Employer Insight session: Inizio Medical

Thanks Kerry  Um, so yeah, so we’ll just, um,

 

introduce ourselves

 

Um, Matt, do you want to go first or?

 

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

 

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 neuro ology at the University of Dundee

 

Um, after that I did two years, um, postdocing, 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 Inizio medical is, 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 know in my role, um, here

 

So that was just a bit of an introduction

 

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?

 

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 post op, 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

   
                             
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  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

   
                             
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

   
                             
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 favorite 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  So,

   
                             
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?

  
                             
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 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

   
                             
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 hmm

   
                             
Sure  Well, let, staying on the topic of skills, I mean,

  
                             
for you, Caesar, from your experience, what, what,

   
                             
what skills from your academic career have been the most

   
                             
helpful, making that, that sort of transition?

   
                             
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 in 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?

   
                             
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 med comms 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?

   
                             
Yeah, I’d say over    for sure

   
                             
Yeah  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 prioritization, 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

   
                             
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 Israel, 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?

   
                             
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

   
                             
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?

   
                             
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?

   
                             
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

   
                             
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  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 post op 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?

   
                             
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, in Iseo Medical is where we post the sort

   
                             
of most regular updates about, um, our recruitment plans

   
                             
Now in Iseo 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 Nisia 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

  
                             
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?

   
                             
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 staff 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

   
                             
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

  
                             
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

  
                             
Um, so yeah,

   
                             
Yeah, it’s a, a great question

   
                             
Do you want me to take this one, Matt? Yeah,

   
                             
You, yeah, yeah, Please do

   
                             
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 eo, um,

  
                             
are our ion, um, 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?

   
                             
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

   
                             
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 plowing 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 sio, Ashfield,

   
                             
nucleus Global, and a i I said that right,

   
                             
do they operate differently

   
                             
or focus on different types of scientific content?

   
                             
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 Iio came together

   
                             
So previously I was employed by ACOM

   
                             
and Susan was with Ashfield

   
                             
Um, and then when, um, in Iio 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 Apothem, 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 Apogon for example,

   
                             
is a bit smaller than the other two

   
                             
So I think as Field 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 Apogon would say, um, uh, uh,

   
                             
compared with those bigger clients

   
                             
And so apogon 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

   
                             
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? Matt,

  
                             
Do you want 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  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,

   
                             
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

   
                             
Yeah, there was sort of, there was a lot of,

   
                             
at least when I was, you know,

   
                             
I know it was  ,  ,   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

   
                             
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  And we know there’s gonna be a huge focus on

   
                             
that UK RI 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, an

    
                             
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

    
                             
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 NIO 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 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 mentees

    
                             
’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

    
                             
Yeah, absolutely

    
                             
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?

    
                             
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

    
                             
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

    
                             
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