I bid on my first freelancing job last night. I sort of feel like an idiot. I really hate that new-job-don’t-have-a-clue-what-I’m-doing feeling. I know that pride goeth before fall, so I suppose I should expect to use several of those very large band-aids in the near future.
I really enjoy writing, and, not to toot my own horn, but I’m a natural at proofreading and editing. Many of my students have brought me papers so that I can proof them. I grade for grammatical mistakes in the assignments they turn in. Heaven only knows how many of Knight’s papers I proofed and re-wrote while we were in college. Printed resources with errors drive me UP THE WALL. I mean, if you’re selling one copy of a certain textbook for $125, surely you have the financial wherewithal to get someone to proofread it!??! Right? If you don’t, then where on earth does all that money go? I mean, I’m sure someone is making a profit, but sheesh!
I spend a lot of time in my teaching job writing out assignments, projects and labs for my students. Most of that time is spent trying to figure out what sorts of questions they will have about that particular assignment, and then answering those questions in writing before they have a chance to ask them. Because of this, I also find grievances with idiotic instruction manuals and other technical materials. I think I’d do fairly well in editing and proofing those, too.
The next step is where the magic has to happen: finding the jobs. I’ve found one job board that seems fairly decent… I’m thinking of contacting my scientific supplier from work to see if they need anyone to edit the instructions that they send out with their lab kits. I’ve had a couple where I’ve been standing in my lab, trying to put the thing together, incredibly frustrated, and thinking, “Here I am, a college-educated, rational, thinking adult and I can’t follow their directions.” Ridiculous.
My grandiose plan is to find places to find work that I can do over the summer, and part time next year… In the words of the wise wee one, “We will seeeeee!”
Damsel and Family 
OK, Just so everyone knows. She proofread more than a few of my papers in college. As she will probably proofread this post.
One in particular I remember being particularly proud of. I worked on this paper for weeks, she helped me write and re-write the thing four or fives times. Finally I turn in the paper about the graduation trends of minorities as compared to “non”-minorities over the last 3 decades and the socio-economic causes and impacts of that trend.
Two weeks go by and I got the paper back with a great big fat “B” on the top. I was ecstatic. I was proud to have a B on a paper that counted as my midterm, and 20% of my grade for the class.
I trotted in the door to our apartment and set down my backpack, pulled out the term paper and exclaiming “I made a B on that paper” held it up high.
Damsel, who was walking towards the me snatched it out my hand and nearly yelled “B?…I DON’T MAKE B’s!”
LOL… thanks, honey. I do remember being quite ticked. I was all ready to go get up in that professor’s face! … then I remembered that, oh yeah, it wasn’t MY class. 😛
That is precisely why I get your mother to do all of my paperwork.