I’m pretty sure I saw a thread addressing this topic a while back, but I couldn’t seem to locate it with the search.
I’m moving to New York City in about two months and while looking for a job online I ran across www.manhattanproofreaders.com as well as some other “Proofreading Schools”. The gist of it is, you take a class for 200 bucks and they find you a job proofreading legal documents, financial documents, etc…
The question is: Is it a rip-off? I mean, it sounds great… I’ve always been excellent at pointing out faults in others. But it’s too much money to pay for something that’s not going to be worth it. Has anybody here ever had any experience with something like this? Thanks in advance…
I don’t blame you for checking, because it sounds too much like one of those “Earn money at home” ads. But $200.00 is too much money! Sounds like someone back in the depression days.
I’d want to talk to other graduates from the course. Can you ring some agencies and ask whether they employ people from the course?
Umm… I just read it properly. They’re saying they can teach all this in 8 fecking hours! Holy hell, no way! Proofing is more skilled than that! It doesn’t matter how good you are at spotting mistakes – training as a proofreader cannot be done in 8 hours.
I don’t know how other businesses hire, but when I was hired as a free-lance proof reader, they didn’t ask for any training like this. They did ask about my education and previous experiences (as a teacher and writer, in my case) that might be helpful. Then I had to take a BEAR of a test, passed it, and was hired. This company contracts to proof the …For Dummies series, along with Frommers travel guides (spelling? I don’t do those), CliffsNotes, and several others. I do mostly the …FD series, so I don’t even know what else they handle. It’s tough to get on (mainly because they generally aren’t hiring, it seems) but once you get your foot in the door, you’re in business.
I think you could get the same information from a variety of sources that proof readers use–style manuals, etc. If you can rack up some experience to list on a flyer, you might be able to set yourself up as a freelancer. You’d have to be aggressive about finding business, but I think it could be done.
My other concern would be this: Don’t transcribers handle the type of material that you’re talking about? Do they have those items actually proof read afterward? I guess I always thought that it was a sort of all-in-one job…transcribing/proof reading. I could be completely wrong, though.
Good luck!
~karol