Break time. This means I have a few minutes to surf and swim. I found
your Web site while searching for "copy edit entry level."
How does one make a career change into copy editing from the
administrative field? (This is not a go to college for four years
and then jump into an unpaid internship kind of situation.) I am a
full-time working adult who is absolutely bored to tears with my
current career.
Background: I have over 10 years' experience as
an administrative assistant, office manager and administrative
facilities coordinator. Pick a title. The job title changes with each
company but basically means the same thing.
Fortunately, this
title (a catch-all position) often leads to writing projects, such as
creating and publishing a policies and procedures manual for a small
start-up, creating pages for the company Intranet, writing a training
manual for customer-services workshops, creating and editing the
company payroll newsletter, and editing contracts, correspondence and
media kits.
Cat
It is fortunate that you want to be a copy editor.
Reporting
candidates need to demonstrate their skills with published clips. Copy
editors do not have as many chances to show their work, as few editors
care to spend a lot of time with before-and-after work sets.
Instead,
copy editors have to demonstrate their abilities with a solid résumé, a
clean cover letter and likely an editing test, in addition to the
requisite interviews.
I'd go ahead and apply for editing jobs at
smaller newspapers. But first, I'd ask for an opportunity to shadow a
local copy editor for a shift so you can get a feel for what the job
entails.
