Creative & Media
Editors
Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material.
- Sector: Creative & Media
- Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
- O*NET code: 27-3041.00
What you'll actually do
The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.
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Working with Computers
central to the job — rated 89/100 for importance.
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Getting Information
central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
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Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.
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Thinking Creatively
a major part of the work — rated 77/100 for importance.
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Communicating with People Outside the Organization
a major part of the work — rated 75/100 for importance.
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Making Decisions and Solving Problems
a major part of the work — rated 74/100 for importance.
Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material. May review proposals and drafts for possible publication.
What it takes
Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.
Skills
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Reading Comprehension
Needed at a high level (73/100), and rated 97/100 for importance.
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Writing
Needed at a high level (71/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
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Active Listening
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Critical Thinking
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Speaking
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Knowledge
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English Language
Needed at expert level (79/100), and rated 95/100 for importance.
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Communications and Media
Needed at expert level (80/100), and rated 88/100 for importance.
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Administration and Management
Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 59/100 for importance.
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Administrative
Needed at a solid working level (56/100), and rated 57/100 for importance.
Abilities
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Written Comprehension
Needed at a high level (70/100), and rated 97/100 for importance.
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Written Expression
Needed at a high level (71/100), and rated 91/100 for importance.
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Oral Comprehension
Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
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Oral Expression
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
How people get in
O*NET places this occupation in Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.
Education
A four-year bachelor's degree is the usual entry ticket.
Experience
Two to four years of related work, internships or research on top of the degree.
Training
Most of the learning happens before you are hired, not after.
What it pays
These are typical creative compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Editors specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.
WPP · Pentagram · Google
$100k – $180k
Mid-size Agencies
$70k – $110k
Freelance & Boutique
$45k – $80k
How the work tends to run
Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.
- Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
- There is real room to invent — the answer is not in a manual.From “Thinking Creatively”
How FlightWay scores your fit against this
No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.
- 1. You answer a short quiz
- Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
- 2. We correlate the two profiles
- Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Editors. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
- 3. The number you see is personality fit only
- "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
- 4. Every factor is visible
- You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.
More in Creative & Media
See your fit for Editors
Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Editors and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.
Take the quiz Open in FlightWayOccupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.