Building and evaluating an internship matching forum
An internship matching forum brings applicants and hosts together, and participant feedback informs its design.
Development and purpose
EMWA's internship forum began with proposals to match prospective medical writers with companies willing to provide training and mentoring at its autumn 2015 conference. Newcomers had approached EMWA's public relations officer at her first conference in that role, having invested considerable money in attending to improve their job prospects; her initial idea was a mentoring programme. Two prospective writers independently proposed an internship forum to the executive committee, which approved it at the same conference. The public relations officer initially questioned why university graduates should work for minimal pay, but deferred to the newcomers' understanding of their situation. She also saw internships as a way for experienced writers, including freelancers, to explore fields outside their expertise. A third volunteer joined the proposers, and the public relations officer credited the team's complementary cultural, language, experience and age backgrounds with helping it prepare in a short time. The first live forum took place in Munich in spring 2016, six months after the proposal.
Sixteen months after its establishment, the forum had introduced thirteen partnering companies to more than a hundred applicants. One aim was to increase the number of companies offering entry-level roles and help applicants target companies suited to them. Although its website often used the term MedComms, the forum welcomed contract research organisations, pharmaceutical companies and other employers offering medical writing positions.
The public relations officer chaired the first two events before one of the original proposers took over at Birmingham.
Meetings and supporting activities
At the Munich pilot, applicants booked ten-minute appointments in advance through EMWA's website. Organisers matched an applicant with few pre-arranged meetings to companies' remaining free slots. One participant found ten minutes enough to show motivation, hear about the company and internship, and ask questions. Between appointments, organisers advised applicants on improving and showcasing skills and getting a first interview. The second half was an informal meet-and-greet over drinks, and many stayed beyond the official close. The participant proposed adding an autumn session, logistics permitting, to accommodate more companies and applicants. Ten companies offered internships and seven were present in the room.
Career coaching added to the 2017 forum targeted master's students, PhDs and postdocs moving out of academia or another profession. It offered a thirty-minute one-to-one session with a specialised career consultant, booked in advance with an academic CV sent ahead. The planned coaching topics were:
- Tailoring academic CVs into medical-writing-specific résumés.
- Mastering the medical writing interview process.
- Using LinkedIn profiles to build a strong personal brand.
- Using social media to network effectively.
Participants, opportunities and outcomes
Applicants at the first live event were predominantly European (73%), mostly in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties (60%), and largely recently out of university with no previous experience in medical writing or other industry employment (60%). Experienced applicants (40%) were in their mid-thirties to mid-fifties and had worked in clinical research organisations (13%), pharmaceutical companies (13%), medical clinics (6%), animal diagnostics companies (6%), freelance practice (6%) or other companies (6%). Half of the experienced applicants had worked in more than one company; half of all applicants held a PhD and a third had done a postdoctorate.
Over half of applicants hoped to secure an internship as a gateway to a more permanent role with their chosen company, 26% sought either an internship or a job, and others wanted a way into the industry, advice or connections. Three out of four believed it was difficult to find a job in medical writing, and applicants reported that recruiters found them either too young and inexperienced or too old and experienced for entry-level roles. Six of the seven participating companies had offered permanent entry-level roles to applicants without medical writing experience: four “all the time” and two “sometimes”; the seventh had never considered doing so before joining the forum.
All attendees, applicants and companies alike, were satisfied with their meetings, and 82% rated the pilot's usefulness four or five on a scale from one (poor) to five (excellent). Participants asked for follow-up events with a more extensive programme lasting half a day at the next spring conference. Three participant updates six months after the pilot showed different outcomes: one had secured an internship through the forum, another had not and was pursuing other ways of gaining knowledge and experience while applying for jobs, and a third had missed the forum by a couple of months and was using EMWA’s website and other resources to learn about medical writing. The successful applicant was working on real projects at Costello Medical Consulting in the UK.
Internship supply fell well short of applicant numbers at the pilot, according to one participant, who estimated that more than half the applicants were bound to be turned down. This applicant had appointments with two companies and made introductions to others during the open session. The applicant hoped more companies would participate and proposed that multinationals create internships in Asia-Pacific, where pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries were growing rapidly, both to increase available places and to ease regional biotech professionals' transition into roles using their scientific expertise and intercultural competence.
Publicity and guidance
Among eighteen applicants answering how they heard about the pilot, with multiple answers allowed, 50% named EMWA's website and 33% members' emails. Among seven company representatives, 71% had heard through colleagues or acquaintances personally invited by the organising team; the flyer and social media had little to no impact on either group. The team considered that the pilot appeared mainly to have reached existing association members and proposed pursuing applicants outside EMWA to grow and diversify the pool. Its proposed approach was to maintain existing members' interest through the website and mailing list, and use social media to draw attention to the website and attract new members. The proposed social-media reassessment asked:
- Were posts being produced regularly on EMWA's Facebook and Twitter accounts?
- Were posts openly accessible to the public?
- Was enough attention being drawn to the internship forum website?
- Were posts appealing to the target audience?
- Were posts bringing value to applicants and companies?
Companies had questions about their role, arranging meetings and their responsibilities when offering an internship, including what happened after it ended. The team planned written guidance tailored separately to applicants and companies.
Event capacity and access
The pilot lasted ninety minutes in the conference centre's lunch area, with a couple of standing tables and borrowed microphones, and interest exceeded capacity. A December 2016 plan extended the next forum to four hours, with room for ten companies and a short seminar on moving from academia to regulatory writing. By March 2017, plans described a half-day event in a dedicated room with the necessary equipment. The second event, in Birmingham in spring 2017, ultimately had five hours, a room of its own, and more time for informal and pre-arranged meetings. It offered two opening talks, two career coaches, someone answering medical-communications questions and someone discussing a university master's programme in science communication. Opening lectures were standing room only, career coaches met applicants throughout the event, and applicants and companies held discussions all day.
The third event, in Barcelona in May 2018, addressed language and location barriers. Entrants could be required to demonstrate professional or near-native English despite English being their second language, and travel to the forum or relocation for an internship could prevent participation. A team member gave an opening talk about working professionally as a non-native English speaker, and sought participation from companies local to Barcelona so local applicants could seek internships without relocating. The programme also included talks on gaining experience for a first job and offering internships from the company's side, on-site CV and career coaching, and companies from the host city and elsewhere in Europe offering internships.