3 Topics Every Job Candidate Should Bring Up During an Interview

Inevitably at your interview, you will be asked if you have any questions.  If you have done your homework, i.e., done a little background research on the hiring company, you should have a set of questions prepared.  I would also recommend adding the following 3 topics to your list to help you make a well-informed decision later if the job is offered to you.

1. Short-term and long-term on-boarding activities for new hires.  In 2007, the Wynhurst Group published the following statistics about new employees:

• On their first day, 4% of new employees will leave the job. 
• In the first 3 weeks, new employees will decide whether they feel at home or not. 
• In the first 45 days, 22% of staff turnover will occur. 
• In the first 18 month, almost half (46%) of new employees will wash out.

The good news is that “new employees who went through a structured on-boarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years.”  The more time and effort placed on welcoming and preparing new employees, the greater the chance that new employees will feel welcomed, prepared and supported.  As a consequence of successful on-boarding, new employees will try much harder, i.e., perform better, when they understand and believe in their jobs’ importance to the organization.

                          

2. Attrition rates.  Every organization should know how many employees it has and how many employees have left over a given period.  A simple calculation for attrition rate could be the total number of employees who left the organization per month (whether voluntary or forced) divided by (the total number of employees at the beginning of the month plus the number of new hires minus total number of resignations) multiplied by 100.  

In their paper, Harris et al (2002) investigated the quantitative effects of employee turnover on firms' productivity and identified that the optimal turnover rate - the rate that maximizes productivity, controlling for other factors - is about 30% for small to mid-sized firms.  Firms with higher attrition rates are in danger of undermining their productivity and over-working their remaining employees, which may lead to cost-cutting initiatives and work-related stress, respectively.

What they also uncovered was that the average attrition rate among the companies included in the study was 18%.  A firm with a low attrition rate could signal management's reluctance to dismiss poor performers.  This can have a negative affect on the morale of those employees who shoulder the workload of the under-performers within the group.  Alternatively, the firm can have an entitlement mentality in which employees expect raises, promotions, benefits and perks, regardless of performance standards or company financials.  Employees who feel entitled will perform at the minimal requirement because management treats good performance, poor performance, or no performance at all, the same.

3. Corporate culture and values.  Do not under-estimate the importance of the organization’s culture on your decision.  John Sheridan (1992), the L. R. Jordan Professor of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, reported new employees stayed longer in a culture that emphasized interpersonal relationship values than in a culture that emphasized work task values.  Benjamin Schneider (1987), Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, argued that the fit between personal and organizational values is very important to employees, suggesting that those who do not fit an organization will soon leave.

One final recommendation is to speak to a recruiter in your field of work.  There is a good chance that the company looking to hire you is known to other recruiters who may be willing to share their experiences, both positive and negative, with you. 

Citation List

Harris MN, Tang K-K, Tseng Y-P. Optimal Employee Turnover Rate: Theory and Evidence. Research Collections (UMER). Economics and Commerce: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Accessed on 23 April 2011 at http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?application=DIGITOOL-3&owner=resourcediscovery&custom_att_2=simple_viewer&forebear_coll=&user=GUEST&pds_handle=&pid=65853&con_lng=ENG&search_terms=SYS%20=%20000028983&adjacency=N&rd_session=http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au:80/R/JYNBGFIFHJQFKEHRSPD7H22Y6XS34XIKSL61QG65RVX7QBKQF5-01378.

Schneider B. The people make the place. Personnel Psychology, 1987;40:437-453.

Sheridan JE. Organizational culture and employee retention. The Academy of Management Journal, 1992;35(5):1036-1056.

“SHRM Presentation” by The Wynhurst Group, April 2007.

5 Warning Signs that Your Job may be in Jeopardy

For many medical writers, mergers and acquisitions, the current economy, internal pressures to reduce costs, outsourcing, downsizing, and attrition without replacement can all be signs that their jobs may be in jeopardy.  When assessing how your company is faring, look at what your company does, not necessarily what it says.  It’s what it does that really matters.  Below are 5 warning signs that might signal that your job may be in jeopardy.

Number 1:  You have received a poor performance review, without prior knowledge that your performance was either deteriorating or not meeting department standards.  

