Hi Reader

I’m deep in preparations for next week’s ‘Working in and around #MedComms’ event at Heathrow. If you’re in the UK, it would be great to see you there! Sign up here, if you haven’t already.

All the places at my secret session during the Heathrow meeting have now been taken. Thank you to everyone who got in touch!

If you didn’t get a spot, come and find me during the rest of the day, either during the ‘Meet the Mentors’ session at 2pm in Room 19 or in the exhibition hall.

But what about if you don’t live in the UK?

I get a lot of questions from people who are struggling to break into the industry. Sometimes they have a non-traditional background. Sometimes they live in places that don’t have any agencies. Sometimes they simply can’t find any opportunities that don’t require experience.

If this describes your situation, my latest video on the YouTube channel, 'How can I find my first MedComms job?' is for you! It’s full of practical tips to help you find appropriate opportunities, and you can download the summary PDF here.

I’ll also be talking to an international group of freelancers this Friday, when I’ll be joining Lisa Baker who runs Freelancers in Pubs for a Zoom about how to take control of your freelance career to make it work for you. You can sign up to join the call here – I’d love to see you there!

One of the considerations I’ll be discussing during this call is creating time for learning and development as a freelancer. I know how hard this can be, but I’m always trying to find ways to build my skills.

I was lucky enough to join an event with Lauren Waldman (AKA the Learning Pirate) last week, which was entertaining but also informative. If you’re keen to get the most from any training you do, I would highly recommend her course ‘Joining forces with your brain’ – neuroscience has never been so much fun.

I’m also in the early stages of a course by Stellar Labs that focuses on designing training for effective learning transfer. After all, what’s the point in doing training if the content doesn’t translate into new practical skills and behaviours? I'm looking forward to enhancing all the training I create with what I learn!

Have you done any great training recently? If so, I'd love to hear about it – what made it so good? What are you going to do with what you've learnt? How are you integrating it into your work?

And I'd also love to hear from you if you have any questions, whether they are about anything from this message or about MedComms in general. Simply hit reply to this email and I'll get back to you!