So you are someone who is good at writing, may be someone who is formally trained in medical writing and now you are looking for a job in medical writing domain to give your career a jump start. There are a number of ways you can start your job search, however before you apply, there are a few questions that you need to answer for yourself. Are you someone who is looking for a full time job or only for some freelance work? Are you more interested in academic writing, scientific writing or regulatory writing? Here are some tips that you will find useful when searching for medical or scientific writing jobs:
1. Search for job openings in job websites such as naukri, monster, etc. This should give you a fair idea of which companies are hiring in medical writing and for what positions.
2. Once you have identified some openings that suit your interest, email a neat, professionally formatted CV to the HR manager or the responsible person for hiring new candidates for those openings. Ensure that you write the email very well in correct language with correct grammar. You are applying for a medical writing position, so the way you have written your email when sending your CV will be noticed by the HR manager. A very well written email will easily get the hiring managers attention whereas a poorly written email will probably never get called for the next round of interview. Even if you have designed your CV very well, even then the content of the email is of great importance. Consider the email as an opportunity to showcase your writing skills, so do not let go of this opportunity. If you are experienced and have written something previously, you may also consider sending across a sample of your work, so that it is easier for the hiring manager to decide that you are the right candidate. However ensure that the sample work that you send across is not confidential or copyrighted material that belongs to any of your clients.
3. After sending your CV and sample work, follow it up with a phone call to the hiring manager, communicate a brief background about yourself and very politely inform that you have sent across your CV for the open medical writing position. If you are informed that the position has been already filled, be courteous and request them to consider you for any future positions. Should the position still be open, let the hiring manger know that you will call back after a few days to check about the status.
4. Give a call a few days after speaking with the hiring manager to remind about your candidature for the medical writing position. When calling different companies make sure you only call a few times, or else you run the risk of annoying the person responsible for hiring in that company. Remember that they are also employees and in all probability have a lot of other work as well. Hiring you or looking at your CV may not be their immediate priority.
5. If you are lucky and meet the requirements for the open position, you will get called for the next round of interview which is either a telephonic or a face-to-face discussion with a senior medical writer.
6. Follow all steps necessary to attend any interview, such as preparing and rehearsing, dressing neatly, arriving on time etc and make a good impact by being confident throughout the discussion. In all probability you will get the job :-).
7. You may also try applying for jobs by enquiring for open positions with friends and colleagues who may refer you within their organizations. Referrals from people within a company are highly valued and almost always land up at least an in-person discussion for the candidate with management.
Wish you all the best!