A thoughtful performance review should never be a surprise.  If this is your first indication that your performance is unacceptable, you may have been earmarked by your company for dismissal.  The leverage a company gains by identifying you as a poor performer is usually in reduced severance. 

Cynthia Shapiro, a former human resource executive, acknowledges that "companies do have black lists.  It’s not written down anywhere, but it’s a list of people they’d be happy to get rid of if the opportunity arises.  If you feel invisible, if you’re getting bad assignments, if your boss is ignoring you, or if they move your office, you’re probably on it.”

Number 2: Your department head is spending a great deal of time behind closed-door meetings with upper management.

When plans to cut the workforce are being discussed, your department head will be directed to keep discussions confidential.  However with knowledge of impending cuts, some department heads may begin to discuss ways to improve department efficiency, others may become more involved with project assignments, others may want to go over individual performance reviews, and still others may be too busy for anyone in the department. 

If the closed-door discussions are about a merger or an acquisition, the stakes may be just as high.  If the merger or acquisition partner has a medical writing group, you can expect there to be a certain amount of redundancy within the merging groups, especially if the workload of the newly combined department cannot support all the writers or if the surviving company places a great deal of value on centralized management.  The latter is an important consideration when the surviving company wants only the clients and project work and not the physical assets, that is, the building(s).  In a case like this, expect to be asked to move to the headquarters of the surviving company.

Number 3: You have recently lost a key client — along with the healthy revenue generated by that client.

Profit margin is everything.  It fuels raises, promotions, bonuses, expansion, and capital investments.  With the loss of a substantial client, your company will be looking for quick ways to cut costs in order to bolster the bottom line.  These belt-tightening efforts may take the form of hiring freezes, reducing capital expenditures, restricting travel, delaying promotions, or reducing the percentage of dollars for raises.  These cost-cutting measures by themselves are only partially successful in improving the bottom line.  Since the biggest expense to a company is the salaries it pays its employees, expect to see layoffs in the very near future.

Number 4: You are not as busy as you should be.

If you were once a busy writer and now work is being taken away and given to someone else, or you are not being assigned new work, or you have extra time for long lunches and internet searches, you should be asking questions about your current job.  There is only so much “busy” work to go around, and eventually, your employer will have to make some tough decisions if client prospects do not improve.

Number 5: Your company implements a plan to include oversea resources and contractors in your department’s resourcing strategy. 

Worse, you are actually asked to travel to the newest site and (unknowingly) train the new recruits to be your replacements.  By itself, the inclusion of resources from outside you own country is not necessarily the harbinger of other changes to come, but coupled with replacing writers that have left with only writers from your new resource pool is a cause for concern.

Donata Lovejoy of the Knowledge Network recommends the following tips to anyone who believes her or his job may be in jeopardy:

• Use your vacation days, personal days, and floating holidays to interview for new job opportunities.
• Don’t let your co-workers or your manager know that you are looking for a new job.
• Give your employer a two week notice in writing before leaving the company.
• Try to leave on good terms.
• Don’t quit your job until you find a better one.
• If you feel that you are a victim of discrimination of any sort, contact your Human Resources department/or seek external legal counsel.

7 Steps to Land your First Job as a Medical Writer

It’s the rare occasion when someone says early in life, “I want to be a medical writer.” Most medical writers started life out as wanting to be something else, but by a chance meeting with a medical writer or by some other fateful event, their career paths diverged. Below are 7 steps you can take to increase your chances of becoming a medical writer and to answer the ultimate question, “How do I become a medical writer?”

Step 1: Think about your Niche

A medical writer or medical communicator can be defined by the type of writing she or he produces, the audience she or he writes for, and the entity she or he works for.

Medical writers can prepare regulatory documents used to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for drugs and devices.

Medical writers can write research articles, monographs, and reviews on medical topics.

Medical writers can write continuing medical education materials and slide kits that doctors and nurses use to prepare for license renewals.

Medical writers can produce sales training materials, press releases for industry, and fact sheets or Web site materials for government organizations.

Medical writers can write about research discoveries for medical journals, Web sites, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, and any other medium that includes coverage of health and medical issues.

