The tables have turned!
Well, no. But I will be on the other side of the table, so to speak.Today I am interviewing someone to join our team. My manager said, you've been in the position about 5-6 months [OMG, she's right, WTH], and you know what it takes to be successful [I do? SWEET!], and we need to know if this applicant is someone who will work well in our department, so, here are some questions to ask...
I'm gonna ask her how she would rate her appreciation for/knowledge of 80s music on a scale of 1 - 10. 'Cause yeah. No, I'm not lying.
Yesterday, one of the product managers asked me to proofread a book that's getting published Wednesday (tomorrow). We were kinda backed up on emails and down to two team members, but I thought, copy editing? F-CK Yeah! Or something like that. And despite how my blog looks sometimes, I'm actually really good at it (do YOU know the proper comma usage for a parenthetical statement, hmmm? I hope so). Yeah, I'm just lazy here, but whatev. I worked on a different book a few months back and got recommended (W00t!) and even praised, which makes me want to memorize The Elements of Style so I can live up to that.
I ended up spending almost 4 hours on the damn thing because the punctuation was crap. Now, it's only something other company employees will see, BUT there were photocopies of pages our students will see, and I was like, THIS is supposed to explain that math problem? This isn't even English. What is this construction? It's not even something recognizable, like Ebonics. Who talks like this?
I'll stop ranting now because I can't even remember the phrases (blocked them out to maintain my sanity, I think). But yeah, the book couldn't go out like that. I only did one chapter (yes, 4 hours, I am not kidding. I had to make all kinds of decisions that I really didn't think I would have to make, so I sat around being like, so I really want to be a comma Nazi? How much of a comma Nazi do I want to be? Well, if I put one there, I have to go back and put them in those similar situations... I was trying so hard not to overdo it. So hard. Editors argue about commas all the time, and follow some rules and dismiss others to avoid having like, 10 commas in a sentence - how many more could I have correctly added to this one? Do you know?). I suggested to the product manager that she use that chapter as a guide for the others. We'll see. I wish I could be a part time copy editor here - how much would that rock? It would totally lighten the burden on my current department, which takes complaints. :)
But commas and split infinitives aside (I left the split infinitives. This is not Latin, this is English, and I do not want to end up in an institution)... Yeah, I'm happy. Now I get to add interviewer and copy editor to my resume. W000000000000t! (That's short for We OOOOOOOOOOOOwned that other Team over there, yes, we certainly did).
Now to prepare for that interview. Ha, I'm nervous. C'mere, stress ball.
Labels: work
posted by ariah @ 12:52 PM
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