Career options with writing skills

The many career opportunities that writing skills open up

By now, you know I possess decent writing skills, and you can probably tell that I enjoy writing. In fact, I genuinely love it.

In this post, I attempt to offer several concrete examples of ways you can pair writing with your own hobbies and interests - things you really love and can't get enough of - to land jobs, develop your career, meet new and interesting people, and even go into business for yourself. If you can develop your writing skills - the ability to tell a story, make a case, connect with and relate to others - an endless sea of possibilities awaits you.

An even more endless sea of possibilities awaits you, if there is such a thing, if you don't mind speaking in front of others or going in front of a video camera, and you can verbally speak as articulately and polished as you can speak in written form.

Come, let's explore further...

To begin, let's get your thinking going by asking, "What are your hobbies and interests?" Do you:
 

• Enjoy playing and/or watching sports?
• Collect anything, like coins, sports cards and memorabilia, dolls, antiques, stamps, comic books, etc., etc.?
• Love a particular subject - it could be anything from biology or math to a particular period in history or a specific industry?
• Enjoy traveling?
• Like cooking?
• Get excited about anything to do with cars - it could be design, or working on them, or a particular brand or model, or a certain type of engine family?
• Like photography or any other form of art?
• Love certain types of music or follow certain bands?

Now that you're thinking about your passions, let's start coming up with those practical examples.

If you love the game of baseball and its history, you can become a baseball writer and historian. You can write and talk about all your favorite aspects of the game - the lives and careers of your favorite players, the history of teams, playoff predictions, records and record holders, the rules of the game and how they've changed over time, etc.

If you love your city's or state's NBA or NFL team, you can write all about the team on a blog you create that's solely dedicated to that team. Start building a decent-sized following, and who knows - maybe one day you're following your team around the country as a sports reporter or game broadcaster. Maybe you can even work for the team some day in marketing or public relations! Sound exciting?

If you enjoy anything to do with cars, or you collect anything, or you're passionate about a certain subject or time period in history, or you're really into a certain genre of music - again, a blog might be an awesome start, and from there, who knows - you start getting your work in magazines, newspapers, books, catalogs, and/or on other Web sites. As an expert on something, you could be approached for interviews to share your knowledge and insights.

The same goes with your love for cooking and cuisine, works of art, and traveling - plenty of opportunities to position yourself as an expert within certain subcategories of these broad topics. Cookbooks, magazine and newspaper articles, interviews, blogs, etc., could certainly be in your future.

Here's a fact - there are experts on organized crime - essentially, the mafia - who have been writing, speaking, interviewing, and advising for decades. Writers like Selwyn Raab, Jerry Capeci, and George Anastasia, to name a few. Obviously, this must be a subject they were really passionate about, and they took that interest and turned it into long and successful careers.

Finally, and you may find this one especially fun at this point in your lives - social media. If you can connect with customers and potential customers in meaningful ways about products, services, experiences, recommendations, and through interesting stories and engaging reflections, there are plenty of small businesses around your area that can use your help with marketing on their social media pages. That's right - you can get paid to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. I have a strong marketing background myself, and have certainly performed this type of work for different clients and employers over the years.    

In closing, writing opens up virtually endless opportunities to make a comfortable living being an expert on something that you truly love and find interesting.

In this post, I mentioned a few times the idea of starting a blog. Here's a great article entitled, Why You Should Start a Blog in High School (And How You Can Do It). Here's another great article with a few pointers on how to make money with a blog. There are all kinds of ways you can sell advertising on, and generate other types of revenue through, your blog.

If you really enjoy writing, or you're starting to discover an interest in it, check out the Poets & Writers magazine's database of writing contests. Build your writing skills and your overall creativity with these writing prompts for fun and practice.