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This week we're joined by Darcy, an editor at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½. She shares her educational and professional journey so far and discusses how her autism and ADHD shape her experience in the workplace. She also offers practical advice for those pursuing a career in editorial work

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½
• Darcy Nathan - editor, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½. I'm your host, Emily Slade and in this episode I speak to Darcy about being an editor.

Darcy Nathan: I am Darcy. I am an editor for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

Emily Slade: Amazing. So, what do you mean when you say editor?

Darcy Nathan: A whole host of things really. So, primarily a copywriter. But also more recently, multimedia stuff, so video. Occasionally helping out with a bit of podcast editing and sub-editing. Subbing social media posts, basically anything that requires words for the website.

Emily Slade: So let's go right back to the beginning. What does your educational journey look like?

Darcy Nathan: A fairly standard one really. I did A-levels in both English's. Again, I love words, and psychology. And then I did an English degree at Newcastle University. And then from there I actually got a scholarship to study journalism, which is where I went down this path, rather than just writing for fun and blogging for fun. And I got a scholarship for women in the North East to study journalism. And it was kind of on that course where I started to do more of the multimedia side of journalism rather than just the copywriting I was doing as a hobby. So I started doing live video journalism, podcast editing, and it was from there that I decided that I wanted to go into media.

Emily Slade: Nice. So, what does a typical day look like for you?

Darcy Nathan: Well, I work from home, so I will log on. See if there are any requests from marketing to sub any of their materials and then usually writing or updating content for the website. So SEO comes into it a lot, search engine optimisation for our copy, seeing where we can beat our competitors, if there's anything that we don't cover, what students are looking for, what people are searching for. And just trying to provide the best quality content that we can about courses, careers to just help people on that journey.

Emily Slade: So, what skills would you say you need to be an editor?

Darcy Nathan: Attention to detail. Probably being the biggest one, which is often a struggle with my ADHD, but I get there. And I think just the ability to analyse other people's work as well, because I'm often subbing what other editors or people in marketing or content creators have produced. Being able to analyse a piece of writing or piece of work, what are they trying to get across, and is there any way that I can help them convey that message clearer or, sort of put more nuance into the message that they're trying to convey. So, yeah, communication skills, analysis, attention to detail.

Emily Slade: What does progression look like in this role? Where can you go with this?

Darcy Nathan: I think it's quite peculiar in the sense that progression is kind of shaped by the landscape of what's happening in sort of the digital arena, I guess, rather than a traditional role like in law, where it's quite obvious, they just move up. I think where my career progresses, as it goes down the lines of what's happening in search engine optimisation, for example. And, you know, there's such a big rise in multimedia content, so you can just be a copywriter. But obviously to progress, you need to hone those skills in video editing, audio editing and kind of being a jack of all trades in that area so when people hear editor, traditionally they probably think newspaper editor, but I think especially moving forward, it's going to be more down those multimedia pathways, which is something that I really enjoy, my Masters helped me to develop, and I think it's lucky that it did. I've now got those skills to go into. I can pick up a video if someone needs me to rather than just having that like one pathway from an English degree of writing.

Emily Slade: Yeah, brilliant. So, what are your thoughts on the constant progression? Very quick progression of AI? Is it going to take your job from you?

Darcy Nathan: I think anyone in any creative industry is worried about AI at the minute. Or if you're not worried, you are paying attention to what it's doing. What I would say is, again, I can't do the analysis that is needed to, AI is not in your company and AI doesn't speak to students like in my role. It doesn't know the person in your audience and doesn't have that nuance of what they want to hear. It can guess, but it'll never know as well as you do. So I think you have to keep in mind that you have the nuance of having a human brain and that you know what your audience wants. And I think in terms of copyright and yes, AI can produce some pretty decent copy, but I never created a piece of copy, using Chat GPT and thought, that can pass as a real human for certainly like a professional piece of work. And I also think readers don't necessarily want AI all the time. So I think there are probably aspects of the job that will slowly become taken over by AI. But I think especially in terms of the content that we provide, it's careers advice. You have to be compassionate, professional and it needs to be accurate. You can't give people false information, and I just can't see a world in which AI can be authoritative, compassionate and all that sort of stuff, in the situation that people are coming to our website in particular for advice.

Emily Slade: Are there any myths about being an editor that you would like to debunk?

Darcy Nathan: I think for me getting into this career, I was a bit worried because I think when you think of arts careers, or you think of careers in the media, I don't think necessarily think of, perhaps a woman, perhaps a woman from the North East. I think we probably think of, you know, a man on Fleet Street in London. writing for the Financial Times. And I remember when I first was sort of going into that, Right. I want a career in the media. And I just thought it's it's unattainable for me, which is what my scholarship was designed to offer. But, you know, like, I've got friends and graduates on the same course as me. So I suppose a myth kind of is that you can't do it like I've managed to do it. And I think is if you if you put the time in and you know, you've got skill and you're passionate about it, you definitely can. It is just definitely a labour of love. I did a lot of free work. I did a lot of voluntary work, and obviously study. But there's nothing to say that you can't do it just because you haven't got the traditional background.

Emily Slade: And is that advice that you would give, to try and start writing your own things? Setting up your own blogs to showcase and get your own writing out there?

Darcy Nathan: Absolutely. I think I had my own website for three years just posting basically as a portfolio rather than even trying to get, you know, ranking on search engines. It's really good for jobs to be able to link to that. And you just got examples of all of your writing, obviously you can enclose video, audio on there now as well. But yeah, I volunteered for charities. I reviewed music for independent labels for free. I'd write for student newspapers. So just literally anything you can get your hands on if you've got the time to do it, I think is sometimes hard knowing when to draw the line and not burn yourself out working for free. I'm not saying go and, do a , you know, like a six-week internship without being paid. Don't let yourself be exploited. But if you're, you know, if you're passionate about it, like I love my music, and it didn't feel like I was being forced to do it was something that I enjoyed and it was also experience and yeah.

