Reflecting now, I really appreciate the 3-day
trial period: it gave me a real-life peek into
how exactly medical content developers work
and let me meet my future colleagues.

Nikolaj Zuleger, PhD,
Medical Content Developer

I started working as a medical content developer at CAST PHARMA in 2020. I’d followed a classic academic path: Master of Science, PhD in molecular biology, and a period as a postdoctoral researcher. During my academic career, I was frustrated by how many inefficient, dry, and uncompelling presentations I saw. The research was usually great but lack of explanatory visuals made it hard for the audience to understand. I naturally became interested in more creative areas such as the design of scientific figures and presentation skills.

When I had to decide my next step, I realized I wanted a profession where I could use both my academic skills and my creativity. I had heard about CAST PHARMA and, after researching what learning and training for medical affairs involves, I realized it was a perfect match. I could apply my researcher’s background to the scientific and medical content and use my creativity to work with graphic designers to transform dry content into compelling visuals.

Application and phone interview

I filled out my online application and was soon invited for a phone interview. It was in English and took about 15 minutes, as we mostly talked about the role of a medical content developer. Today I know why that phone interview was such a vital step: teleconferences with the clients are an important part of our daily job so outstanding English skills and the ability to communicate clearly and professionally are crucial.

In-person interview

In-person interview

I was then happy to be invited to an in-person interview at CAST PHARMA. On top of the typical interview questions, I also had to prepare a five-minute presentation about a scientific topic of my choice. I put a lot of time and care into the presentation because I knew I had to impress them with my visual storytelling skills rather than just the quality of my Western Blots or bullet points with research results.

The presentation went well, and the long discussion afterwards did not focus on the scientific methodology or data but rather on the flow of the story, layout, and color scheme.

Trial period at CAST PHARMA

After a couple of days, I was happy to be invited to the final part of the interview process: a three-day trial period at CAST PHARMA. I had to have a short essay ready before I arrived; I was given a medical topic, clear instructions, and all the references. On the first day, I got to know my tasks and agenda and I quickly realized that it’s going to be quite busy! I got a small eLearning project and dove into the company’s life for the next three days, participating in internal meetings and meeting many potential colleagues. Everything was new and challenging but the experience really helped me understand the different stages of an eLearning project.

My project included two presentations: a draft and a final version at the end of the trial period. I was surprised at how useful, comprehensive, and constructive all the feedback was. It definitely helped hone my ideas for the final meeting.

Reflecting now, I really appreciate the trial at CAST PHARMA: it gave me a real-life peek into how exactly medical content developers work and let me meet my future colleagues. At the end, I was sure that I wanted to join CAST PHARMA, so it was really great to hear, after only a couple of days, that the feeling was mutual.

Starting at CAST PHARMA

My first weeks at CAST PHARMA have gone by quite fast. I completed the onboarding, which bridges gaps between existing and expected knowledge in areas relevant to our work as medical content developers. Through reading the selected materials, familiarizing myself with existing work, and having lots of meetings with internal experts, I got all the tools necessary to start my first project. Of course I still continued my training, working with more experienced colleagues and under the supervision of the lead medical content developer to grow and learn as much as possible.

Now, after almost three months at CAST PHARMA, I’m really excited: our creative team will finalize the first images in just a couple of days, and I will see my eLearning concepts taking shape.

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