helps. If you maybe read a lot as well, that’s gonna help you get through those more diff those sort of more, uh, skills based, uh, parts of the assessment.

When it comes to the interview process. Um, uh, you know, we’ve touched on it already, but, you know, medical writing’s a team-based role. You’re gonna be dealing with clients, there’s gonna be relationship building aspects to the role. So we’re gonna wanna see that people are good communicators. There’s a good base of communication skills there. Are you able to maintain a, a, um, a good conversation, you have good body language, are you engaging to talk to, um, that, that’s gonna be very important. If, if people, um, uh, struggle with that side of the role, there’s maybe going to potentially be a ceiling on, on their overall development. So we’re looking for people to combine strong science background, uh, good cv, good motivations for the role, transferable skills, and, and demonstrating, uh, good, good communication abilities during the recruitment process.

Yeah. Um, so one thing we’ve not really touched on so far, maybe Susan, you can talk to your experience here, is what progression looks like. ’cause of course, it’s one thing to get your foot in the door, but wh where does it go beyond that?

SJ: Yeah, I think that’s a, a great question as well. ’cause it certainly for me being, having done a few years postdoc, I, I was quite, you know, quite experienced there and, and coming to an entry level role, I was wondering sort of, well, how will that look? Is it, is it a step back, for example? Um, but what’s, what’s great is the, the structured sort of career path and career development, um, that we have, um, in this, in this industry. So it is really structured. So right from entry level through to senior positions, there’s a really structured path, a lot of support, a lot of development and training opportunities.

So it’s really clear where you can go and, and I think the, you know, so for me, I came in as associate medical writer and quite, so that was an entry level position, but quite quickly sort of progressed to medical writer and then through senior positions. So, but what’s really good, I think about, and, and a key thing to highlight about the, maybe the progression and how that differs from academia for me is that kind of the, the room for everyone. I kind of sometimes is how I describe it.

So it’s not, there’s not one grant application or one fellowship, you know, position. If someone is ready to progress to the next step in their career, then that’s when they progress, right? So you are kind of, um, progression is just based on, you know, your experience. Um, you know how much you’re doing, how, you know, how little or you know, if you, the opportunities, how little or how big you know, you want them to be. It’s kind of up to you. So that career progressions individualized and you, you progress as you gain that experience. And, and that’s sort of recognized, um, and valued. So you’re not sort of waiting for someone in the job above you to, to move on for you to progress to, you know, senior medical writer or whatever that looks like. So I think that’s the really key point. So if you want to really push on and progress, you really can. And I think that’s what’s, what’s really great.

MM: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I don’t think we can shy away from the fact that, uh, you know, certainly if you’ve moved on to doing a postdoc, moving into Medcoms might involve a pay cut. Um, you know, it, for a lot of people it is a step back salary wise. Um, and so I think, you know, um, individuals need to make a decision on whether that’s something they can do. I mean, some people will just have costs of their lives, which mean that they can’t consider that. Um, but for those who can, I mean, the step back is only temporary. Um, uh, you know, salaries do improve quite quickly, um, uh, especially if you’re able to get a couple of promotions.

I, I went to a university, I won’t say which one, uh, a couple of months ago. And, um, I was presenting to students there, but there were a couple of academics, um, and, um, and at the end they, they, they were the most engaged with what I said, and they were like, okay, well how much does it pay? And it’s like, well, it’s not, it’s not why I went to the university. I didn’t, didn’t come to steal the academics. It wasn’t meant for you. But, um, yeah, I mean, it is, uh, it, it can be a great career path, but let’s just be realistic that for some people it’s gonna be a step back in seniority, at least initially, but there’s so much opportunity to progress and you do it at your own pace.

SJ: Yeah, No, that’s a really, a really good point. It was for me, um, to be completely transparent, just because I’d done a postdoc for a while, but like Matt said, for from my personal circumstances, that was something I was ready to do. And then, yeah, within a year I was sort of, um, back where, where I’d, where I wanted to be and then progressed beyond that. So, but that is definitely something to consider and, and might, you know, I would imagine would be the case for a lot of entry level roles.