Emily Slade: Yeah, fantastic. What would you say is the most challenging part of being an editor?

Darcy Nathan: For me, it's definitely the feedback. So I guess especially in a creative role, I know sometimes getting feedback can be difficult. And I think when you put your all into creating something that can be quite hard to get feedback, and potentially having to change things. But I think as I've grown in my role I'm a lot more receptive to it. And I think if you ask questions ask why and you understand the real sort of what people are trying to help you do it, just ultimately it helps you become a better writer or better editor. But definitely at first I think going from, you know, writing my own blogs, posting them myself online and just checking for spelling mistakes to getting actual constructive feedback on the way that I, like my writing style and things was difficult. But as long like no one's I'm trying to critique you in a negative way, it's always constructive. So I think when you learn to sort of implement some of that into where I've noticed my writing and fluency and all that sort of stuff improve. So, yeah, I think it's difficult to be receptive to it first, but I've definitely learned with time to implement that a bit more.

Emily Slade: So, as you previously mentioned, you are neurodiverse. So, how does that affect your working day?

Darcy Nathan: So I am autistic. I have ADHD. Autism wise it's more about I guess how you behave in the workplace, or how you communicate, whether it's I think my workplace is great I'm open with everyone knows my quirks you know, my traits and I have adjustments that help me on my day-to-day life. But I think certainly in other workplaces, I've really struggled with, sort of intense human interaction all the time. I think I used to get really burned out. You know, I used to work in teaching, and I think that was really intense being around people all the time. And always having to mask, but I think, I work from home. And again, like I said, I have a small team. So in terms of my autism, I think it's just learning to be open and it was quite nice that my diagnosis, I was late diagnosed, I was diagnosed at 24, but my diagnosis sort of happened at the same time as I graduated and went into the world of work. So, you know, I didn't ever have to sort o come with this new idea of who Darcy was. I was just Darcy and that was what I was like. And ADHD. I think that's probably where I struggle to manage it the most. Energy levels can be up and down. You know, one day I can feel like I've done a whole month's worth of work, hyperfocus. I can work all day through the next day. I'm just really struggling with concentration. But again, it's about being open with colleagues, and just finding out what environment works best for you. And, you know, like tips and tricks on how you can trick the brain sometimes. Sometimes I'm like i'll reward myself, you know, if I get this done, then I'll have coffee and just those little things that motivate me. But yeah, definitely being open with people that you work with. If you feel comfortable to, I know not everyone does, and like accessing those reasonable adjustments like flexible working, particularly for ADHD, you know, like sometimes starting at eight in the morning, I just it would be better to start at, you know, half nine and finish a six and then, get more work done. If you can. Obviously, sometimes you won't be able to. But if you can, it's all about advocating for yourself. And what, you know, works for you.

Emily Slade: So within your role you've got your degree, you've got your Masters. Do you have to keep evolving your skill sets? Do you have to keep going into training?

Darcy Nathan: Yeah. So like I said, the digital landscape is just constantly changing. And I don't think anyone really can predict what's going to happen next. So keep any skills up to date. You know, I do a lot of CPD, always watching SEO webinars. I've done SEO copyright training, you know, that is a completely different ballpark to just writing nice, pretty copy. You've got to get the technical elements in as well. What are people searching for? I've done content strategy courses, so with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, working out what content works, who your audience are, rather than just churning out as much as possible. Having quite a nice strategy behind what are you producing by and I've done proofreading courses, you know, just to keep my knowledge up to date. So I think I'm always looking for training where I can one, to progress my career, from being a graduate and two, because the way that we work is changing so often, you will get left behind, especially with like, we were talking about AI You know the introduction of AI overview recently is something that we've had to come to terms with on Google and without the training and without the background knowledge, I feel like you'd be struggling behind a bit compared to competitors. So it's really important to do competitor analysis and also CPD, not only for you and career, but for success in the world.

Emily Slade: Yeah, what's your favourite thing about being an editor?

Darcy Nathan: I love working with words and I've always loved words from when I was younger. You know, I love reading and writing is I really enjoy it. Especially if I can get my teeth into a new topic or something I don't know about and feel like, it's a really satisfying feeling, feeling like I've put together something comprehensive that answers questions. And I think particularly working for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, you know, that what you're putting out there is going to benefit someone and someone's going to read it and find hopefully security knowing that what they want to do is out there, or whether it's whether it's not even for them and you've answered the question, I think knowing that someone's going to read something that I've put together and take something really meaningful away from it is a really lovely feeling.

Emily Slade: So, how did you get your job with Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½?

Darcy Nathan: Graduated my Masters, everyone was looking for, obviously, graduate jobs and it was hell out there, to be honest, the field of how many jobs are available, but also how many applications there were to send out. And, you know, every job wants a cover letter and a tailored CV, which is to be expected if you want to get a job. But when you're in that graduate position, it's really overwhelming. But at the time I was working in education, like I said, in an English department in a high school. And I think that, coupled with the fact that I was also studying, you know, my Masters degree in journalism was a perfect combination. I already had the knowledge of qualifications and obviously working with young people and knowing what it was like to go through exams and all that sort of thing. So I had that background, and my writing background, plus all the experience that I developed over the years, you know, working for free and volunteering and writing my blog. So I think, I applied on LinkedIn, had a video interview, and I had a writing task to do. And once I'd done those, I got the job, and the interview was lovely.

Emily Slade: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Darcy Nathan: Thank you for having me.

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Darcy for their time. For a full-length video version of this episode, check out our YouTube channel @future you pod. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you as always for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.E

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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