When a career is redirected
Illness, family responsibilities, organisational changes and plans that fall through can redirect a medical-writing career. Preparation can preserve options, while an unexpected move may draw on skills and experience already acquired.
Preparation for an uncertain change
Preparation can concentrate on controllable factors such as skills, an up-to-date CV and contingency plans, even when the timing of a change is uncertain. Four practical recommendations from a writer who changed employers after thirty years were:
- Keep the CV or résumé current and be ready for change.
- Stay outwardly positive when considering departure and leave gracefully.
- Be prepared for hurtful or discouraging comments.
- Ask friends and family for help.
The ADAPT mnemonic offers five ways to cope with a changing working world:
- Acknowledge: recognise that the working world is changing.
- Develop: prepare contingency plans for what comes next.
- Advice: seek advice and use networks to guide decisions.
- Portfolio: maintain portable skills that ease a transition.
- Track: watch where work is heading and consider timing and training.
Unexpected setbacks and new directions
A CDC communicator refused a congressional request to delay a publication until a new administration took office because health workers needed the information; after publication, she had to find less-visible work at the agency. The reassignment initially felt humiliating and career-ending, but it began international work that made her final twenty years at CDC the most rewarding of her career; she felt that acting on principle had gained her more than it cost.
Illness can also displace a planned assignment: in January 2007, the same communicator expected to begin a six-month Fulbright placement in Zimbabwe but instead underwent cancer surgery in Atlanta. Flexibility, patience and a sense of humour were central to how she coped with unexpected difficulties. Although cancer was frightening and lonely, she felt that this difficult period brought insight and growth, accompanied by caring professionals and friends.
A specialist with twelve years of WHO infectious-disease, laboratory-services and public-health work in Southeast Asia resigned when his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour. In 1982 he began a medical-journalism career that produced more than six thousand medical and pharmaceutical magazine articles over twenty-four years, alongside contributions to peer-reviewed articles and preparation of meeting reports.
Existing experience as a foundation
A writer became a consultant of necessity when a planned move did not happen in 1999. Three kinds of assets already supported a practice in authors' editing and training:
- Skills: medical writing and editing, grant writing and teaching.
- Visibility: a college textbook on personal health and a book on reporting statistics.
- Credibility: experience at Cleveland Clinic and the New England Cochrane and Evidence-based Practice Centers.
After seven years as a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor, a zoologist decided not to remain a “perpetual postdoc.” Her specific research topic did not interest a space centre, but she saw writing as a broader role and had papers, including sole-authored work, as evidence; she obtained a technical-writing post preparing life-sciences results.
A newspaper reporter facing a transfer that would complicate family logistics sought alternatives and became a university science writer in 1992. Although the office was formally public relations, its focus on faculty discoveries and clinical advances felt to her like news work and used AP style.
Repeated changes and interrupted careers
One physician's intended specialty training gave way to a move to Switzerland; a planned full-time CRO job after a biomedical-engineering master's gave way to pregnancy, then part-time research to caring full-time for three children. Four years into domestic life, searching for a return led her to EMWA testimonials and the spring 2019 Vienna conference. Conversations renewed her confidence and produced leads; a conference acquaintance recruited her to a regulatory consultancy a month later, accepting her interrupted career and family situation.
A former veterinary nurse and laboratory researcher lost enthusiasm for bench work during a frustrating doctorate, entered medical affairs and became a clinical research associate. She worked as a clinical research associate for eight years, becoming freelance for flexibility; travel and long hours became difficult alongside caring for a child with additional needs, so she moved back to medical affairs and then scientific communications. A company restructuring and a move to France were followed by maternity leave and a prolonged search in which recruitment agencies questioned both her seniority and time away. Her lesson was to trust her capabilities rather than let other people's discouragement determine what she attempted.