What’s an edit?
You might ask, what is an edit?
Editing? What can that do for me? What is it?
Those last three sentences? All edits. Each one building on the previous. Editing can mean a lot of things, but chiefly it is the process of refining content. The process of editing usually starts with an idea. This idea is planned out meticulously; it is then refined. Content is cut out. The idea is trimmed from full fat into lean fitness. The idea is then presented as a piece of completed content.
This process is the same for everything whether it’s a radio commercial for bubblegum or Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight - editing makes it into the final version.
The role of the editor is of massive importance. The construction of content usually revolves around an ongoing relationship between an author and an editor. While the author creates, the editor feeds back and refines. It’d be hard for creative content to exist without the work of editors and they may be as important as the originator of the idea themselves.
Editing? As a career path it can get you far. It’s not the easiest of skills and it will rely on a foundation of critique that you may not have, yet.
There are so many niches within editing, so it’s important that if you are considering a career as an editor, you stick to your passions and interests that you have a grounding in. If you love books and writing - you might find that you’ll be a lot better at editing creative writing or professional scripts. If you’ve got a background in radio or audio - you’ll be better suited to cutting and splicing audio for podcasts. If you’ve got an eye for an image or a background in photography/design, you’ll probably be better at editing or manipulating images. Stick to what you know, and it’ll act as rocket fuel for your editing career. You could be working anywhere from an agency to a radio station.
Before you start applying to each and every listing on a job board, it might be a good idea to get some experience in your desired path. If you’re younger, you’ve got an advantage here as you might be more inclined to apply for internships and you may very well have the freedom to pursue these opportunities. If you’re already embedded into a job role that takes up most of your time, you’ll have to find and make opportunities to learn these skills. Thankfully, there are plenty of companies that offer Photoshop training and other editing software suites so you can build your experience and skills.
It might seem like a jump into the dark, but editing offers a lot of opportunities for you that could see you working with your interests daily. If you’re unhappy with your current role, it is certainly something you should look into and pursue.