When I first started freelancing as a medical writer, I faced a lot of challenges; from receiving vague requests and taking on ambiguous assignments to encountering clients who don’t have clear expectations for an assignment. Many clients and companies communicate poorly with freelancers, and poor communication leads to poor outcomes. That’s why finding the right clients, in order to create my best work and a strong portfolio, was the biggest challenge for me.
I used to wait months before I got a good project from a reliable client, with consistent and regular milestones to deliver so I can create a schedule ahead of time and organize my work. The even bigger feat was payment. Some clients would pay too low and too late – and this affected how I feel towards my job and my career; I felt like I was not getting what I deserve.
Then came my collaboration with Ureed.com in July 2018.
I was onboarded as part of the team dedicated to Altibbi, a leading digital health platform in the MENA region and a client of Ureed.com. The project was long-term and lasted for more than 6 months. I was able to secure a consistent stream of freelance work on a weekly basis for that entire period of time. I was asked to deliver medical articles about topics that I found incredibly fruitful and beneficial to the public. Their goal was raising awareness about common health issues that people face during their daily lives. These topics were informative and helpful to me even as a medical writer. The first benefit I found from working on this was that the project enriched my medical background and kept me up to date with the latest health public concerns, as well as what’s new in the medical field from procedures, treatments and practices.
I always had time to research, pick a topic and deliver my work.
While I was working on Altibbi, I had a full-time job as well as responsibilities towards my family. Because of the great organizational strategies of the in-house team at Ureed.com, I always had time to handle both my responsibilities towards the project and my personal responsibilities. However, being committed to this project meant that I had to work very hard to write at least one article per week. I sometimes even used to write two or three articles per week. But the organized, systematic workflow made the job much easier for me to do. I was allowed to pick a topic out of multiple suggestions. And after choosing the desired topic, I had 48 hours to finish and submit the written article. This allowed me to deliver my best work with convenience and ease.
Even more importantly, I was able to drastically improve my writing skills with this project.
When the project was running, we–as a team–used to have consistent meetings and workshops with the Altibbi project manager from Ureed.com on how to improve our writing skills, in addition to revising the common grammatical rules for writing in Arabic. We got the chance to communicate directly with the editors who reviewed our articles so we could learn what we did wrong and avoid doing it again. Moreover, working under the umbrella of this huge and highly professional network, we got the chance to learn how to distinguish the websites with strong medical resources websites from the unreliable ones. This skill was very important both for the success of the project and for our career goals in general.
I was able to sharpen all of my skills and competencies.
With my very first article as a freelance writer, it took me a huge amount of time to finish and I had made countless mistakes. For that, I got paid around 5 dollars. But with time, I improved my writing skills so that I could write better, more comprehensive articles with no mistakes and within a faster period of time. This hard work allowed me to be one of the top-rated freelancers on the platform and to be considered for other projects from other high-profile employers who were able to pay me very well.
Not only was I paid well, but I was paid fairly and with no delays. One of the best things about Ureed.com is that the platform works with transparency. It is a platform for everyone, no matter their gender, age, or race; anybody can access and apply for the posted jobs. Freelancers are paid what they deserve depending on their qualifications. Money transfers are very convenient and fast, as well as safe and secure. I received the payment for each article I wrote within two days after submitting it. This was a very important—and motivating—point for me that kept me committed to the Altibbi project and encouraged me to write more articles and work on improving myself to deliver better results.
The skills I gained from being involved in this project also reflected on my full-time job.
Being a healthcare professional—a full-time pharmacist—I need to constantly be well-informed about various health and medical topics, and to be up to date with news and updates related to the medical field. This allows me to be a reliable reference for patients. Being associated with a reputable platform such as Altibbi allowed me to constantly be in the loop for all things new with the medical field. Moreover, it allowed me to establish strong relationship with other colleagues interested in the medical writing scene, so that I could participate in other projects within this sector even after Altibbi project was over.
Working with Ureed.com allowed me to pursue my passion in writing about the medical field and contribute to raising awareness and knowledge about health issues in a way that can reflect positively on people’s lives, and help them establish a better and healthier lifestyle.
Final words…
As we live through a global pandemic, remote working has quickly went from being a privilege to becoming an essential part of any safe and effective business. Working with Ureed.com as a freelancer allowed me to gain multiple sources of income, be more financially secure even when the global economy is suffering, as well as learn and work effectively from home.
If you want to kickstart your freelance career now, reach out to Ureed.com now to connect with top employers and build a strong portfolio.
