Robyn
Is it hard to get writing jobs?
I love creative writing, but I don't know if there are any real career opportunities using a Creative Writing or English degree. #writing #author #writer #creative-writing #freelance-writing
7 answers
Arielle Scesa
Arielle’s Answer
Hi there,
I work in the tech industry and while I don't have a degree in Creative Writing or English I have found that there are many jobs within my company were having either of those degrees would be useful. These include Internal Communications, Public Relations, Analyst Relations,Marketing and many many others. Good luck to you!
Adam Korengold
Adam’s Answer
Hi Robyn--all that I would add is that while it may be hard to find a job that is specifically a "writing job" (think writing for a magazine), there are a great many jobs for which writing is an extremely important skill.
In my case, my academic background is in international affairs and business, and my career has focused on business research and analysis. While one might think that involves only a lot of number crunching, charts, and graphs -- which it certainly does -- the most important part of my job involves teaching my colleagues and managers what it all means. So as a result, good writing skills are essential because I have to provide the most important information in the smallest amount of space -- sometimes in only a few bullet points. Nobody wants to read a slide deck with fifty slides in it, each with 200 words on the slide -- and even fewer people want to read a ten-page paper when all they need is a page of results to give to their leadership.
In the end, it's about holding on to a passion for writing and, even more so, a passion for telling a good story.
Aaron Hanson
Aaron’s Answer
There are certainly opportunities for people who are good at creative writing. One thing you may want to think about is copy writing. Every single industry needs good, creative writers who write the copy (sentences and paragraphs) that goes onto websites, emails, brochures, product packaging, etc. I work in product marketing in the tech industry and I work with creative copy writers whom I rely on to produce great material that is used in all sorts of ways. I think it could be fun because you could work in multiple industries and it could be a nice challenge for you to translate the needs of a business into creative copy that would go in front of a customer.
Regardless, never give up your passion for writing!
Gloria Ortiz
Gloria’s Answer
Just like most things, there are a lot of right answers to your question. You are the keeper of those answers in many ways. For example, when you think of writing, what do you imagine? What are your own expectations? I had expected to be a journalist when I first started school. It was only over time that I learned that writing well can be a great benefit in a variety of jobs. If you are looking to be creative, I would recommend going into professions like training, teaching, and video creation. I am an Instructional Designer. I get to be creative everyday and the work that I do benefits the people who work at my company. It feels good to have my writing talent provide support to my peers at work.
Gloria
Jennifer Dzmura-Denney, MA, CCC, CPRW, ECC
Jennifer’s Answer
I am a Certified Professional Resume Writer, (CPRW) and a Certified Career Counselor, (CCC) with a masters in counseling psychology. I work remotely for a company in North Carolina. I write resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, CVs, and biographies. I also provide career counseling. I love my job because I help people succeed in their career. There is always a need in my line of work and it can pay well if you become a manager or supervisor. I hope you find what you are looking for best wishes.
Juanita Balaraj
Juanita’s Answer
I have not attempted creative writing and would not be able to provide much advice to you on that subject. However, I am a technical writer for around 20+ years of my career. I got into the field and started ground up and today I have realized it is very challenging and fulfilling. I knew nothing about technical writing when I first started. It is a highly valuable skill and has a lot of marketability. It is not just understanding technical information and documenting it, its bridging the gap between the software engineer and the end user (customer), related to specific personas. There are a lot of colleges that provide technical writing training and online training too. You can google it and contact them for more details, specific to your location.
The basic skills that are nice to have for technical writing are:
- English degree (Is a huge plus for this field)
- Your ability to write well and clearly keeping in mind, the end user
- Familiarity with technology ( This is most often learnt on the job, for example, we have new products all the time, we do self training or group training to get familiar with the technology, for example, I worked in the medical field and telecommunications where I did not have prior knowledge when I first started)
- Pictorial representation in documents, for example, using images or graphics
- Some tools required for technical writing, for example:
Adobe Robohelp
Notepad++
WordPress
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Word
Google Docs
Adobe Framemaker
oXygen XML Author
- Your ability to interact with subject matter experts (SMEs)
Good luck with your decision. Hope this helps in your decision making.
Gary Campbell
Gary’s Answer
I was just speaking to someone about getting writing jobs. The answer to your question is yes and no. If you are a self-starter
and continue to pursue your writing, you will get writing jobs. If you believe getting writing jobs is like submitting a resume, I think you
will learn over time there is a bit more work involved.
I am writing an article for an online paper now, but this contact came after introducing myself to the editor over three years ago.
This editor has seen the work I continue to do basically from my Internet presence, I submitted before to the paper but the articles were not used.
There is a saying that persistence breaks resistance. Will you break through?