So You Wanna Be in Science Communication? A Q&A With BioBuzz Managing Editor Sarah Ellinwood

More and more, scientists at all levels are realizing that they don’t need to be in a research lab to have a meaningful and fulfilling career in science. Science Communication (also called “SciComm” by the cool kids) is just one of the many career pathways that have grown tremendously in recent years, and it’s not looking to slow down any time soon.

If you find that you enjoy talking about science more than pipetting and running assays, then SciComm might be a great career option for you! The good news is that there are also a lot of different branches that fall under the SciComm umbrella, including but not limited to:

• Science writing and journalism
• Public relations
• Outreach coordinator
• Science policy
• Medical writing
• Medical communications
• Medical Science Liason roles (MSL)

Recently I had the pleasure of talking about my own career path at ASBMB’s Virtual Career Expo, which brought together scientists across many non-academic fields to share their journeys and give words of wisdom. I thought it would be helpful to summarize some of the questions I got as well as my responses, both for those who weren’t able to attend and for those who are just generally curious about what one path in SciComm can look like.

Before we jump in, let me quickly summarize my journey so far for context:

• I graduated from the University of Maryland in 2017 with a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, focusing more specifically on infectious disease microbiology and immunology.
• A few weeks after defending, I started my first job as a Medical Writing for Technical Resources International (TRI), a Contract Research Organization (CRO) that provides a variety of services and support to its clients. More specifically, I worked under a contract providing regulatory medical writing support for early stage clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.
• After a year at TRI, I started as a scientific analyst at Verge Scientific Communications, a boutique agency providing support to early stage biotech and healthcare companies. Much of my role involved writing press releases, copywriting for websites, messaging planning, and acting as a scientific liaison between our team, our clients, and our partners.
• I was at Verge for 3 years before joining on the BioBuzz crew as Managing Editor in Nov 2021. Here I largely manage BioBuzz’s editorial strategy and content, manage writers, curate our newsletters, and work closely with our team to plan for growth in existing and new markets.

Did you know that you wanted to do SciComm from the start of your PhD? How did you prepare?

Nope, not at all! When I started my PhD in 2012 I knew that I didn’t want to be a professor at an R1 institution, but I didn’t know what else was out there besides industry and teaching at a PUI. I didn’t realize that you could make a career out of being a science communicator until my 4th year when I attended the AAAS Annual Meeting and started becoming more active on Science Twitter. 

Once I learned that SciComm could be a good career path, I took advantage of all the opportunities I could to grow my skill set, including my “soft skills”. Here are few of the things I did:

• I attended multiple workshops hosted by BIOTrain, where I learned everything from business communication skills to how drug development works and what “Quality Control” means in biopharma.
• I continued volunteering with my local Women In Bio chapter, which helped me learn leadership skills and network with life science professionals
• I set up informational interviews with people I found on LinkedIn or through my network who were in SciComm roles to learn more about what they do
• I took SciComm-focused workshops, including ASBMB’s “The Art of Science Communication” and AIBS’ “Communications Bootcamp for Scientists” and “Writing for Impact” courses.
• I did an informal internship with the Drug Information Association (DIA) through a connection I met at a Women In Bio networking event. I would write short blog posts about topics related to DIA’s multitude of meetings and workshops, as well as attend a few of the workshops myself. I also had the chance to beta-test DIA’s e-Learning modules, all of which taught me various aspects of drug development. This was something I did throughout the academic year, devoting about 10-15 hr/month

What things can I do to prepare for a SciComm role?

YMMV depending on what specific type of role you’d like to pursue, but here are a few suggestions from my own experiences that will help you narrow down what kind of SciComm fields excite you and get ahead of the curve when it comes time to apply:

• Network, Network, Network! Go to life science networking events in your area. Set up a LinkedIn and reach out to folks who have interesting roles that you want to learn more about. Get involved in SciComm communities such as Lifeology and SciCommers. From my experiences, SciComm folks are generally a friendly and helpful bunch, so don’t be afraid to reach out!
• Build your writing portfolio. Scientists know how to write technical, but not all of them know how to write in more generalized styles. Find opportunities where you can build your skills:
  • BioBuzz actually just started a Contributing Writers program for this exact purpose. Shoot me an email for more details on how to get involved.
  • ASBMB Today is a great resource for volunteers writing.
  • AAAS’s “Science in the Classroom” program is also great training for talking about science in lay-friendly ways.
• Take a workshop or two. A lot of people underestimate the amount of work it takes to do science communication well. Many professional societies over the years have started establishing workshops and opportunities to help learn how to cut through the jargon and frame your communication for different audiences. For example, ASBMB’s “Art of Science Communication” workshop is a GREAT and affordable option and runs multiple times throughout the year. I’m also planning to teach a BIOTrain course on Science Communication early in 2023 – stay tuned!

RELATED: 6 Things I’ve Learned as I’ve Navigated a Non-Academic Career Path Post-PhD

What is your day-to-day like?

In all three of my post-PhD jobs, my day-to-day was and continues to be variable. There’s always a bit of structure to them, such as certain days of the week when reports need to go out to clients or memos need to be written, but otherwise, my workload depends on the clients/customers I have and what their needs are.

