The Job
I don't think I've wirtten much about my job, which began in mid-May. I would divide it into three categories.
- Editing copy from our specialist teams (fixed income, private equity, real estate, etc.). I like this part.
- Formatting content for web presentation. We have designers who turn, say, a 32-page paper into an attractive pdf. It's my job to mimic that design online. Which requires applying html codes to accordions (click on a plus sign to expand) and importing figures and hero images. I don't like this part.
- Developing timelines for each project. Which list dates for the back and forth between me and the authors (this generally takes a month), then design (1-2 weeks), then web design (1-2 weeks), and social media, and communications, plus creating a summary Powerpoint for use by the signatory relations team. As I mentioned, a designer creates the pdf, but I create the web version and the PPT.
I like 1, but not 2 or 3. Developing and socialising timelines is BORING. Content managment on a web publishing platform blows my little technophobe mind a bit. I've done one paper so far (integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into municipal bond investments). I'm about to start my second (ESG integration into investment mandate design).
My little epiphany this week is that editing happens on three levels.
- Does each sentence/paragraph/section make sense? Rewriting content to meet this test is something I think is my strength. This is where being linear is my secret weapon. I'm death on poor transitions, weak logic, jargon, and run-on sentences. This is my main focus when ploughing through those 32 pages. Eighteen years in the investment industry also helpful here.
- Is the argument on page 8 consistent with the argument on page 2? I'm not as good at this. I put so much effort into polishing each sentence/paragraph/section, that I'm not as good at stepping back and making sure the whole paper hangs together. I think I'll get better at this as time goes on.
- Colon or semicolon? S or Z? Compare to or compare with? Does and/or look like that or and / or? Do SDGs take a the (as in THE Sustainable Development Goals)? I learned recently that you don't capitalise the first letter after a colon in British English, unlike American English. SO confusing. This is straight on copy editing, and not something I would claim as my strength.
What I'm trying to say in my roundabout way is the learning curve has been steep in my new reports editor job. I'm leaning heavily on Jasmin, one of the other editors, who is the whole package (and probably less than half my age). She has zero issues with web publishing, while I'm struggling mightily. And she's just a crack editor.
Another struggle for me is the cloud. All documents are up there floating around in the cloud. A very different construct from an attachment that I download and OWN while I have it. If everyone can jump in and out of a shared document, I don't control what's happening. Which is dangerous for an editor who is ultimately responsible for the content. I still don't understand the cloud vs. a desktop app. All I know is I have editing tools in the app but not in the cloud. And my app edits seem to be captured in the cloud version. But I just don't really understand what is going on.
Design sent me a pdf recently that I had to mark up. The only editing tools I had were little yellow stickies. I checked with Jasmin and she has a full suite of editing tools. She told me to check my default settings. She doesn't really get that I'm the fault in default.
It's just hard to ever feel confident when you are always playing catch up with what the young people are born with. While I was recently feeling overwhelmed by trying to master applications in Webvision, Salesforce, Sharepoint, Asana, and other fun toys--I remembered my complaints from my prior job. And I realised I am better off. Just one example: No more night meetings, or taking minutes at 10 p.m.
The nature of modern jobs is you have to be somewhat of a polymath and Not Being Happy About It isn't much help.
Late August