Step 2: Prepare for a Career in Medical Writing

Whatever medium you choose to work in, you will need a strong background in writing and a strong understanding in one or more of the basic sciences, such as anatomy, biochemistry, biology, genetics, biostatistics, microbiology or pharmacology. Taking courses in English, technical writing, language arts, humanities and social studies will push you to develop your writing skills. Writing for newspapers, trade journals, or science magazines is helpful as well. Volunteering or interning at your local hospital’s public relations or patient education department could help you prepare for a place in medical writing.

Step 3: Earn a Degree in the Basic Sciences

Over the decades, the field of medical writing has changed in response to the pool of talent available to employers and to the knowledge explosion within the medical sciences and related technologies. Where before a degree in English was acceptable for an entry level position, employers have raised the bar and are often looking for advanced degree candidates for its entry level positions. Consequently to be viewed as a viable candidate, a prospective medical writer should have the credentials employers are looking for, such as Bachelor’s or an advanced degree (PhD, PharmD, MD) degree in a scientific discipline.

The pursuit of higher education within a scientific discipline should never overshadow the need to include the fundamentals of sound writing skills into your core curriculum. The notion that anyone who has graduated with an advance degree knows how to write needs to be challenged and validated by a portfolio of writing assignments, journal articles, abstracts, poster presentations, news articles, and patient information brochures.

Step 4: Pursue an Internship or Volunteer

Writing for newspapers, trade journals, or science magazines in your chosen field of medical writing is a helpful way to gain experience. Volunteering or interning at your local hospital’s public relations or patient education department could help you prepare for a place in medical writing. Many universities that do research may need assistance in writing grants or in publishing its findings. By volunteering your services, you can build a portfolio and make contacts that may help you obtain a job. Aspiring medical writers may also pursue part-time job opportunities as freelancers.

Step 5: Look for Employers

As a medical writer, you have a lot of different options. You can work for a variety of healthcare industry employers including pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, publishing companies of medical textbooks, government healthcare institutions, and more. Some medical writers work as freelancers or contractors, which is an attractive option for some people. You can work for news publications, magazines, trade journals, or within specific industries. As you earn your degree, learn as much as you can about the many different specialties and work environments open to you as a medical writer.

Scour the job boards. Check them out every day and apply to any jobs that interest you and even some that do not. You never know what opportunity a job could provide. Most advertisements that you will see will ask for basic knowledge of the clinical research process and FDA and ICH guidelines regulations/guidelines, strong organizational, interpersonal and verbal and written communication skills, excellent time management skills with an ability to manage multiple, varied tasks and prioritize workload, and proficiency in word processing applications. These are important requirements that you need to take seriously if you expect to be a credible candidate.

Put your name out there. As you are trying to break into the field, send your resume and work to various employers across the country. Start up an email rapport with them. If they cannot give you a job, they might know someone who can.

Step 6: Join an Association

Associations generally offer medical writers benefits like industry updates and opportunities for professional networking. The American Medical Writers Association, for example, offers educational resources to medical writers in general. Some organizations specialize in genres or industries, such as the Education Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers, or the Society of Technical Communications.

Step 7: Stay Current

Part of your responsibility as a medical writer is staying abreast of current events. Staying current on industry updates, protocols, technologies and related legislative measures is vital to your daily activities. Some employers provide continuing education opportunities to medical writers, though you may also find such opportunities through professional organizations or academic institutions.

7 Arguments Against a Medical Communication Certification Program

Can a medical communication certification program attest to the fitness of a medical communicator’s skill set?  Below are seven reasons I believe a medical communication certification may not be realistic or desirable.

1.      Medical Communication is too eclectic to be encompassed by a single certification program.  A quick glance at the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) membership directory underscores this fact.  Members are educators, advertisers, researchers, marketers, pharmacists, journalists, translators, editors, managers, and writers.  This inclusiveness acknowledges that medical communication draws its uniqueness from a variety of interconnected fields such as healthcare, education, biotechnology, medical devices, and pharmaceutical research.  Consequently, one test could not cover all disciplines of medical communication.  Alternatively, a test that covers basic skills that all medical communicators should possess, regardless of the area in which they work, cannot guarantee quality, but merely shows that someone can take a test. 