To give an idea:

• Medical Writing: My days would be spent either writing various regulatory documents (FDA Annual Reports, INDs, Protocols), tending to my inbox, or QCing work from my colleagues. My meeting load was pretty low overall
• Scientific Analyst: I had a lot more meetings than in my previous role – usually at least 2-3 hours worth per day, sometimes as much as 7 hours. These meetings would be both internal, where I’d work with the team to brainstorm or workshop ideas, and external, where we’d be talking with our clients. When not on calls, I’d be working on deliverables such as press releases, website copy, corporate decks, and messaging documents.
• Managing Editor: A lot of my time is spent planning, managing, and implementing BioBuzz’s editorial strategy. I also have a heavy hand in curating BioBuzz’s newsletters and working with our leadership team to plan our continued growth in existing and new markets. And, of course, I do some writing myself here and there!

What do you like/dislike about your job?

What I Like: I love that I get to continue learning about cutting edge science and therapeutics all the time, but I never have to hold a pipette or do a Western Blot again. I also get to learn about entirely new fields beyond what I focused on during grad school. I’m learning about cancer, medical devices, immunotherapies, and more!

Oh, and flooding our group chats with pop culture memes and stupid gifs is really fun too.

Challenges: Two things. First, and I wouldn’t say I dislike this, but when you work at a small company you have a lot of roles, and things sometimes can be unpredictable because you’re laying down the train tracks as the train is moving. That said, I don’t feel siloed because the entire team is always accessible, and there are so many opportunities to learn, fail, and grow.

The second is Chris Frew’s terrible dad jokes that he posts every Friday afternoon….

How do you apply what you learned during your PhD to the work you do?

Although I’m not spending my days at the Biosafety Cabinet anymore, I still apply a lot of what I learned during my PhD to my everyday work. A few examples:

• Subject Matter Expertise: I’m not only knowledgeable about the field I studied while I was a grad student, but I know how to navigate scientific literature to answer questions on fields I’m unfamiliar with. When doing interviews with other scientists I’m also able to “talk shop” and understand their technical jargon
• Project Management and Multitasking: I’m skilled in moving projects forward and juggling multiple things simultaneously

Having worked at both a medium-sized company and two startups, I’ll also say that working in an academic lab made the transition to working at a startup easier. Many people either don’t enjoy or get scared off from working at startups because they require a lot of multitasking, wearing many “hats”, and uncertainty. There aren’t as many well-established SOPs, and you often find yourself pivoting around and trying new things to see what works and what doesn’t work. For a scientist that’s worked in any kind of academic lab, that’s all second nature to us. 

What is your work/life balance like?

In all three of my post-PhD roles my work/life balance has been pretty good, but a lot of that is attributed to me intentionally setting (and keeping) boundaries.

RELATED: So You’re Starting a PhD Program – 5 Things You Can Start Doing Your First Year to Give You a Head Start in the Non-Academic Job Market

It’s definitely better than it was while I was a grad student – I don’t need to run to the lab on the weekends to split my cells anymore, nor do I feel guilty taking the time to binge-watch home reno shows in the evening rather than read literature or analyze data. And now that I’m married and have a toddler, I’m even more intentional with making sure I make time for them and for myself.

A note that ANY job can have poor work/life balance if you let it get out of control. While there will be times where you need to devote extra hours to a project, I’ve seen folks working at all hours of the evening and into the weekend for no particular reason, especially during COVID where remote work has blurred the lines. It’s a recipe for burnout.

Are there any SciComm/SciWriting careers out there for folks who are straight out of undergrad?

Yes! You certainly don’t need to go to graduate school to get into science communication, although having deep expertise can be helpful. 

Here are a few example entry-level options that you can pursue if you’re fresh out of your Bachelor’s:

• Journalism, either at a life science publication or freelancing
• Working at a science-focused PR agency. The PR firm I worked at, for example, often had positions open for new graduates
• Science Policy
• Communication roles at professional scientific societies (think AAAS, ASBMB, ACS, etc)

Something to keep in mind – some of the job descriptions you’ll come across won’t explicitly say “Science Communicator” as the job title. You’ll need to do a bit of digging into the description to see what kind of duties the role entails.

And if you want to pursue some graduate training but don’t want to commit to a full PhD, there are also now Master’s programs and certifications specifically for SciComm and Science Writing. Google around and ask your networks.

For medical writing jobs, did you need to have expertise in a certain area to be employed? Or was it more about having the writing skills and learning the concepts later?

I can’t speak for all medical writing jobs, but for me, my interviewers were much more interested in my writing skills and ability to read literature/understand scientific data than my knowledge of oncology clinical trials. 

In fact, I had very, very little experience in cancer biology in general when I started my first job – it was a whole new world to me as an infectious disease immunologist. I quickly caught on, though, and within about three months I was slingin’ around abbreviations with the best of them.

I don’t like writing that much – am I out of luck in finding a SciComm job?

Not at all! Science writing is just one area of SciComm, but it’s not the only avenue you can explore. Many scientific professional societies, for example, have openings for science outreach coordinators. Medical Science Liasons (MSLs) are another popular career choice that involve more general communication and conveying ideas rather than writing and journalism.

My advice – when you’re interviewing with someone, whether for a job or an informational interview, ask what percentage of the job will entail writing. This will give you a better idea of how writing-intensive that role is and if it’s right for you.