Excellent writing, editing and interpersonal skills are a given for writing majors but what else are employers looking for?

A search for related writing jobs reveals that employers are seeking a variety of skills beyond excellent written communication skills including strong analytical, interpersonal, research and organisational skills plus the ability to be creative with accuracy. Depending on the role, they can also be on the lookout for good IT skills; such as desktop publishing, a basic knowledge of HTML and website maintenance and publishing, an understanding of social media, marketing and analytics and often a specialist interest.

When conducting a job search, simply using ‘Writer’ is likely to deliver you Technical Writer or even Software Writer position descriptions. A search using ‘Creative Writer’ will yield better results. However, you will also need to be more inventive with your search terms and incorporate your other major or interests. Good broad search terms could include ‘publisher’, ‘editor’, ‘communications’, ‘marketing’, ‘media’, ‘information’ or even ‘administration.’