Interview with an editor

First, we planned to go to the hospital and interview a nurse. But then our teacher told us that they wouldn’t be happy with that because they get fed up of the Bell students always choosing that place for interviews.

We decided to go to the hospital, however. In front of the building we saw a man sitting on a big stone doing a crossword. We thought: “If he’s doing a crossword, he might have time for us.” So we asked him and he answered that he has time until his mother will come back from a hospital examination.

The man’s age is about 55 years. He wore brown clothes, a scarf, glasses and a hat. He looked like a typical English man, which means that his general appearance had something sad. Maybe it was because of the brown colours, but we think his eyes and his face expressed melancholy and sadness.

He’s a self–employed editor for 5 years, and he works and lives in Cambridge. He makes the voices for videos and audio guides for castles and museums. But he began his career as an editor with other work; he didn’t study the profession of an editor at all. His first job for example was to check the advertisement for companies, which means he had to check if the spelling‘s right or not.

The particular advantages of his job are that he is freelance and he has flexible working hours. This is necessary for him because he has to take care of his mother. He likes to get in touch with different people and other companies. Despite he’s self-employed, he sometimes works with other editors if he needs help. It’s very exciting for him to help people like managers or sales persons if they can’t write very well.

One disadvantage is that he didn’t enjoy correcting advertisements very much; it was boring and annoying. Another is that he only has 4 or 5 days holiday in 3 years!

The man told us that it was very easy to start being a self-employed because he knows a lot of companies. He located different enterprises and asked, if they might need help. He uses different languages (he speaks English, German, French and a little bit Italian und Arabian). A real editor earns about 40’000 pounds a year.

He, personally, earns between £8 to £9 an hour and that works out as about 10’000 pounds a year. “Not bad”, he said.

In the future he would like to live somewhere else like France. When we asked him about Cambridge, he became very upset. “It’s a terrible city to live in. It’s always noisy, dirty and smelly. The inhabitants are very very rude and never say “Hello” to each other. Furthermore, the shops are very expensive.” What he really dreams of is to become a ski-tour-guide.

“Mr. Editor”, we wish you and your mother all the best for the future! J

Written by Nadine T. and Cornelia