I was chatting with a friend the other day and we got to talking about skills. Specifically, how to parlay the skills you’ve acquired into something that’s useful for building a freelance writing career. Transferable skills have been a career development buzzword for some time now, and that’s exactly what you need as a freelance writer. They turn up in the oddest places, too. Here are a couple of examples of transferable skills that can help you in your writing career.
Research
Way back when I did a BA – in modern languages as it happens. I don’t use them much unless I travel, but I did learn something from that process that helps me every day – how to research. Researching is not just about finding information, but about sifting it and triangulating it. (Triangulation is a fancy way of saying you should check things from multiple sources so you can make sure there’s a common core of information that’s likely to be right.) Good research is also about checking that your sources are reliable. I’m more likely to trust health information from the Department of Health than from someone who’s trying to sell me something. Although I research more on the web than in books, the skills I learned then have stood me in good stead now.
Organization
If you’re planning a writing career, then organization is key, and the skills you need are not specific to writing. In any job you have done, you will have had a list of tasks to complete and a way of keeping track of them. That’s a good starting point when it comes to managing your writing business. If you’re managing your own business, you need to know when work comes in, who it’s for, when it’s due out and what pay you will receive. Subbing work out makes it even more complex, as I’ve discovered in the past. Think about whether you have used any organizational systems that will help you streamline your writing career. If you think of any, let me know, as I’m always open to new ideas.
What skills do you use in your writing career that you learned in other places?
I worked as a sales representative for my local newspaper’s advertising department for eight years. I didn’t like the job so much, but I walked away with a lot of knowledge that has been very useful for my freelance writing business: the ability to effectively make cold calls, manage multiple accounts/projects, use my customer service training to effectively comunicate with clients and deal with conflict resolution and the ability to sell my services has not gone to waste.
Kimberly’s last blog post..Want to Start a Freelance Writing Business? There’s No Time Like the Present
WOW! Those are essential skills, all right, Kimberley. Bet you never thought you’d be glad you did that job.
For me having trained and worked as a journalist formerly, I find these skills very transferable to marketing and of course my blog. If you can’t write a proper pitch, proposal or blog post, it’s difficult to get the client or potential client to understand what you can do for them.
I also find my days as a waitress/hostess in a local restaurant moons ago gave me my first taste of client service and especially when I first started out, I used to think back to how I would handle certain situations (e.g cranky customers) so that I would not pull my hair out or tell them off and still get a decent tip.
Rebecca Atkinson (Muller)’s last blog post..5 Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking at Seasonality Trends
I have to say being a Mother has given me a HUGE list of transferable skills. Skills such as, Delegation, Flexibility, Organization, Project Planning, Mediation, and I’m sure the list goes on and on.
It’s great to always build on those skills and to acknowledge the ranging degree of our abilities. Sometimes, despite all we do, it’s easy to feel shelved into our various roles (such as ‘mother’) so it’s great to know we can do more than that.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Guest Post at Get Paid To Write Online!
You said it, Becca. We can do a lot more than we think we can.