2.      The wheel already exits, so why reinvent it.  Because of the eclectic nature of medical communication, devising a single test or a basic skills test that satisfies all medical communication practitioners could be an insurmountable undertaking.  However, widely recognized certification programs already exist that individuals can take.  Many of these programs relate to a particular aspect of medical communication that is often of interest to employers.  For instance, the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) certifies the proficiency of manuscript editors in the life sciences; Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) certifies regulatory professionals in the healthcare product sector; and the American Translators Association certifies translators who meet certain standards of the translation profession.

3.      There is my way, your way, and then there’s the Evaluator’s way.  Join any medical communicator’s forum, blog or message board and ask a question and you will get as many answers as there are members, and each answer is just as legitimate as any other.  Unlike electrical engineers and other certified professionals who must comply with numerous rules and regulations, medical communicators often use non-binding guidances, a variety of published and departmental style guides and templates, and personal references, preferences and networks to write for their audiences.  Without extensive knowledge about the audiences that its members write for, the body responsible for creating the certification program will default to the lowest common denominator and selectively impose its own sense of correctness to subjective responses.  This will dilute the credibility of the certification in the eyes of an employer who is looking for guarantees of quality and potentially alienate highly experienced members who may feel that their contributions to medical communication will go unrecognized in favor of a passing score on a test.  

4.      No evidence employers will value certification.  If no one but the members of an organization or an association recognizes the value of certification, certification will not be worth the paper it is printed on.  Unless medical communicators and the organizations that represent them can successfully demonstrate their value to employers and dissuade employers from outsourcing to the lowest-cost contractor by overcoming the notion that medical communication is nothing more than a commodity like white socks, certification will be nothing more than a meaningless adornment that dangles after your name on a signature line or a business card.  Equally important to consider is whether an employer is willing to pay more for a certified communicator.  If not, then earning certification is not worth the effort and expense to obtain it.

5.      Medical communication is not a local phenomenon.  Eight of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies by 2008 sales were headquartered outside the United States.  In terms of medicinal products sold, the United States accounts for about 25% of the global market.  These statistics underscore the global nature of the biopharmaceutical industry.  The pool of medical communicators who provide services to this global industry is just as globally diverse.  In an effort to provide a forum where medical communicators could meet and share knowledge and experience, several organizations have emerged around the world to represent medical communicators.  These organizations include the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), Australasian Medical Writers Association (AMWA), European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), and most recently, the Indian Medical Writers Association (IMWA). Unless a certification program is both portable and globally recognized by employers and by medical communicators and the associations that represent them, it is unlikely to be successful.

6.      There is a potential for competition.  As mention above, several organizations currently exist that represent medical communicators around the world.  Each organization would have a vested interest in any certification program that would be touted as “the” medical communication certification program.  Any one organization that is considering developing a certification program in isolation is likely to come up against strong opposition from similar organizations.  In an effort to keep its own identity and to protect its membership, a similar organization may begin to develop its own certification program.  This would only lead to confusion among employers as to which certification program is the most relevant.  For medical communicators, the worst-case scenario would be that all certification programs are viewed as relevant by employers, adding both a financial and personal burden on medical communicators who decide to investment money and time to obtain and keep these various certifications active.

7.      Medical Communication is more than writing.  Even if a certification program is able to show that a medical communicator has mastered writing/editing for a scientific/medical audience, medical communication requires other important skills, such as the ability to negotiate, arbitrate, persuade, influence, lead, interpret, problem solve, and organize.  Mastering these skills gives medical communicators a greater say, a greater role, and a greater satisfaction in their work.  A certification program would not be expected to include these dimensions into its scope, but these dimensions are what differentiate medical communication from all other forms of written communication.  Consequently, the best a certification program could do is to attest to one dimension of medical communication.  As such it would be best directed to novice medical communicators who lack a body of work to show employers.  That is where a certification program could have its greatest impact.

I do not speak for any of the organizations mentioned above.  I am only expressing my own personal concerns.  A continuing open dialogue is important to ensure that the views and opinions are heard and factored into any response that may ensue.

