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.

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In this synchronised audio and slide show, Mary Thorp, Trainee Account Handler at Mudskipper Business Ltd (an AMICULUM agency) explains how she started her career in MedComms and reflects on her first year. This presentation was recorded at the Open Careers Event, FirstMedCommsJob: Introduction to MedComms, held in Manchester on 13 September.

[Find out more about AMICULUM here]

When I first applied for a job in healthcare communications as an Associate Medical Writer, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I received a job offer to join the Allegro programme a month after I had submitted my PhD thesis, and, to be honest, working outside of the comfort of academia was a little bit daunting. Allegro is a 12-month programme, comprising an eight-week training phase followed by two five-month rotations in different agencies within Ashfield Healthcare Communications (AHC). I have now just finished my eight weeks of training, and it has been quite the journey!

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Krish Kapoor, a medical writer at Cello Health Cypher reflects on starting her career in MedComms…

This week marks my 2 year anniversary of starting out in medical writing. If you know me IRL (or if you’ve skimmed my LinkedIn profile), you’ll know that before moving into medcomms I was a research scientist, first in academia, then in the commercial sector. Joining the medcomms industry has been a huge learning curve for me, and I wanted to share some key points on writing for anyone else thinking of a career in the same field.

[Read more at Linkedin]

My journey to become an Associate Medical Writer (AMW) for Ashfield Healthcare Communications (AHC) began on 21 November, 2016. I made the move North in pursuit of a career in Healthcare Communications, having spent several years working in roles that had left me feeling either unsatisfied professionally, or bored. It had always been my intention to go into Medical Writing, but after numerous rejections citing ‘a lack of experience’ I felt it wise to get in on the ground floor and work my way up. So it was with great enthusiasm that, having passed the interview and editorial test stages of the recruitment process, I began my new role as an Editorial Assistant (EA) for CircleScience (one of AHC’s agencies).

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Two weeks after joining Allegro, a new training programme for Associate Medical Writers within Ashfield Healthcare Communications (AHC), I feel privileged to be part of this new initiative and excited by this new chapter in my career.

On my first day, I experienced none of the normal new-job apprehension. The other 14 new recruits and I were already friends after meeting at our Assessment Centre, a get-to-know-you lunch and the AHC Christmas party, and so we could chat properly instead of making nervous small talk. These events had also provided an opportunity to meet and socialise with our line managers and other key people within the business, and therefore I felt relaxed and comfortable. I’d had plenty of opportunities to ask questions about what we would be doing, and we’d all been sent some small details that make a first day easier – what to bring, what to wear, where to go, what to do if delayed – and so I knew exactly what to expect.

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Learn more about Sam Bestall, who has been working as an Associate Medical Writer for Watermeadow Medical, an Ashfield Healthcare Communications agency, for 6 months [Learn more on Ashfield Healthcare Communications’s company Blog… ]

Lucy Hooper, Client Services Manager at Adelphi Communications, reflects on three years in account management.

When you first mention medical communications to people it’s not uncommon to be met with an enquiring look, and if I’m honest when looking for new opportunities and first considering a role within a MedComms agency I wasn’t 100% sure myself of what this involved.

What I found was an industry that is exciting and challenging and provides strong development potential for people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Although from a scientific background myself, my previous professional experience had not been in the medical or pharmaceutical field. However, I quickly learned that despite the initially daunting prospect, the Medical Communications community is a supportive and progressive network that takes into account a wide range of transferable skills.

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