What is your current job title and company?

Director – Scientific Services, Chameleon Communications International

What is the best part of your job, the bit you like the most?

Developing my team, working with scientific directors and individual writers and giving them the resources and training that they require to do their best work.

What is the one thing you wish you’d known when starting your MedComms career? 

Be prepared to deal with stress – it’s a stressful job! At the start, everyone was saying, ‘work hard and always hit deadlines,’ and that’s true but it’s also really important to be transparent here – things will get stressful. It is so important to have a means of coping with that stress, as it’s almost unavoidable to have competing deadlines so managing that is key to success.

What’s the funniest or most interesting experience you have faced?

I was part of a marketing meeting about promoting a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. The marketing team came up with the slogan ‘everyone prefers oral’ – you can see why the whole room burst into laughter!

What’s the highlight of your career so far?

I’ve always wanted to be in the role that I am, and it was a hard slog to get here. Taking a moment to look back, I take lots of satisfaction in accomplishing that. The highlight of my career, and the most satisfying thing in the world, is seeing people I’ve previously line-managed now being directors in their own right, with their own teams and responsibilities. That legacy gives me a lot more joy than achieving my own dream.

Thanks for your time, Godfrey.

To find out how Julia could help you progress your MedComms career or help your recruitment process, get in touch with her – Julia.walton@media-contacts.co.uk.