The Fleishman Career Center recently hosted alumna Hannah Wojcik for an in-depth conversation about her career as a scientific writer. We heard the ins and outs of her day-to-day and she even took us back in time to hear about her experience at Binghamton and what she wished she knew when she was a student. Here are the top 3 takeaways from the program!
- Leveraging your strengths in the career exploration and preparation process
During the program, Hannah reflected on her experience with undergraduate research and the freshman research immersion program. She indicated how beneficial that was to engage in research and learn best practices and skill sets as a comprehensive part of her college experience. Hannah also had an interest in writing, and was quite good at it! Being a science major, she didn’t really know how to blend her interests and skills in science with her strengths in writing. Luckily, through her own job search and networking, she learned about the role of a scientific or medical writer; she is able to meet with scientists, learn about their research and findings, and then communicate this information through her report writing.
When Hannah was asked about the part of her job that is most exciting, she said that having the word writer in her job is the most exciting. It’s the perfect blend of science and writing!
- Securing research and full-time opportunities
Students attending the program had a lot of questions about how to find research experiences on campus and Hannah explained her process. She encouraged students to go to the academic pages of different departments and do research on faculty areas of expertise and what research their current labs are working on. Putting in the effort to do research, and be educated on what faculty are working on will help demonstrate students’ interest in being a part of the the lab teams.
Hannah did her own research as well during the job search. When asked how she heard about Regeneron, she explained that she went to the Job and Internship Fair and was able to connect with a Regeron recruiter who talked about the scientific writing role, which didn’t require an advanced degree beyond a bachelor’s degree. Hannah shared that she would likely pursue an advanced degree at some point, but she didn’t want to feel the pressure of doing it right away. Being aware of events and programs on campus, especially those created to connect students with alumni and employers is incredibly valuable and it’s important students stay up to date on opportunities to connect!
- Preparing for the interview and understanding the job
The first step in the application process is to understand what the job description is looking for. If you don’t know what skills the employer is looking for, it can be challenging to tailor your cover letter and application materials. Hannah highlighted that during her application process, tailoring her cover letter was one of the most beneficial things she did. She explained that transferable skills were just as valuable as the technical skills she demonstrated through her research and other on-campus experiences.
Additionally, Hannah shared a bit about her interview experience, including that she had to complete an attention-to-detail test as a part of the process. This was a unique aspect of the interview process that many hadn’t heard of before! Due to the detailed nature of the work, being able to identify errors in a document or throughout the writing process is an important component of the scientific writing role. Completing this assessment as a part of the interview process will demonstrate your skill sets to employers.
Check out the Fleishman Career Center events calendar for more opportunities to connect with Binghamton alumni!
