The following article is a guest contribution from Sheeva Azma. Contact me if you'd like to contribute to The Science Marketer.
When I first started out as a science writer and marketer, I did not realize I was doing so.
The reason was that, though my freelance clients needed my skills of research-based writing, crafting engaging messaging, and writing about science for a general audience, these were not the “glamorous” jobs people think of as science communication.
One of my first jobs as a science marketer happened without me realizing I was working in marketing. A nutrition supplement maker approached me and asked me if I could write short descriptions of each of the ingredients in their product for their website.
The clients I talked with, as a scientist fresh out of grad school, used words I did not understand at first – things like “copy,” “thought leadership,” and more. Eventually, I learned these terms and realized I could charge more if I could speak the lingo.
Breaking free of SciComm job ideals
In a way, these jobs were much more pragmatic in their use of science to help people understand various products and services, but quite different than the “ideal” science communicator job I often hear people talk about.
You know, stuff like working with a university and explaining research to the general public (also known as being a Public Information Officer), writing science blogs as a freelance journalist for mainstream media outlets, explaining science concepts for a major museum as a science communicator, or perhaps writing an explainer on a new treatment for a disease for a medical website as a science marketer.
The above jobs might be what someone new to science marketing might consider a “dream” job. They are prestigious, high-profile, and relatively hard to come by.
Maybe that’s why I often hear scientists talk about a “lack” of SciComm jobs.
I’ve been lucky to work on some of the jobs that people might consider more “traditional” SciComm jobs, such as creating an educational neuroscience game for middle schoolers called “Hack Your Brain” with Science Friday. It was a combination of a science communication and science marketing type of job. Beyond coming up with game ideas, I was tasked with copyediting a webpage about how muscle memory works to, among other things, make the page easy-to-read and SEO-compliant. I don’t remember how much I got paid, exactly, but it was less than $500, though it continues to get a lot of views online.
Contrast that with a recent job I had using genAI tools, like ChatGPT, to find answers in a company’s documentation to write an explainer blog about their services in the senior care space, for which I got paid nearly $8000.
Sure, this job was not entirely focused on science, but it did involve understanding how AI works and applying my technical skills in prompt engineering as well as my ability to research and synthesize information, like I did when I was working in academic science.
Most of my SciComm jobs are not labeled as such, but involve explaining science, combine my skills in a unique way, and pay well. For me, any job that 1) is interesting work involving explaining science or its impacts and 2) pays the bills is a great SciComm job.
SciComm jobs are everywhere – but they are not labeled as such
The myth of the scarcity of SciComm jobs relates to the way we think about science’s place in society. The SciComm job scarcity myth says that SciComm jobs look a certain way and that they prioritize explaining science over any other objectives, because the science is the most interesting part (at least to us scientists).
The truth is that many issues – things like agriculture, health, weather, environment, to name a few – involve science, even though the science is often a small part of the overall big picture. So, while a science background helps, you often do not need a science background to have a general understanding of the subject.
Another part of the SciComm job scarcity myth is that science fits neatly into every issue or is the main selling point for something. Sometimes, it is just another part of the big picture, and because of that, the scientific aspects of an issue go by unnoticed. A good science communicator can find the science in any important issue and leverage that knowledge to help drive good decision-making, whether that’s highlighting the benefits of a product, analyzing a policy relating to science, or something else.
When I had just started my SciComm and policy consulting business, Fancy Comma, LLC, a client approached me asking me to write a white paper about how companies could leverage their understanding of COVID science to plan safer events. It wasn’t a paper explaining science, per se, but explaining the impacts of science.
See the difference?
The truth is that, as people with a science background, our skills are sorely needed to explain science and apply science marketing in a novel way with the competitive edge we have in this arena with our backgrounds.
Much of the work I perform as a freelance science communicator is at the intersections of my areas of expertise – a science background is useful, but what makes it most useful is being able to understand the science or even the complex details behind something to help drive action – whether that’s helping people live better lives, helping a company explain their value proposition, or (more rarely) explaining science for science’s sake.
