I feel like it's incredibly difficult to find a job with my degree, which is in Creative Writing. I plan on going to grad school in the fall, but I took a year off to consider what to study, which I now know will be Library Studies.
I've looked exhaustively at my options for a full-time job that pays at least 1800-2000 a month, and I don't know if I'm looking in the wrong places or if I'm being too selective, but in my mind the outlook is pretty bleak. With our current job market and my powerless degree, I am humbly requesting help and advice.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Have you looked into marketing/advertising copywriting? Perhaps journalism? Those are fields where creative writing could be a plus.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
Yes, but everything I've found for copywriting requires some form of internship where I can't afford the phase where I don't make money (or I make 8 bucks an hour part-time). Not to say that I've looked for and at everything, but I just sprung from 4 years of restaurant experience. I'm pretty green at the job search thing; how would I go about finding a copywriting job aside from sites like monster and careerbuilder?
And journalism would be fun, but I have no coursework to speak of or a portfolio to bolster my chances. I took a focus in Poetry. It's too bad that I spent two years as the Editor of my newspaper in high school.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
I work at a newspaper. A journalism degree is not necessary at my paper. I don't know what the reporters make here, but it's probably not what you are looking for. However, it might be where you are.
I am a copy editor/paginator. (Paginators put the articles on pages.) I don't have a college degree, and in fact got this job because I knew someone who worked part-time at the paper. I began as a paginator and got the copy-editing duties later. Plus a lot more duties, but that's another story.
A newspaper would want some examples of your writing, for sure. (I've seen this, but I'm not directly involved in the hiring process, so my advice is only advice.) The only thing I can suggest is to write something as though you were writing for the paper. Interview a neighbor about a hobby or write an article about an event using facts from the newspaper but your own writing style.
We just had two openings but are filling them from the people that already applied. One person already started working.
Our paper also uses correspondents. These people aren't regular employees, but they do articles and get paid by the word. Some cover meetings (one also gets court records). Some cover events. We have a monthly publication that uses correspondents who write on assigned topics (a health article, an article on a volunteer, a travel article, etc.) There is also a weekly farm newspaper that uses correspondents a lot. You might find a paper in your area that needs a correspondent.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Not a bad way to at least get some sort of professional writing experience under your belt.