Building experience before a first writing job

This branch covers the experience an entrant gathers before a first medical writing post, and its parts divide by the route the experience comes through: evidence built through study, mentoring, writing and networking, an internship and what is learned in it, a placement of a structured design, and the permits and visas a placement in another country adds. It leaves to its neighbours which kinds of organisation take a writer with no experience and why such posts are scarce, to which employers take an inexperienced writer; the first job once it has started, to what to expect in a first medical writing job; the CV, the writing test and the interview, to applying for medical writing jobs; and organising and running an internship matching forum, to running professional learning events.

• Building evidence before a first writing job — learning about the work, mentoring, first articles and writing samples, small paid and volunteer writing, networking, and entrants who combined several routes
• Choosing an internship and learning from it — where the internship comes from and what the training is called, its value for a medical communications career, pay and work experience, an agency's programme and a pharmaceutical company's regulatory writing internship, asking a company for one, the first months, feedback on early work, and what follows
• Comparing remote internships, fellowships and rotations — what each side gives, how the entrant is supervised and what they produce and leave with, in tele-internships with CME providers, a six-month internship run from home, a one-year fellowship with a medical communications company, and pharmacy rotations at a medical communications agency
• Preparing placement applications across national borders — why employers hesitate over applicants from outside the EU, preparing for the permit process, when an internship in Germany counts as employment, who needs a visa for one, and obtaining the Schengen visa