I am looking for a career where there are not too many responsibilities and I can work at my own pace. I’d like a career that upholds my personal values and principles like not working on Sundays, being with my family, and not being forced to do something I disagree with.
The career I am researching is creative writing. This career is exactly what it sounds like, and it includes the writing of fiction and/or poems. Being a writer fits with the values I want to uphold because I am in control of what I am writing and where I am getting my inspiration. Also, I can choose my hours and be with my family when I choose to.
This career will most likely be hard to get into especially since it is popular as a part time job. I will need to work hard to write stories that are original and don’t unintentionally plagiarize other author’s stories. Getting started in this career will be hard especially since I don’t have much experience in it.
For me, success in this career would be writing novels that uphold my beliefs and are popular. To be successful, I will need plenty of GRIT especially since I struggle in each category. Resilience and tenacity are two of the main categories I will need to develop for a successful writing career. I need to be able to keep going, get better, and not let things stop my progress even when people are criticizing my work harshly. Success in my career would most likely be an 8 on a scale of 1-10. This career is worthy of my greatest GRIT because it is what I want to do at this moment in time. This will be a tough career and that is only another reason why I need to use my greatest GRIT for it.
This career will most likely not coincide with my introverted personality. Authors tend to set their own routines and hours, while occasionally checking in with their editors (‘Writers and Authors’).
Since I tend to be more realistic, this job might challenge my ability to create and imagine new ideas. Novelists use their imaginations to write fictional stories, so I might be at a disadvantage here (‘Writers and Authors’).
My ability to be sensitive towards others will help me in this job. Novelists should “choose subject matter that interests the readers” (‘Writers and Authors’), so being sympathetic will help.
This career aligns with my desires to be flexible and have fun with my work since I am in charge of when and how I do my work (‘Writers and Authors’).According to the Human eSources website, my personality type is ISFP (“AchieveWORKS Personality for Elisabeth Ashby”). The career of novelist matches well with my personality because the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics describes it as a job where the employee is also the employer. As far as the schedule goes, the U.S. Bureau said, “Some writers keep regular office hours,…but many writers set their own hours” (‘Writers and Authors’). My personality type describes me as someone who enjoys flexible working conditions and fewer rules to follow. By working in a setting of my choice when I want, I will be able to control my job and not have someone looking over my shoulder. I will also be able to make my own decisions in relation to my work, such as what values I want to uphold and how I can make my work meaningful to myself and others. The career of being a novelist is a career that parallels my personality type of ISFP.
In order to be a full-time writer, a bachelor degree in either English, journalism, or communications is recommended and sometimes required by employers (‘Writers and Authors’). However, it is possible to be a writer without having a bachelor’s degree in any of these majors.If you don’t get a degree, some employers may take writers with experience from working in areas that demonstrate writing skills in their high schools and/or colleges. As long as they have demonstrated qualities of good writing in the past, employers may hire them despite them not having a degree (‘Writers and Authors’). “Certification can demonstrate competence and professionalism, making candidates more attractive to employers…Certification can also increase opportunities for advancement in the job” (‘Writers and Authors’).This career does not require any type of degree,but it is recommended for authors to get one if they plan to be hired for a salaried position as a writer.The university I want to go to is Brigham Young University (BYU).I am interested in this university because it is in Utah where most if not all of my extended family lives. This university is also offers different tuition costs for members of my religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).The acceptance rate to get into this university is 65.1%.
The average ACT score is 28.8 and the average GPA is 3.86 (Link 8).The tuition per semester for non-LDS members is $5,620, but since I am a member the tuition is “$2,810 per semester” (Link 6). The total cost for an LDS student is at least $18,836 (Link 7).I will most likely need on-campus housing since this university is in Utah. The housing cost is $7,628 for two semesters (Link 7).The Job Outlook for my career has a projected growth of 8% in the employment of writers and authors from 2016 to 2026 (‘Writers and Authors’). There is competition in this career due to the fact that it draws many people to itself (‘Writers and Authors’). Also, “employment in the publishing industry [for newspapers and magazines] is projected to decline causing competition to be greater (‘Writers and Authors’).The minimum salary for a freelance author or writer is $14,493 and the maximum is $76,923 (‘Writers and Authors’). The average salary for someone in this career is $38,915 with an hourly average rate of $24.04 (‘Writers and Authors’).Three interesting fields that are related to my career are technical writer, editor, and librarian. Technical writers write documents that present and explain difficult or technical information in a more comprehensible manner, for example instruction manuals (‘Writers and Authors’). Editors “plan, review, and revise content for publication” (‘Writers and Authors’). The other career, librarian, includes the roles of maintaining the library and its contents, performing research, “and perform[ing] other related library services” (“Poets, Lyricists, and Creative Writers”).
