Maintaining intensity & finding my niche in the world’s biggest biotech brand.

Aug 2

Client name: Thermo Fisher Scientific

Central idea: Highlighting a technical industry through effortless messaging.

I had my hand in:

Email marketing
Sales assets (brochures, catalogs, flyers, etc.)
Campaign concepting & execution
Web copy
Product descriptions
Corporate communications

Thermo Fisher Scientific is one client that has followed me across most of my copywriting career. I was first a contract copywriter for almost two years, then they became a client after I landed my current agency position.

Surprising myself

When I set out to be a big-girl writer, I never expected I’d write about science, let alone biotech and pharmaceuticals. It was never on my radar, given that the last course I took related to science had been six years prior as a freshman. It turned out to be one of the most intense and challenging industries to write for – but it was also the most rewarding.

Reflecting on the opportunity

Picture this: you’re surviving lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployed and having a rough go. You’re barely out of your M.F.A, desperately applying to copywriting jobs daily. The most technical copy you’ve ever written was for caulks and sealants. And one day, you get an interview with the largest biotech company in the world.

Yeah, you: the girl in her spare-bedroom-turned-gaming-room where she plays Fortnite (you’re 26) and live streams her tomfoolery. The room with the spare bed covered in her stuffed animals (you’re 26). Balancing her iPad on a stack of books to take the multiple rounds of interviews.

Turns out, you get the job. And it changes your life.

You know when you’re a kid and you try a bunch of different hobbies, activities, and things? Then one day, you get to try a particular thing, and it just…clicks. And when it clicks, no one asks questions, not even you. And right before your eyes, that thing transforms from sheer possibility to fact. No, you aren’t perfect at it, but it only takes a few months for you to build the confidence of someone who is.

That was my experience starting with Thermo Fisher. When I look back on my time there, I think it really came down to two things.

AN ENVIRONMENT FOR GROWTH

First, I was a sponge out of circumstance. I wanted to absorb every morsel I could possibly learn because, at the end of the day, I needed the job. It was the most money I’d ever been offered, which was humbling even though it put me under an insane amount of pressure. Sure, I also wanted to like the job. Wouldn’t that be nice? But it was more important that I excelled. Fortunately, this position gave me both en masse.

Which brings me to the second factor, which was the team I had around me. I think of it like this: you can plant a seed in beautiful, nutrient-dense soil and it will flourish beyond your wildest dreams; or, you can plant that same seed in sand and pencil shavings and see nothing in return. My position at Thermo Fisher was certainly the former. I was spoiled for choice as far as mentors go – those who showed me the ropes, empathized with me about the steep learning curve, and showed me kindness and compassion for who I was, not what I could do for them.

And perhaps more importantly, no one saw my lack of science knowledge as a pitfall because the job was never about knowing the intricacies of science. It was, at its core, a job of critical thinking. It’s true, I might not have understood the specifics of cell and gene therapy manufacturing, for example. But after some brief research (because we never lacked for information; our team was half PhD technical writers), it wasn’t hard to figure out why it mattered – both in general and to certain audiences.

IT WASN’T EASY

And that was really the key to being a successful copywriter for Thermo Fisher Scientific. Though I don’t mean for it to sound so simple. My first handful of weeks there was like drinking from a fire hose. I was overwhelmed, the pace was intense, and the standard for quality was extremely high. Learning the brand (and the brands within the parent brand) required patience and precision and lots of desktop Post-It notes. The writing and review processes were tedious, but when the process was done, we took pride in the finished product knowing the work that was put in.

I think the most important thing my roles with Thermo Fisher have taught me is to never doubt myself or my capabilities. No pressure, no diamonds. There will always be projects that make you wonder if you’re qualified enough, smart enough, or worthy enough to succeed. The answer is unequivocally yes, every time.

I look back on this era with so much fondness! It wasn’t surprising to me that my experience at Thermo Fisher set me up for success to write for them as clients for my current agency role as Senior Copywriter. The workplace might look different, but the strategy for success remains the same: distill important, oftentimes complex subjects into concise, creative messages that build awareness and disrupt the saturated market.

So far, I’ve written hundreds of assets for Thermo Fisher and its various brands, like PPD, Thermo Scientific, and Invitrogen (among others); as well as its different internal divisions like the allergy and autoimmune disease division and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) division. For both positions with Thermo Fisher, I was most proficient at writing long-form guides and brochures, sales flyers and decks, and email marketing across various buyer journeys. You can take a look at what some of that looks like below: