Best Location to Work in Medical Communications?
By combining information from our latest Life Science Salary Survey with our own personal knowledge of the sector, we have noticed that there are three major medical communications hubs; London, Central/South East and North West of England. Within the North West there is a prominent cluster of companies with Manchester based offices such as Nucleus Global and McCann. We also noted another grouping of agencies in and around Oxford but inevitably the greatest concentration of medical communications agencies is in London and the South East with companies including Huntsworth Health, Lucid, Publicis and so very many more.
While these are the most medical communications suffused areas a liberal sprinkling of companies can be found throughout the Home Counties, Cambridgeshire and even as far north as Glasgow. As a Midlander by birth, I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride to see the opening of a new arm of a medical communications network near Leicester.
Clearly geographically speaking the medical communications industry boasts a wide range of choices and there are plenty of other factors at play when considering to move, such as:
- Differences in Salary
- Housing Prices
- Local attractions
- How it could affect your partner and/or children
- Distance from family and friends
- Commuting capabilities
Of course different factors are subjective for instance, wherever your family lives may have a strong impact for some. Whereas if you’re fresh out of university you may well be unattached and believe yourself to be fully relocatable. Or if you’re in a long term relationship, will your partner be able to find work wherever you decide to move? Not to mention looking at the house prices in the area you may well look to be settling down in.
While the same strategy won’t work for absolutely everyone there are definite trends to be taken advantage of. If you are in the early stages of your career and have your heart set on living and working in London, you should definitely consider taking your talents to an agency outside the confines of the M25. The trickier the location of a company the higher the likelihood that they won’t be inundated with applications meaning that you’ll be up against less competition.
Once you have built a firm foundation of experience within the sector, you are then at an opportunity where you can make your glorious entrance into the capital if that is still what you desire. Given the skills gap at the 2-3 years of experience level you can take your relative pick of the agencies on offer.
Depending on the overall trajectory of your career, the location will matter less the more senior you become. This is primarily down to the joy that is home working, as those in senior but not managerial positions can make a strong case for fully home-based contracts. Which is ideal for those with young children.
It is also worth bearing in mind that medical communications is a diverse industry. Medical education is the most spread out but the bulk of PR companies are in London and there are a few advertising companies situated outside of the city, but most of these are to be found within the capital.
As previously mentioned there are numerous factors to consider when looking at locations of a job/career, and not just ones specifically related to MedComms. But whatever the deciding factor, we are very happy to offer advice or act as a sounding board of course – but the decision is yours. Start-up company or industry giant? Advertising, PR or medical education? Writing or accounts? What about looking at taking things in a more strategic direction rather than managerial?
Please feel free to contact us on info@medcommsprofessionals.com or call 0118 9522 792
All the information regarding locational info has been sourced from our latest Life Science Salary Survey which provides much insight into medical communications wages and benefits, please click below if you would like to receive your own copy.