Returning to employment after freelancing
Returning to employment can offer a freelance medical writer new challenges, colleagues and support for professional development, while reducing independence and flexibility. Client relationships and freelance experience can help a writer make the move, and the balance depends on the role and the writer's circumstances.
Reasons for returning
A return to employment can be driven by wanting more involvement in a team, more client-facing work, fewer last-minute assignments or new professional challenges. The decision depends on individual needs and circumstances; moving between employment and freelancing can reflect changes in a writer's life rather than a permanent preference for either arrangement.
In one writer's career described in 2019, a long period focused on one drug and therapeutic area left her feeling behind changes in processes, regulation and digital technology. Workload left little time for training, and lack of experience with new software became her biggest worry; despite trying online courses, she felt her skills were diminishing.
She sought remote employment, and a client that already trusted her took her on for four days a week as a senior writer and later an editorial director. Monthly office visits helped build relationships, and the role brought new skills, confidence and a sense of belonging to a team.
After nearly three years, dissatisfaction and changes at the company led her back to freelancing. Eight years later she was employed again and had been at an agency for nearly four years, having sought more involvement, more client contact and less last-minute work. At the time of her 2019 account, she had no intention of leaving.
Freelance experience in a contract research organisation
One writer returned to employment at ICON Clinical Research in June 2014 after 14 years of freelancing, seeking new challenges. Her experience serving different clients, meeting tight deadlines and turning client requirements into high-quality documents made a contract research organisation (CRO) seem a natural next step.
Her comparison identified the following matched skills and experience, based on her own freelance work:
| Skill or experience | Large CRO | Freelance medical writer |
|---|---|---|
| Broad client base | Yes | Yes |
| Interaction with many different clients | Yes | Yes |
| Understanding individual clients' needs | Yes | Yes |
| Developing new clients | Yes | Yes |
| Understanding what meeting agreed deadlines requires | Yes | Yes |
| Project management | Yes | Yes |
| Awareness of budgets | Yes | Yes |
| Awareness of the time writing tasks require | Yes | Yes |
| Different types of medical writing | Yes | Yes |
| Regulatory writing | Yes | Yes |
| Medical communications | Yes | Yes |
Not every CRO offers both regulatory writing and medical communications work; retaining exposure to both was important to her choice.
Colleagues, quality control and professional development
Employment gave the writer returning to a CRO colleagues with whom to discuss challenges and share work, along with a defined process for independent document quality control. Clear departmental structures also meant seeing her own name on an organisation chart for the first time in about 15 years. Her employer provided online learning and other continuing professional development opportunities, whereas she had organised and paid for her own development as a freelancer. More learning opportunities were available than she had time to use.
Team membership also provided personal support for the writer who returned to agency employment. During earlier freelance years she had lived alone, far from clients and other writers, without video calls, and found it hard to discuss ideas or feel part of a group. She worked too hard, struggled to turn down work and rarely took holidays or days off. Later, kind and thoughtful colleagues helped her through difficult personal periods while employed.
Organisational constraints and working arrangements
Joining a large CRO brought unfamiliar company jargon and many standard operating procedures. The volume of procedures was particularly challenging for the returning freelancer, although it had become routine after more than a year. She had fewer holidays and may have had slightly less flexibility in the work she accepted, but enjoyed her first paid holiday in more than 14 years.
Returning to employment did not require her to stop working from home: she continued as a permanent remote employee with access to company servers and backup systems and only occasional office visits.
Keeping career options open
Writers should keep career options open and continue developing professionally. For the freelancer who moved to a CRO, regular EMWA conferences helped her keep up with industry changes, and active involvement in the association supported freelance opportunities and a later change of direction.