4 Keepers that Will Serve You Well as a Medical Writer

Throughout my career as a medical writer, I have realized that the most recognized medical writers are writers who have kept 4 priorities in the fore-front of their minds. Three of these priorities are based in sound principles of good communication and one is based on a widely recognized and coveted multi-faceted personal value.

Keep Listening.  Receiving and giving feedback is one of the most crucial parts of good communication, and listening is a key part of getting feedback.  Sometimes the feedback may challenge your ability to listen.  Give your full attention to what is being said and avoid thinking about your own response.  By directing your attention to the message and away from your own response, you will be more certain of the message being delivered.  Learn to ask people for feedback and be willing to make some changes to improve your approach.  The more feedback you get, the more effective you will be.

Keep Informed.  In your role as a medical writer, you need to keep yourself informed about the changes that are occurring within the medical writing field, including regulations and guidelines, by seeking out continuing educational opportunities through the organizations you belong to, through the companies you work with, and through your own search efforts to identify relevant training, workshops, meetings and conferences.  In fact, you should have as a long-term personal goal to become known as an expert in medical writing, with objectives including presenting at staff meetings, writing articles for publication, and submitting abstracts to conferences.

Keep Networking.  Rather than sitting in your office waiting for someone to contact you, you could instead check in periodically with colleagues, team members and clients.  Use and develop your people skills and develop relationships with people you work with and get to know people who make decisions in the company.  A common mistake networkers make is not following up with their contacts.  Contact the people you meet, and start a dialogue.  An email that passes along some information, asks a question, or proposes a time and place for a meeting will prompt your reader to action.  Use these opportunities to make yourself useful before you “use” – people are more likely to respond to genuine interest.

Keep Your Credibility.  Take responsibility for what happens in your work.  Your supervisor or client wants to know you are in control of the situation.  Ducking accountability by looking for alibis or blaming others when bad news strikes will only make them question your credibility.  Keep your word, whether you have communicated it in writing or verbally.  Nothing else can erode your credibility faster than repeatedly breaking your promises.  Before you speak, take a minute to think and realistically promise what you know you can deliver.  In the long-run, maintaining your credibility is the best way to be successful.  It is also the best way to gain respect for yourself and your business.  You will eventually build a successful business with clients who will trust you and believe in your company.

3 Tips for Keeping Clutter Off Your Desk

During the course of doing business with your clients, you may notice that you have a collection of papers, email correspondences, drafts of documents, and other sundry materials stashed in folders, both electronic and vanilla flavored, boxes, or just piled high on your desk.  Below are 3 tips I use to keep my office and desk clutter-free.

Tip 1:  Update your master service or professional services agreement. Your contract should contain clauses that will tell you how you deal with the client’s materials once the final work product is accepted by the client and final payment is made.  As a business owner, I would like to keep myself disentangled from keeping every piece of paper that I have every worked with or on—even in light of the low cost of electronic storage.  Specifically, my contracts (and most often the clients’ contracts too) contain a disposition and retention clause.  With this clause, I know what I will keep and what I will return to the client, thus giving me a level of comfort that requests from the client or an agent of the client or a legal representative of the client or any other person or agency requesting access to my computer records, will not come back to haunt me later.

I have reproduced the clause for you to consider either adding to your own contracts or to search to see if such a clause already exists in your contracts:

Disposition and Retention. All as confidential or proprietary material (including copies and reproductions) received or generated in the performance of the Agreement will be returned to the CLIENT on completion of the contract unless the material has been destroyed or retention of the material is authorized by the CLIENT.

Tip 2:  Organize your papers.  I know this will probably be a hard pill to swallow from many of us because most writers are hoarders—we like to keep a copy of every piece of work we produce and we can give a million reasons why we should keep every scrap of paper.  If you have ever seen the program Hoarders—Buried Alive on The Learning Channel, you can learn a lesson from the professional organizers who try to help people with the compulsion to save everything.  At the end of the project (my preference is to do this at the start of a project), you should make three piles: materials you will keep, materials you will throw away (destroy), and materials you will return to the client. Presto! You have uncluttered your desk and minimized your risk to legal discovery requests.

