How To Become A Poet: What It Is and Career Path

What is a poet and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a poet. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.65 an hour? That's $49,190 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 5,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePoetUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $49,190

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

3.4

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.35%

Asian 4.89%

Black or African American 5.86%

Hispanic or Latino 7.54%

Unknown 5.57%

White 75.78%

Gender

female 62.25%

male 37.75%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

3.4

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.4

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a poet

Explore poet education requirements

Most common poet degrees

Bachelor's

62.2 %

Master's

18.6 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific poet skills

Skills	Percentages
Slam	30.39%
Short Stories	15.59%
PowerPoint	14.71%
Public Speaking	13.94%
Fiction	13.79%

Research poet duties and responsibilities

Manage international man-made fiber market research/publishing company and supervise editorial content and sales of industry statistical journal.
Review submitted manuscripts, brainstorm & implement promotional strategies, track community involvement, and plan literary events with the editor-in-chief.
Select and edit photos utilizing Photoshop.

Prepare your poet resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your poet resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a poet resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable poet resume templates

Build a professional poet resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your poet resume.