I, I guess, um, I know we sort of talked almost for the  minutes, so maybe before we open the floor, we could just finish up, Matt, if, if, if by this brief, um, chat we’ve inspired people to enter the Medcoms industry. I mean, how can, how can someone get involved? And specifically for us at in nio, what sort of opportunities do we have?

MM: Sure. Well, if we haven’t, we haven’t pulled you up entirely, then the way to, um, the way to find out more is, um, is to, um, or the best places are social. So Allegro, uh, Inizio Medical is where we post the sort of most regular updates about, um, our recruitment plans. Now Inizio Medical, I’m not sure if you mentioned it, it’s the world’s biggest med comms agency. And we’re lucky to have the Allegro team, which Susan and I work on, which is purely focused on hiring and training, um, entry level folks in our industry.

And, and we hire, you know, a hundred to plus people every year in entry level roles across various countries. So we’re really lucky to be able to offer, uh, uh, lots and lots of people their first steps into the industry. We do it at a scale beyond, uh, beyond, um, uh, what, what you can find elsewhere. Um, the, the, there’s no rhyme or reason to, when we hire these programs. It’s more when the business needs us to hire people. Um, but we do post updates on our LinkedIn channels, so you can head there and, and sort of get the latest, um, uh, updates on, on timelines for when we’re gonna be hiring. Um, we also have a website, um, if you just put Allegro Inizio Medical into Google, it’ll pop up. And on there, there were various, um, uh, testimonials, um, from, uh, people who’ve been through the Allegro programs. There’s webinars. If for some reason you want to hear us talk more, um, if you wanna see us on your screen for, for longer, you can do that. Just head head to the website, you’ll find us there. Um, yeah, there, there’s a lot of content out there. And, um, and yeah, you can feel free to reach out to us as well. You can find us on, on, uh, find our individual LinkedIns. Um, there’s an email address that you can find on our website that comes through to me. Um, we make it very easy for you to find us. Thank you. Well, we’re happy, Kerry, to take any questions or

KM: Amazing, thank you. We’ve got a couple in the chat. Um, so thank you for putting those in. But to wrap up, I think, um, talking about the recruitment process, first of all, oh, mm-hmm. Have you got each of you, have you got any top tips for preparing for interviews?

MM: Um, my top tip would be to review the job spec, look for the key skills, and, and prepare yourself for questions on those. Um, so, you know, if, if there’s gonna be, if there’s, um, a thing about it being a fast-paced role, then talk about how you manage your time effectively, prepare for questions on how you, um, uh, on a, on like a busy period that you face in your, in your, in your background and how you dealt with that. Um, worth mentioning as well that we do use the star format, um, in interviews. And so if you’re unfamiliar with star, um, definitely worth just researching that we’re not the only employee that use it. It is quite common. So if you don’t know Star, find out about Star.

SJ: Yeah, I was gonna mention that. I mean, it might sound obvious, but that, you know, um, if you get told what the entry format is, so for us, the star format, um, which I hadn’t come across before this, this in interviewing for this job, just do your research on that. ’cause also that shows as well, you know, a lot of what that’ll showcase to, to the, the recruiters that, you know, you can follow a brief and, and that sort of thing.

My other top tip as well, and, and this is certainly for us at an medical, but I’m sure it applies to other jobs you do, you know, when you are, um, preparing for those interviews, preparing your answers or examples around the, the qualities and the job spec that Matt mentioned, don’t, don’t be worried about showcasing more than just your, what you’re doing in your academic career, right? So all of the, while I know it is a huge part of our lives, but we, you know, you’ll have on your cv you know, what maybe your PhD or your research topic is. So it is, you can draw on examples from outside your academic life. We actually want to hear what you guys do, hobbies in your spare time, have you done other part-time work that was nothing to do with academia, but showcases some of those skills like communication and teamwork. So don’t be afraid to tell us about you, um, as a, as a person and not just sort of what you’ve done in your research career.

KM: Really great tips there. Thank you so much. And there’s some, um, James has read my mind and already, um, put a link to the, uh, prosper portal advice around the star methods, um, which is great. So I’m gonna come to a question first of all, because it’s actually one that also came up, um, in the pre-submitted questions. And it’s around ai, so how AI is being used, um, by you in your day-to-day role, and also thinking about the future and how AI might affect the industry.

