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192. Careers In Focus: Medical Writer

When you think about your day, which events and activities feel the most fulfilling? Which tasks do you tolerate, but would rather avoid?

Maybe your experiments feel like a drag, but you get a lot of satisfaction out of crafting an abstract for your latest research article. Or perhaps you love training new students in lab techniques, even if you don’t love processing samples yourself.

If you find your joy in communicating science more than working at the bench, you may want to explore a career as a medical writer.

This week, we catch back up with Dr. Emma Hinkle. She recently graduated, and landed a job as a medical writer.

We ask what traits a student might look for to know if medical writing is a good career fit, and what they can do to prepare. The good news is that you can start to build a writing portfolio at any stage of your training – you don’t need to wait until graduation!

Emma also dispels some common misconceptions about the field (No, you DON’T need to be a subject matter expert in oncology to get a job writing about oncology!) and shares resources if you want to find a writing club near you.

If you have questions, leave a comment below or find Dr. Hinkle online @geneticginger.

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