FlightWay / Careers / Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers

Creative & Media

Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers

Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.

Sector: Creative & Media
Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
O*NET code: 27-3043.05

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Thinking Creatively

central to the job — rated 95/100 for importance.
Getting Information

central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work

a major part of the work — rated 74/100 for importance.
Documenting/Recording Information

a major part of the work — rated 73/100 for importance.
Working with Computers

a major part of the work — rated 71/100 for importance.
Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge

a regular part of the work — rated 69/100 for importance.

Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.

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

Writing

Needed at expert level (82/100), and rated 94/100 for importance.
Reading Comprehension

Needed at a high level (68/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Active Learning

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.

Knowledge

English Language

Needed at expert level (87/100), and rated 92/100 for importance.
Communications and Media

Needed at expert level (78/100), and rated 76/100 for importance.
Computers and Electronics

Needed at a solid working level (58/100), and rated 59/100 for importance.
Administrative

Needed at a high level (60/100), and rated 57/100 for importance.

Abilities

Written Expression

Needed at a high level (66/100), and rated 94/100 for importance.
Fluency of Ideas

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
Originality

Needed at a high level (64/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
Written Comprehension

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 78/100 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 Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers 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 Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers. 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

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Occupational 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.