Using the Web to Find Writing and Editing Jobs

June 29, 2007 by J.C. Hewitt · 2 Comments

Revised 6/29/07

In the days before the web, job searches could be difficult, slow, and in many cases expensive. Your main free resource was your local newspaper classifieds, and it only told you what jobs were being advertised. The classifieds didn’t have a word to say about how to get those jobs. To get career and job search information as a job seeker you needed to visit career counselors, employment agencies and job services. The web has made the process of finding a job much easier. There is just as much work involved as before (maybe more) but there is no longer a lack of information. If anything, there is too much information, which is why I am presenting this handy guide to finding writing and editing jobs using the web.

Figure out what you want to do

You can’t begin a job search until you know what job type or set of job types you want to pursue. If you’re reading this article then you at least know what field you want to work in, but there are many different jobs within this field that you may want to pursue, from proofreader to public relations writer to proposal writer to web content writer. There are many resources on the web that you can use to research writing careers. Here are a few:

Glossary of Writing Careers
Salary.com a guide to pay ranges for different careers
Designing Your Writing Career
Writing Career Finder

Write a Resume

Until you have a resume, you’re really just fantasizing. There is a lot of advice on the web about writing resumes. Different people advocate different approaches. I have been on the employer side of a few job searches, and in my experience there is no single best way to write a resume. The most important general rules are to keep it professional looking, don’t use more than two pages and make sure your name and contact information are at the top. Beyond that, opinions vary greatly. For writers, a list of publications in which the writer’s work has appeared is often included. The important point to remember is that, as a writer, a well-written resume is more important for you than for just about any other career. A person looking for a job as a lab technician or a computer programmer might get away with a poorly written resume, but a person who wants a job as a writer had better be able to produce a well-written resume. Here are some how-to guides:

Purdue Resume Lab
Trinity: Write a Resume
University of Kentucky: How to Write a Resume
Wooster: How to Write a Resume
Florida State Resume Prep

Here are some samples of writer’s resumes:

Journalist Resume
Intern Resume
Staff Writer Resume (PDF)
Technical Writer Resume

Another excellent method to develop your resume is to use online tools such as the resume generators at monster.com and dice.com. You are going to want to have your resume listed on these services anyway, so you might as well use their tools to help you along.