Landing your first writing job is difficult, but it can feel almost impossible without professional writing experience. Luckily, that does not mean you can’t build a portfolio of your own.
What is a writing portfolio?
A portfolio should be a collection of your best writing pieces organized to best demonstrate your skills. Depending on what jobs you are applying for, you could organize it based on niche or project type, i.e., blogs, emails, and reports. Overall, your portfolio should showcase your skills, and you may want to reorganize it based on the job you are applying for to showcase the most relevant samples first.
What if you have no published work?
Luckily, in the world of freelance writing, it is perfectly acceptable not to include a client name or URL associated with the project as, depending on the contract, it may be confidential. As a writing portfolio aims to showcase your skills, it is perfectly reasonable to create example assignments that still adequately highlight your writing abilities.
Try your hand at blogging
Try reaching out to established blogs for the opportunity to guest post or ghostwrite for them, as blogging is a great way to refine your skills and build up your portfolio at the same time. It is also a great way to generate data on your work performance.
Invest in yourself
If you are still struggling, you could always become your own client. Depending on the writing you want to focus on, it can be as easy as starting a blog or developing your social media strategy and posts.
Overall, if you are in Canada looking for writing jobs without a portfolio, it is easy to build one; you just need the time and dedication to build your assets.