You might have always enjoyed English and writing from a young age, perhaps you wanted to become an author or a journalist from ever since you can remember or maybe writing is something that you recently decided to give a try. Writing is an amazing skill and a strong asset to any career as it shows you can communicate to others effectively. Below are some suggestions to help you flourish in your passion for writing and even use it to become more desirable to employers or help you prepare for particular careers that you wish to pursue in the future.
1. Write for your University’s magazine or newspaper
One of the best things to do is, at the Freshers Fair or even during term time, contact your University’s magazine or/and newspaper societies. At Lancaster University there is Her Campus (as you can see) Magazine, which allows you to write freely on any kinds of topics you would like, from politics to recipes and from reviews to advice. For this society there is a weekly meeting to discuss topics and the deadlines are on Fridays, but it is not a stress on top of your studies, it’s very relaxed and allows you to share your ideas with others through published work online, which is likely to impress employers. There is also the University’s newspaper ‘SCAN’ which is one of the longest running student newspapers in Europe whom produce online articles, as well as printed newspapers.
Her Campus Lancaster: https://www.hercampus.com/school/lancaster
SCAN: http://scan.lusu.co.uk/
2. Start your own blog
If you are wanting to go into Publishing, Journalism, Public Relations or Social Media marketing one of the best and easiest things to do is create your own blog. You could write one about your life or choose a particular thing you are passionate about, in which you feel you can write regular blogs about. This will help show employers you write in your own time and not just academically, perhaps writing for a specific audience, shows you can create a professional, online database and reflects how much you love to write.
Try these sites to start your own blog: https://wordpress.com/ or https://www.blogger.com/about/?r=1-null_user
3. Keep your own journal or diary
This is something I’ve always struggled to do. Every Christmas my parents would buy me a new pretty notebook and every time I would vow to record my life, so that I could develop my passion for writing and look back on my life when I’m old. However, I always end up just writing one or two entries then forget about it because of my busy life. Although, eventually I have managed to write in my journal every month or so, which is basically a listed update of my life. This allows me to keep track of everything that goes on, flourish in my writing and can look back at past experiences.
(Image from TheMirror)
4. Volunteering and Work Experience
Examples of some work experience and volunteering you could get into includes: publishers, library, advertising agencies, public relations and so on. Sometimes there are applications online for particular internships, but often the best and only approach is to contact companies directly yourself. For example, email your CV and cover letter to a company and tell them why you would love to work for them, and if they do not get back to you in a few weeks it could be worth ringing them just to show your interest and ensure they received your email. These experiences will help provide you with real-life career experience, gain desirable skills and open your eyes to what you want a career in.
(Image from Tenor)
5. Create a portfolio of your work
If you want to go into some kind of writing or communications career, it is very useful and often required to produce a portfolio of your work to employers. This can include all of your previous experience of blogging, writing articles and press releases, social media productions, websites you can created and so on – in which you can provide a digital portfolio to present them all efficiently. However, I would not advise uploading pieces of writing you wrote for your first school, so it’s best to stick with recent year’s work. Your portfolio must represent what you want and show your personal brand, such as presenting yourself as a fun, creative but professional individual through your work, thereby choosing your best pieces will reflect on you as a person.
(Image from USnews)
Here’s a more detailed site in creating a writing portfolio: https://blog.quiet.ly/community/how-to-create-a-writing-portfolio-for-freelancers/
Good luck in reaching a writing-based career, but just remember to keep on writing – it doesn’t matter what form!