Many of my jobs that involve explaining science are often at the intersections of my areas of expertise – after all, clients’ demands don’t always neatly fit into my wheelhouse, and demand for simply writing science explainers is relatively low. Usually, people hire me to do things like:
- Rewrite a science website so it is punchier
- Develop social media content involving science that is easy-to-understand for everyone, not just scientists
- Leverage other skills, such as policy analysis, in conjunction with my science background, to create new knowledge that did not previously exist in the world
- Use my writing skills to explain something complicated about science
None of these things really involve explaining science for the sake of science as much as they involve using my science background to do something – usually communicating strategically.
One last example: recently, I had a client approach me who ran an art non-profit. They explained that they wanted a “wonkish” white paper about the state of the art industry, and found my scientific background to be the perfect fit for this type of work. While this work involved the humanities, it had a very quantitative component for which my client believed my science background made me ideal.
So, I crunched the numbers on art funding, and wrote a highly wonkish white paper filled with statistics on art funding…and they were happy.
How to find ‘hidden’ SciComm jobs
So, you may be asking, if there’s actually no scarcity of SciComm jobs, how can I find one?
Here are a few concrete ways you can find ‘hidden’ SciComm jobs and break free of the ideals of what a SciComm job “should” look like.
1. Embrace your unique skill set
Advertise your full scientific background as a marketer, however messy your conglomeration of various skills and experiences looks to you.
I have heard of people leaving their scientific expertise and experiences off their resume because it didn’t “make sense” to them.
Well, my advice is to say, don’t try to fit neatly into a box – be your complicated, multifaceted self, and don’t hide anything on your resume, especially when it comes to science.
Here’s why.
Once, when I walked into a job interview, the interviewer looked at my resume and saw that I was in a club called Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. He asked me about it, and then scoffed when he realized I was a neuroscience major, not someone who planned to work at NASA.
Embarrassed, I took the club off my resume, and with it, any opportunity to let others know that I am interested in space. I ended up adding it back a few years ago, and finally got some opportunities to improve my social media and journalism skills talking about – and to – astronauts!
Our unique skill sets in science combined with other crucial soft and hard skills in communication is what makes us powerful as science communicators. The right people who value your expertise will review your credentials and hire you based on what you can do for them, not based on what they think your resume should look like.
Science communication is a job that scientists, as experts in science, are often the best people to ask to do. When you don’t list your science experiences on your resume because you don’t think they “make sense,” you eliminate the opportunity for potential clients to review the full list of your skills to see how your scientific expertise can help them.
That’s one big thing I’ve learned about working in the freelance science marketing space – people want to know what you can do for them, and they love creative and unusual skillsets.
2. Read job descriptions closely
I don’t consider whether a job is a “SciComm” job when I see a freelance opportunity, but rather, I try to figure out if my skillset would be an asset to the job. That’s why I read job descriptions closely, with an eye to what the client wants (what is the deliverable?) as well as any skills or areas of expertise that would be useful. My science background and skills are often my selling point in my job proposal.
(Tip: If you are a freelancer on a site like Upwork, you can do keyword searches for your areas of expertise so that you don’t have to read so much.)
3. Follow your interests and stay curious
Continually upskill and learn new things that can help you do more with your science background.
Scientists working in marketing do so because they have a talent for writing and they enjoy it (or it pays the bills – or both). Make the most of your science background by continuing to develop new skills that can help you do more for your clients. I was lucky to get into podcast production with The Delve in 2024 and gained new skills in audio editing and podcast production, which has also helped me become a better science journalist. The internship opportunity I had was not advertised as a science journalism job, but I pitched an episode about my grad school research topic, post-traumatic stress disorder, and they said yes!
You’re a scientist, but you also have different interests. Follow those interests and you might find yourself eventually creating or contributing to new types of knowledge which merge unrelated subjects – known as bricolage. As communicators and marketers who are scientists, we are experts at interdisciplinary thinking and knowledge co-creation! This intersection of skills and interests can be a rich area for new ideas, skill sets to develop, and areas of work to branch into.
Remember, it’s the combination of your skills together, including your science skills, knowledge and expertise, that makes you powerful as a freelancer or staff professional in science marketing.