Tip 3:  Use First-in, First-out filing system. In accounting, first-in, first-out, means that the oldest inventory items are recorded as sold first.  If you have bins that are stacked with important papers in them, the bottom of the pile just hibernates there for long periods of time.  Instead of reaching for the top, dig down to the bottom and start evaluating whether the paper is still important but not urgent, if it’s important and urgent, or if it’s no longer important or has reached its expiration.  Continue to evaluate each paper in this manner until you have three stacks of papers.  File away papers identified as no longer important.  Create a to‑do list for papers identified as important and urgent.  Finally, hang papers identified as important but not urgent using a magnetic paper clip (or push-pins if you use a bulletin board) so that they are visible and easily accessible to you when you have time to work on them.

With a little imagination, these tips can be applied equally to electronic papers and emails. In the end, you'll achieve more when you're organized.  There are always barriers that hold you back from reaching your goals, but organized people find ways to eliminate tasks that aren't necessary and to streamline those that are taking too much time, leaving plenty of time to work on achieving all of those goals on your list.

3 Tendencies that May be Holding You Back as a Medical Writer

So you have been a medical writer for several years now and still you seem to be working on the same type of assignments. You also noticed that others who came in around the same time seem to be getting noticed and are getting the most visible projects. At this time you may be feeling a bit undervalued and maybe a little resentful. However, have you taken a personal assessment of your own behaviors lately? Below are 3 potential tendencies that may be working against you.

1.  Tending to take criticism of the document personally.  As writers, we need to learn from our mistakes and make the necessary changes to improve our writing. However, we should not take the criticism of a document as a personal attack on our character or on our ability to write clear and accurate prose. The intent of peer or team review is to ensure that all involved parties have the opportunity to read and confirm the integrity of the text, tables, and figures used to express the results of the clinical trial. In the end, these reviews should make for a stronger and more tightly written document.

To avoid the likelihood of receiving criticism of a personal nature, make an effort to involve or to interact with the people who are responsible and accountable for the content of the document.  Let’s face it, everyone has an ego. The more a person feels that he or she has been included in developing the document, the greater the likelihood his or her review will remained focused on the content rather than on personal preferences.

2.  Tending to let your writing speak for itself.  Writing is a static form of communication. Even if your prose is beyond reproach, it cannot address a reader’s immediate concern or question. Even with email, there is still a lag between receiving a question and formulating a reply. In dynamic situations such as seeking and exchanging opinions or developing a full understanding of the issues, verbal communication is still your best bet. Whether it’s to discuss results, review comments or formulate a course of action, your ability to state your point of view by choosing your words with the intent of making your message as clear as possible is crucial to your success as a medical writer. By employing good communication skills, others may view you as demonstrating the characteristics of strength, self respect, confidence, assertiveness and self control.

Fortunately, effective communication skills can be learned. It’s important to listen well, recognize nonverbal communication signals, manage stress, and stay connected to your emotions. Of course, it takes time and effort to develop these skills and become an effective communicator. The more effort and practice you put in, the more instinctive and spontaneous your communication skills will become.

3.  Tending to expect to be recognized. If you expect to be recognized as the go-to medical writer, you may be waiting in vain, especially when your peers are doing whatever it takes to show that they are the logical choice for the next big project. With the emergence of the global economy and the influx of new medical writing resources from around the globe, merely being a competent medical writer may not insure your place in the medical writing community. To be truly successful, a medical writer needs to incorporate new skills and hone personal attributes that will help him or her embrace medical writing within the context of a global environment. Not only will the new breed of medical writers be expected to write well, they will also be expected to plan and implement effective documentation processes, by using tools such as project management and workflow assessment, as well as contribute to best practices in planning, authoring, and reviewing. Medical writers will also be expected to be effective communicators, with knowledge of interpersonal communication and group dynamic strategies, who will foster greater understanding among colleagues of different gender, nationality, and culture.

To begin reinvesting in yourself, check with your HR department or Training group to see if there are courses available to you that focus on broadening your skill sets and personal attributes. There are also many online resources that are available for free or for a modest fee. Also inquire about a mentoring program within your company. A mentorship is a great way of learning about your organization as well as learning about how others have become successful. Alternatively, think about becoming a mentor. The potential benefits of being a mentor include broadening your skills and knowledge, increasing your personal and professional network, and seeing others develop from your experience.