SJ: Um, so yeah, Yeah, it’s a, a great question. Do you want me to take this one, Matt?

MM: Yeah, You, yeah, yeah, Please do.

SJ: It’s, um, it’s, yeah, a great question. And obviously ai, it’s a really hot topic at the moment, isn’t it? Um, and is something that, you know, like you say, you know, for the future, you know, as a, as an industry, we are constantly evolving and, and, you know, changing with, with sort of client needs, et cetera. And AI is just another, another part of that. So yeah, it is a hot topic at the moment. Um, we are starting to incorporate, um, AI as a tool to, to assist writers. Um, but I would say at the minute it is still just sort of to assist writers. So at the moment there are still kind of a lot of limitations, um, to AI. Um, so the sort of the writing role and the medical writer is still absolutely key to the process.

So at the moment we’re noticing that we’re sort of, we’re starting to use it to assist with some specific projects. So, you know, for example, research or maybe sort of interrogation of large data sets, but not for the writing itself. I think at the moment, um, there are still too many sort of limitations or unknowns. Um, but I know that sort of pharma companies are sort of developing, you know, their own platforms we have recently rolled out at Inizio Ion AI, which is sort of a purpose-built platform, um, specifically sort of for medical affairs or medical education. So that’s been sort of designed with sort of client confidence and sort of governance in, in, in mind. Um, and so we’ll be sort of, we are evolving, um, with that. So we’ll start to, to, to be using our own platform or using our own platform to sort of integrate and kind of connect insight strategy and execution so that we can kind of deliver excellence for our clients. But yeah, it is a, it is a hot topic at the minute. We are starting to see it sort of being incorporated, um, into the industry and what we do. Um, and we’ll just, yeah, keep, keep evolving I guess. I don’t know if you have anything to add, Matt?

MM: No, I, I think that’s pretty much it. I mean, you know, we’re, we’re still full steam ahead on hiring medical writers. We don’t see the role, um, disappearing. Um, and so I think if you are, if you are interested in medical writing as a career, it’s still gonna be here. Um, is, I think that’s a quite clear message.

KM: I think I’d just add to that, um, some general kind of early career sector guidance. I heard about AI in the development of it, and that’s this, that those who, those who really want to kind of progress and continue on a career path, they are gonna embed and use AI to support them in their role. And it’s those who kind of are ignoring it and ploughing heads, you know, doing things as they always have done. Those are the ones really, I guess where there’s a, a risk of them not moving forward and, and, you know, not progressing at the same rate. So it’s all about using AI at this point in across sectors. I think it’s about using AI to support you in whatever you do and make you better, um, yeah, at at what you do. So I think that’s just some advice that we’ve had more broadly.

Yeah. Okay. Brilliant. There’s a great question in here, um, around the company. So the three agencies that make Inizio, Ashfield, Nucleus Global, and a i I said that right, do they operate differently or focus on different types of scientific content?

MM: Um, do you want me to talk about that, Susan, a question? So essentially these agencies were all competitors until about three years ago when in Inizio came together. So previously I was employed by ApotheCom and Susan was with Ashfield. Um, and then when, um, Inizio happened, we all came together as one big happy family. Um, now, um, the, the agencies all do the same type of work with very similar clients, uh, essentially. So if you’re working on say, a medical affairs project in, in in ApotheCom, it, it might be, you know, broadly a very similar experience to working on, uh, the same type of project in Ashfield. I mean, ’cause the companies work with different, they maybe have some slightly different working cultures here or there. Some, some, some differences that might carry through from, from, from their time as independent companies. And, um, and one difference is like ApotheCom for example, is a bit smaller than the other two. So I think Ashfield and Nucleus about people each, whereas apo com’s more like about  people. And, um, uh, apothem typically has worked with smaller biotech clients. Um, and, but those clients are a bit different, a bit more chaotic, I think ApotheCom would say, um, uh, uh, compared with those bigger clients. And so ApotheCom is, is a little bit different as a result of, of that slight difference in clients. But ultimately the work is very much, uh, similar. Um, and your experience will be broadly similar regardless of which of those agencies you go into.

Um, if you are hired onto one of our Allegro programs, um, you don’t typically get to decide which of the agencies you join. You typically get, uh, told at the point of job offer which of the agencies you, you’ll go into there. There are some situations where people might move between agencies. Um, uh, but that doesn’t happen super regularly.

