From my first contact with Ashfield Healthcare Communications, the company has taken every opportunity to impress and to stand out from crowd. After two weeks on their Allegro programme, I am happy to see that this attitude still continues and I am delighted to be starting a new career in medical writing with the right company. As such, I am compelled to write about my time so far and encourage any aspiring medical writers to join the Allegro programme and to apply as soon as possible!

When I began applying for medical writing jobs I was surprised by the behaviour that I encountered with some healthcare communications agencies: messages were lost, replies came very late and I was chasing people for a clear response. In short, the companies were not very good at communication! Fortunately, this was not the case with Ashfield. From the beginning, the recruitment team and Allegro staff have had a responsive, attentive and diligent approach to correspondence, providing clear, helpful and comprehensive communication. I find it encouraging to see the company demonstrating good values through the actions of its staff right from the start. I found Ashfield’s digital presence the most impressive, with the LifeAtAHC website providing an insight to the working culture, and was amazed that several detailed articles already existed for Allegro, a programme that only started earlier this year.

In my experience, starting at a new company can be problematic. There might not be enough time and resources assigned to integrate new starters and get them working effectively, which could leave them lost and with nothing to do. Allegro has been designed to be the answer to this problem and is the best start to any job that I have had. On the first day breakfast and lunch were provided and we went to the office to find our own desks fully set-up with helpful staff ready to resolve any minor technical problems, which made sure that we got up and running as swiftly as possible. This attitude reflects the course design, which has been set out to efficiently deliver necessary information and training and get us all practising our newly-acquired skills as soon as we can. It is a relief to join a company that is clearly interested in investing in its employees and developing talent quickly and effectively.

Even without technical or scheduling issues, the prospect of starting a new job can sometimes be daunting but the Allegro team went out of their way to make sure that our start was as easy and comfortable as possible. Soon after receiving a job offer I was invited to lunch at the Victoria Mill office in Macclesfield to meet my new colleagues and talk to key Allegro staff ahead of our first day. Our first two weeks have continued in this manner, with staff from throughout the company introducing themselves or leading classes and previous Allegro intakes reaching out to meet us and welcome us to the company.

The group that I am now happy to find myself a part of, the third intake of Allegro candidates, shows that the programme is dedicated to finding talent wherever it may be. My day at the assessment centre was attended by people from a wide range of cultural and educational backgrounds from all across the UK and our own Allegro intake group shows this selection process well, with the fifteen of us comprising a mixture of recent graduates, including doctoral graduates, and people changing careers. In our brief time together we have used our varied experiences and backgrounds to share different viewpoints, skills and knowledge to benefit each other, improve our collective understanding of the training and work well as a team.

The first weeks have been full of new information, advice and challenges to encourage all of us to think in new ways and adapt to our new roles. We have worked hard but we are constantly supported by the programme staff and are given the time and the help that we need to grow and learn. I am proud to be on the Allegro programme, I am excited to be starting a career in Medical Writing and I look forward to learning even more in the next few weeks.

[Find out more about the Allegro programme]

[Find out more about Ashfield Healthcare Communications]