Seeking the perfect job

[lexin]

Having written out for information on the current position on filing and listened to colleagues telling me that “we don’t have time for this”, I’m rather nervously waiting for replies as long as “War and Peace”. This is not what I want. All I want is a few well chosen (and truthful) words on where we are with our filing in case the filing fairies (otherwise known as an audit team) come dancing in demanding to know why our files aren’t up to date. It’s very simple. Colleagues, eh?

I’m coming to think that the ideal way of working would be to have a job where I work in a room on my own, self-employed. And even then I’d have customers, who are annoying in a whole new way. A job with no colleagues and no customers would be perfect. Lighthouse keeper, except that lighthouses are automatic these days. Cormorant wrangler on a remote island except that that would be wet and involve walking about in the rain covered with bird poo. Other ideas considered in comments.

Comments

[stranger]

What you want is a self-employed job where you work alone, making something or doing something that people queue up to buy, so you get to choose your customers instead of vice versa. If you have a tolerance for bird poo, wrangling cormorants might be the thing. Copy editing, maybe? People who want to write but can't spell or punctuate are legion.

[lexin]

I could copy edit, though I have no qualifications in it. I could also make ren faire clothes at the top end of the market. That could be fun.

[zellieh]

Have a look on Etsy, there's lots of people selling ren-faire-type things. It'll give you an idea what people are willing to pay. You could sell things there by email/post and never have to deal with people face to face, especially if you designed items that are elasticated, lace up or wrap over to fit.

[lexin]

That's true, good idea.

[aunty_marion]

Copy-editing/proofreading is what I trained to do just before/after being made redundant 7 years ago, but it's a bit tricky; you have to go out and find your customers, unless you're lucky enough to work for one of the bigger publishing companies, which is rather a Catch-22. It's all very word-of-mouth.

[lexin]

That's pretty much what I thought from various things you've said.

[antisoppist]

Here via network. I am a translator, in a language combination that is in reasonable demand and which is not badly paid. I work all by myself, for the past year in an office separate from my house. It is brilliant. It is also a bit lonely. And you are right that there are always the customers. And when you work on your own, you have no-one else to complain about them to.

[lexin]

Very true. It's not as if passing strangers or family are very interested in your troubles with customers, they just think you should be happy to have them.

[zellieh]

In re: a kind of copy-editing, maybe you could try joining some online writers' forums and advertising to beta-edit people's first drafts? For money, obviously, but once you got a reputation for being reliable, you'd have more customers than you know what to do with. (Though having to deal with delicate writerly egos might defeat the purpose...)

It's something I've considered myself, because there certainly seems to be a market for it these days, judging by all the scammers we're always warned about. But considering I rely on my disability benefits to pay all my bills and have no savings, self-employment is a hell of a high cliff for me to jump off of.

[lexin]

Worth a thought, thank you.

[featherwizard]

Another thought on that - there are lots of indie authors who use copyediting services, and you could make get a list of where to start there. Indie

Example: Konrath, a successful writer, lists his proofreading service in the sidebar on the right on his blog http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/. I think Katherine Kristine Rusch has also mentioned copyediting services on her blog, maybe in http://kriswrites.com/2013/01/30/the-business-rusch-hiring-editors/ ?