KM: Great, thank you if that answers that question. Um, so another, um, question which has come up in the chat and in the pre-submitted, um, questions as well is around the type of background. So how specific is it, um, are there opportunities for those from different types of science or even social science backgrounds, um, to yeah, to, to really have any, um, at the company?

SJ: Matt, Do you want.

MM: Yeah, I’ll, I’ll jump in. So the, the sort of the, the, the typical applicant will have a biomed background, but it is possible to come into Medcoms with a slightly different background. So there are lots of people who maybe studied chemistry, um, for example, I mean if you are coming in with a chemistry background, you might find yourself spending a bit longer than other people researching some of the areas that you have to work in. Um, just because you might not have as much accumulated knowledge already as someone with a more traditional biomed background.

Uh, but chemistry’s usually fine. Um, you know, someone’s got a background in neuroscience, physiology, um, uh, microbiology, um, these ones will typically all be okay, but there are, there will be some people whose, whose background just isn’t as relevant to the role. Um, and so, um, and so yeah, I mean I’m not sure I, it’d be good to just run through all the examples of a, of a, of an unsuitable background ’cause that might take a while. But, but generally biomed related area and, and related areas and, and sort of chemistry, um, uh, would, would, would be fine.

Anything, uh, too far outside of those would probably be a little bit of a no go for medical writing anyway. I mean, we do have other roles like in client services, which are more project management focused, and for those positions, the depth of scientific science background isn’t gonna be quite as relevant. So if you still want to get into med comms and maybe don’t have the sort of background we talked about just now, then maybe you could look at client services as an alternative option.

KM: And If you are applying and you know, your background is more chemistry or neuroscience related, for example, how would you recommend, is there any, are there any activities that or, you know, um, I guess almost like things that you can do outside of your current position that could really strengthen your application. Um, if you’re coming from a non-traditional background, we’ll call it.

MM: Um, just sort of writing experience, you can get in in some way. Like, you know, anything on someone’s CV that, that demonstrates that they love writing and that they go out their way to write is gonna be helpful. And one thing I tell a lot of candidates is that there’s no barrier to entry with writing. No one can stop you putting pen to paper. No one can stop you starting a blog or, or journaling or whatever it might be. And so if you, if, if you’ve maybe not got the ideal like academic background, but, but you really love writing and you want to be involved and demonstrate that on your cv, ’cause that will catch our attention, that will make us give someone a shot. It might be the difference between someone getting a chance to do a writing test and not.

Um, and, and yeah, like no one can stop you writing if you wanna write, you can do it right now. Pick up a pen and paper, it’s that easy. And it does, even if, you know, you don’t have to have a part-time job as a medical writer, it just should show us that you like writing that’s, that’s all you.

SJ: Yeah, there was sort of, there was a lot of, at least when I was, you know, I know it was seven years ago now, but there were a lot of, um, blogs and, and and websites that you, you, you could just submit things, um, for writing so that on the side. And then one thing that I got involved in a lot, um, towards the end of my PhD and and postdocs was, um, like public engagement. So, ’cause that involved a lot of communicating science to different audiences. So I did, I, I sort of became a STEM ambassador, um, and did a lot of public engagement at our university. So, you know, that that sort of side of thing as well really helped because it gave me a lot of experience of communicating about my data to like lay audiences for instance. Um, so anything like that that’s going on, you know, any of these sort of extra things would definitely help.

MM: Yeah, we see Pint of Science on CVs like that, that’s the initiative that that, that, that sort of, you know, it always catches my eye if I see it on, on cv. Brilliant.

KM: And we know there’s gonna be a huge focus on that UKRI have got, um, a call out at the moment where they’re really working out how they can translate research to, to kind of a more lay audience, sympathetic, specifically a younger audience. So there should be plenty of opportunity coming up there. I’m gonna take one more question, um, if that’s okay. ’cause I think it’s a really relevant one. Um, the work culture, um, at Inizio can you describe how that is? And, and also there’s, um, a note around diversity as well of the organization. Um, so if you could cover that off, I think that would be great.

