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Pet owners have always deeply cared about their animals’ health and have lots of questions for their veterinarians. Today, veterinarians can answer those questions through the internet and in writing, creating content that is easily accessible, can be referred to repeatedly, and can inform people when they need the information.
Providing quality veterinary information for the public is in demand, and many companies are utilizing this need by creating writing jobs. Quality veterinary content accessible to the public helps people provide better care for their pets.
Knowing how to navigate today’s job market not only requires knowing what is needed but also why you are a good candidate. To learn the step-by-step process of how to find jobs writing about veterinary topics, read on.
Getting Started
1. Earn a Degree
Earning a degree is essential, not only for the qualifications of getting the writing job but for learning how to write ethical and quality articles.
While a degree in writing provides you with the flexibility to write on numerous subjects, a veterinary degree provides expert knowledge of the industry. Both are valuable, and both can be used when writing veterinary content.
The veterinary industry needs to be clearer with jargon, complex scientific subjects, and ethical dilemmas. Understanding these complexities at a professional level requires years of training, especially if you are then translating it into digestible content.
There are real consequences to animal health and well-being when misinformation is spread, and a fundamental understanding of the ethical obligations of a writer and the knowledge assimilation of a vet professional is key.
2. Learn How to Find Reliable Sources
Knowing how to find and assess reliable scientific articles is an important skill in today’s writing market. There is an infinite amount of information on the internet, but not all of it is reliable or even true.
Assessing the quality of a source means the information you are writing about will be true. The veterinary industry holds itself to a standard of requiring evidence-based medicine. This means that scientific evidence is required before advice is given on a subject.
Using evidence-based resources can be challenging since many are hidden under a deluge of articles that appear very professional. However, spreading misinformation, even unknowingly, creates issues and can harm real animals.
3. Learn How to Read Scientific Veterinary Articles
Scientific veterinary journals are hard to read. They are dense. They are jammed full of information. They use highly scientific terms that need clarification. They are often nuanced and rarely provide simple answers to questions.
For example, it is usually impossible to find a scientific article that answers the question, “Why don’t geckos play fetch?” Answering questions like this requires assimilating a bunch of closely related evidence and understanding the real-life consequences of the data.
Many articles try to do this for you in their ‘Discussion’ section. But getting through that cement block of knowledge and then translating it into easy-to-understand concepts is challenging but key to writing good articles.
The Application Process
1. Write a Competitive Resume
This can be a daunting task. Luckily, you’re a writer so it should be easier for you (yeah, right!). The best thing I have found is to look at other resumes that you admire and use them as inspiration.
Once you have something written that outlines the timeline of your experience, the tasks you have done, your accomplishments, and your education, edit it. Edit it. And edit it again.
Use action-based words and remove redundancies and extra words. You do not need to use complete sentences. You don’t even need to use complete thoughts. The idea is to get people to understand the general gist and to leave room for their imagination or to ask you for more information.
2. Internet Searches
The best place to start looking for concrete positions is with an internet search. Google various combinations of writer, scientist, veterinary, veterinarian, pets, etc. Vary your search terms to find more positions.
There are also websites that specialize in connecting content writers with platforms. These websites are good for creating your own writing business. They usually provide you with the opportunity to write one or two articles for a platform, which can then turn into more opportunities.
Get creative not only in your searches but in thinking about how to use the different opportunities for your own work. The perfect job is not likely to fall out of the internet for you; you usually have to tailor the opportunities that are available so that they work for you.
3. Reach Out to Advertised Positions
Reach out to positions—even if you are not sure it is the perfect fit. Remind yourself you are not accepting the position; you are finding out more about it.
Most job advertisements are vaguely written so that they will appear more desirable to more people. So, even if it is difficult to decipher what it is they expect, reach out to find out more information.
This isn’t your grandpa’s job field. Companies do not bend over backward to find or keep you. They are playing the numbers. Cheap ads bring in resumes that they filter through.
So, play the same game. Send your cheap email to get that initial response, then invest your time once they have responded.
4. Be Prepared to Negotiate
Be ready to negotiate, not just pay but also the amount of work you do and the type of writing you do.
Most writing companies pay by word, not by the hour. They also think of the amount of work you do in terms of words. So, they will require you to write X amount of words in X amount of time.
Research appropriate pay ranges. And know how much you are comfortable writing and your worth when negotiating.
5. Reach Out Again
Do not get discouraged. If the first few inquiries result in nothing, do it again. Either reach out to the same companies or find new ones, or both.
Get to know who is advertising and how long their ads are up. If they are up long-term, it might be worth chasing them down a little, as it’s likely they just missed—or ignored—your first message.
If the ad goes up, down, and up again, reach out again.
Assimilate to Your Position
1. Understand Your Niche
Veterinarians are not the only ones who can write articles on veterinary medicine. There are many other veterinary professionals that have valuable insight and skills to contribute.
Vet nurses and technicians often bridge the gap between doctors and their clients in hospitals. And they can take these excellent skills and translate them into writing for the public.
Leverage your experience working in the veterinary industry and your years of education for your writing.
2. Understanding Your Audience
Understand the style of the company’s articles. And, while you want to keep your own writer’s voice, be prepared to write articles to meet the company’s needs. Since you have gone to school, you are used to writing for other veterinary professionals. However, this does not translate to writing for the public.
Writing for a veterinary professor carries assumptions about how much they know. You cannot write an article for a non-professional audience and assume they know as much as others in the veterinary field.
Learn how to write for the public, versus the veterinary industry, versus other writers. And write for the specific audience that will be reading.
Conclusion
Writing veterinary content can be fun and rewarding. And it is important to provide reliable, accurate, and compassionate content. Providing information for pet owners to learn and develop their husbandry skills helps animals live better lives worldwide.
Finding paid opportunities takes persistence, patience, and practice. Use your scientific research skills to explore the opportunities available. Use your clinical reasoning to assess opportunities to find the ones that are right for you, not scams. And use your teaching skills to make the writing work.
Featured Image Credit: Indypendenz, Shutterstock
