Hey thats pretty cool. So you are working primarily from home? Is it pretty good pay, if you don't mind me asking? Also, did you minor in eng. or journalism?
The pay is ok. I asked my boss for the medical writing job to just give me a salaried position instead of an hourly position. I worked the research associate position for over a year already (got lucky to be hired before I graduated). This job involves a lot of database management and editing and writing articles about health conditions. Thus, I was able to use this experience to leverage a salaried position for the medical writing job. I explined in detail how long it takes to research the subject, read the literature, and translate it into simply to understand (using big words is useless.....any person off the street needs to be able to understand your writing if you write for a general audience-which I do). So I also explained how it can vary for each subject that I'm assigned to. So he agreed with me to pay me a flat salary as long as I meet the deadlines.
For the health search expert position, I get paid $15 an hour. I only work a few hours a month...most I've ever done is 20 hours a month. This is still good money for a small part-time job.
For my other medical writing job, I usually make $20 an hour. The articles are to be between 500 - 700 words long. Since I already have extensive knowledge of the topics I work on (I spent a lot of time reading the medical and science literature as a college student....I almost never read the textbook..too general), I can write two articles an hour, which includes researching the information, writing and eiditing the article. For example, I recently wrote an article on "Genetics and Athleticism." I already know a great deal about training with athletes and genetics, so it only took a few minutes to write the article once I had the primary literature to reference.
For the research associate job, I spend eight hours a day working that job. The whole time is spent reading and research the medical and science literature. I have access to four major university libraries. So I just do everything from home.
I only work four days a week at my full-time day job (32 hours a week).
I make good money, but I work 16 hour days. I've worked 16 hour days my whole life growing up on a farm, so I don't care if I work so much.
I would love to get a health writer job for Mayo Clinic some day or some other company that is similar (e.g., LifeExtension or Cancer Consultants, Inc.).
I'm in the works for another medical writer job for a company that has an Internet tv show. They were looking for a healthcare writer to write articles for their company. So I sent in my resume and writing examples. So they wanted me to provide them ideas for articles. Now we are working on putting together the contract. I will be paid 0.35 cents a word for a 700 word article. I don't know how many articles thy will let me write in a week or month yet, however.
As far as getting a degree or minor in English or journalism, I didn't get a degree in this area. I've used my writing examples to get these jobs even without these degree credentials.
I'm thinking of getting certified as a clinical research coordinator and getting a degree in journalism (online if I can) so I don't limit my career potential. But I'm a realist. My work experience means more. So I'm not rushing out Googling for an online based journalsim degree.