SJ: Yeah. In terms maybe I could go first Matt and then pass over to you. In terms of work, we have a, we have a really great culture, working culture at Inizio Medical. We put a big kind of emphasis on, on people. We’re like Matt said already, right? We’re a really people-focused industry and, and there is, you know, it it, it’s really focused on that and, and individuals. So we do a lot, it’s not just work. We like to have fun and we do a lot of their, you know, in all our local offices, there’s lots of social, um, sort of activities and opportunity. They, they really want us to kind of get together, get to know your colleagues, get to know, you know, the, your teams. Um, so there’s a lot of social things that go on in the offices.

Um, there’s a lot of also sort of, um, community action days. So the company plays a big emphasis on letting us have days out of the office to go and do, um, charitable, um, things. So there’s, there’s a lot of that. Um, so yeah, and I think when you join in the sort of the entry level part, the, the Allegro programs that Matt mentioned, you know, you join with this sort of ready made network and you’ve got a a, a real support network. So I think the, the kind of the culture, it’s the people that have, that I love about this job and is, is one of the things that’s really kept me here, uh, for so long. But there, there is also, you know, and then we, we have a big, um, we have different sort of committees or groups within the business, right? That, that um, around sort of sustainability diversity, um, to, to make sure that we’re sort of creating this sort of positive inclusive culture and environment at the company. Right. Matt? I don’t know if there’s Specific

MM: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the Bergs, the bus, is it called business Employee research groups? Yeah, quite technical, but there’s like one for LGBTQI+ plus. Um, there’s um, one, one for, um, other types of diversity. There’s a family focused one. Um, I think there’s one about age diversity that I see an email on that, uh, recently, which is interesting. Um, yeah, I mean when, when it comes to diversity in Medcoms, it’s an interesting topic because the diversity kind of depends. We, we can only hire people generally with biomed backgrounds and uh, you guys will know if you study this area that there tends to be certain demographics that were attracted to studying biology. Um, uh, you know, like Medcoms is a very female environment. Like when people talk to me about diversity and recruitment, it often means try and hire more men ’cause there’s got many in the company. Um, uh, but yeah, I mean it is a big focus. Um, I mean we have taken like steps to really diversify internationally. Like we’ve got a big team in South Africa. We were the first Medcoms agency to go out there and, um, and try and hire, and now we’ve got a huge team. Um, and so, you know, the first, uh, sizable Medcoms agency in Africa, full staff. And we’ve also started expanding to other countries as well. So, um, we, we, we’ve really like made, made an effort to take Medcoms from, from a, from an industry that’s very US-UK focused to, to taking it to new corners of the world, which I, we know something that Susan and I are very involved with and is, is is probably one of the big highlights of, of what we do.

SJ: Yeah, absolutely.

KM: And brilliant. I’m just gonna take one last quick one if that’s okay. I know we’re running slightly over time of course, but this is a, a very relevant one. Um, is this a work from home job? Where are your offices?

MM: Sure, I’ll do, I’ll quickly do deal with that. So our offices in the UK are, um, London, Manchester, Macclesfield and Glasgow. Um, uh, and we operate a hybrid working policy. There’s no set rule on the number of days that someone typically goes into an office. Um, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m in London and I almost never go, go into London office. Um, uh, so and so it’s quite hands off you that generally if you start with us and you and you move on to a team, speak to your manager about when your team tends to go in, what type of working pattern will work for you. And it will happen more on, on, on sort of an informal basis. If someone is based a little bit far away from an office and only wants to go in occasionally, that’s usually something we can accommodate. Um, so yeah, no strict rules around that. I think when you are in the early stages of your, of your career, it is beneficial as much as possible to try and go in and get to know colleagues and learn from them. Um, you know, that that is something that’s gonna help you with your development. Um, but if it’s not possible, um, then yeah, like I say, we’re, we’re super flexible.

KM: Well, I think we’ll have to wrap it up there, but I just wanna thank you both so much for Yeah, such an insightful session. I think that’s been brilliant and will be a great addition to our portal as well. Um, yeah, thank you both.

SJ: You’re welcome. And please if, if there was anything that we didn’t get time to answer, look me and Matt up on LinkedIn or, or the Allegro page and, and messages there, we’ll be happy to, to chat to people further. Brilliant, great practice as well for the works and skills.